Louisville, Colorado, November 10, 1997—Globocabo, a leading cable multiple system operator (MSO) in Brazil and one of the fastest growing cable companies in the world, has become the first cable operator from South America to join Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®).

Globocabo's membership follows a decision in September by the CableLabs Board of Directors to allow cable television operators based in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean to join CableLabs®. Previously, CableLabs® membership was limited to cable system operators based in North America.

"We believe that CableLabs' work transcends continental boundaries and will be of value to us as we build cable networks," said Moyses Pluciennik, CEO of NET Brasil (Globocabo S/A). "CableLabs' efforts on high-speed cable modems and advanced set-top devices particularly attracted our attention since we have been pursuing these technical developments to support our future service offerings," he added.

"Globocabo's joining CableLabs brings us a new perspective on the cable industry," said CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green. "The information exchange with NET Brasil already has been of value to us in several of our work areas."

Created in 1993, Globocabo manages directly more than 600,000 subscribers in five different systems, using all distribution technologies - cable, MMDS and satellite. The Globocabo-managed systems and the other MSOs compose a distribution system (NET Brasil) that operates under three different brands - NET, Multicanal, and Sky. This system, with more 1,700,000 subscribers, is responsible for almost 70% of all of the pay-TV distribution market in Brazil and is growing at a pace of almost 5% a month.

Globocabo is the holding company of Globo Organizations in the pay-TV distribution arena. Globo Organizations is the leading media conglomerate in Latin America, with investments in TV broadcasting, programming, radio, publishing, newspapers, and telecoms. It currently produces almost 4,000 hours of original programming in Portuguese per year, giving its national broadcast network 60% of prime time viewer share. It also produces more than 10 cable channels, some in association with other leading global media companies. Globo Organizations maintains web sites at http://www.redeglobo.com.br; http://www.netbrasil.com.br; http://www.globosat.com.br; http://www.netsat.com.br; http://www.sky.com.br.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org.

CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.