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A&E ®, Comedy Central®, Oxygen Media® TV Networks Will All Use MSA's New "Stewardship" Audience-Management Software PITTSBURGH, PA, January 28, 2002 - The A&E Television Networks®, Comedy Central®, and Oxygen Media® have signed agreements to use the new Stewardship advertising-management software from Management Science Associates, Inc., of Pittsburgh. The announcement was made today by Phil Antonson, director of business development for MSA's Media Division. Stewardship is a new module in MSA's widely used Gabriel traffic and billing system for cable television networks, Mr. Antonson explained. MSA's media products and services are rapidly becoming the industry standard and are currently used by some 68% of all national cable networks in the United States. Stewardship is a newly developed software tool that allows networks to accurately manage advertising deals and contracts, to make mid-course corrections and to deliver the guaranteed number of impressions and avoid under-delivery problems. The new software functions as a module within Gabriel or can operate as a stand-alone product, Mr. Antonson said. Networks such as A&E, Comedy Central and Oxygen put a premium on customer service, Mr. Antonson said. Mona Tropeano, vice president of Sales Administration at A&E, commented "With MSA's Stewardship product they will further strengthen back office operations and provide even better service. Stewardship will help us to more accurately steward our deals. This is critical in helping our clients achieve their campaign goals." "Stewardship will help us forecast our over and under-delivery in order to make the necessary adjustments mid-flight. I'm confident both our clients, not to mention our sales team, will like the results," says Comedy Central's Long Ellis, vice president of Sales Planning and Operations. Stewardship will recommend how many ADUs (audience deficiency units) to add to a particular deal and where. It offers a variety of methods to forecast the delivery of future spots. Users have the flexibility to fine-tune these forecasts (e.g., factor up or down the estimated future audience for a particular program, time period, demographic, etc.). Oxygen Media's vice president of Ad Sales Operations, Dan LeRoy, said that "as a fast growing cable network, we wanted a system like Stewardship to further strengthen our back-room operations and meet the needs of our growing client base." Management Science Associates' Media Division has been the leader in the development of decision support and software solutions for cable networks and advertising agencies for the past 21 years. MSA has developed leading edge analytical software and information-based systems since it was founded in 1963. The company is headquartered in Pittsburgh, with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, High Point, NC, Cardiff, Wales, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The privately held company has more than 800 employees and has enjoyed 38 years of uninterrupted growth. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Hearst Corporation ABC, Inc., and NBC. It is an award-winning, international media company offering consumers a diverse communications environment ranging from TV programming, magazine publishing, Web sites, books and music CD's to home videos and support of nationwide educational initiatives. Comedy Central, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 78 million homes nationwide. Comedy Central is owned by Comedy Partners, a 50-50 joint venture of time Warner Entertainment Company and Viacom. Comedy Central is a registered trademark of Comedy Partners. Oxygen Media is an integrated media brand that combines the best qualities of cable television and the Internet to serve women. Founded in 1998 by Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach and Oprah Winfrey, Oxygen consists of Web properties including oxygen.com and Oprah.com and a 24-hour cable television network featuring music, talk, health, comedy, movies and sports. Oxygen currently reaches 30 million households nationwide.