Southern Cross chooses Pilat Media's IBMS system to fully integrate its entire broadcast operation

Press Release: 3 March 2003

London, 3 March 2003 - Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) Ltd has signed an agreement to implement the Integrated Broadcast Management System (IBMS) from leading broadcast software specialist, Pilat Media.

Southern Cross Broadcasting is one of Australia's leading media companies, with a potential reach of 94% of the Australian population. Broadcasting in 30 television markets and with 8 radio stations, Southern Cross Broadcasting has displayed substantial growth with revenues of AU$350m.

IBMS will be used to fully integrate the entire regional television broadcast operation, optimising the management of advertising airtime yield and inventory. Replacing four separate systems, IBMS will manage sales, traffic and programme scheduling from a single Oracle database, enabling Southern Cross to standardise work practices, and eliminate potential errors and the substantial cost of multiple data entry. The system will be hosted in a single location allowing over 370 users to access the system nationwide.

Commenting on the decision to implement the integrated IBMS system, Bruce Abraham, Group General Manager Television, Southern Cross Broadcasting said, "By integrating the total workflow, from advertising proposal to airing a campaign, we will be able to serve our customers better, be more responsive to changing client and market needs, and run a more efficient sales operation".

To consistently improve the business selling process, IBMS allows the sales force direct online access to the central database, which not only increases the responsiveness of client requests but also enables daily inventory monitoring to maximise selling potential.

Looking to the future, Bruce Abraham sees that "with the possible extension of IBMS to include radio airtime sales, we will be able to achieve our cross-media vision, offering our clients the ability to plan and manage campaigns across multiple media types, maintaining Southern Cross Broadcasting's position as one of the fastest growing, most innovative broadcasters in Australia".

Southern Cross Broadcasting joins Network Ten, SBS, TVNZ, Sky Network Television and Optus in a growing community of Pilat Media clients in Australia and New Zealand; making IBMS the most popular integrated broadcast management solution in the region.

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About Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) Limited

Southern Cross Broadcasting is one of Australia's leading media companies with diversified media interests in metropolitan and regional television, metropolitan radio and related businesses.

Today the group's television and radio operations have a potential reach of 94% of Australia's population. Television interests cover metropolitan Adelaide and all regional areas of Australia with the exception of Western Australia. Southern Cross Broadcasting's radio interests serve the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth markets.

Notes to editors:

Pilat Media is a UK company, currently 150 strong, operating from headquarters in London and offices in the USA, Australia and Israel.

Pilat Media's IBMS (Integrated Broadcast Management System) is a new generation software system for managing the business of broadcasting. It is the world's most comprehensive solution, designed to maximize revenues and reduce costs by integrating airtime sales, content programming and media trafficking across an unlimited number of different channels or stations, regions or even countries, all under a single centralized, scalable and digital ready system. Al these have been historically serviced by several, typically dispersed systems. IBMS' functional breadth, depth and flexibility to suit all types of broadcasters are unrivalled, making it the first truly global system of its kind.

IBMS' first version was originally developed by Pilat for BSkyB, to support their fast growing multi-channel programming needs. Pilat Media was established in 1999 to further develop and market the system as a generic product. IBMS's scope was subsequently more than doubled by adding the advertising sales functionality in partnership with Network Ten of Australia. Since then Pilat Media has rapidly established itself as a rising force in the market for business management software for broadcasters. Today, Pilat Media's software solutions have been selected by 35 broadcasters in Europe, North America and Australasia, representing a wide spectrum of business models, organizational size and transmission technologies - digital and analogue, on terrestrial, cable and satellite platforms. Additional clients include CTV (Canada), Discovery (International), five (UK), TV New Zealand, Playboy (US), Sky Italia and TV4 (Sweden).