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Strong Results in Ad Revenue and Client Base Growth Lead to CED Magazine's Pacesetter AwardORLANDO, Fla. --(Business Wire)-- Sunflower Broadband's rapid implementation and achievements in on-demand television advertising have led to industry recognition at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2007 in Orlando. The Lawrence, Kan.-based independent cable television operator broke new ground in advertising in June 2006 when it launched the world's first dynamic advertising insertion business. In less than one year, Sunflower's adoption of next-generation advertising technology has dramatically increased its local ad revenues and client base, while selling out the entire ad inventory for some VOD content categories. In honor of this breakthrough, Sunflower's general manager Patrick Knorr was named CED Magazine's Pacesetter Award on-demand advertising category winner. Stephen Schneider, Director of Technical Operations at Sunflower, accepted the award on Knorr's behalf from SeaChange International's (NASDAQ: SEAC) Terri Swartz at last night's ceremony, which was emceed by CED editor Brian Santo. SeaChange's AdPulse software, the platform for Sunflower's business, is in demonstrations at Cable-Tec booth #890 through today.
"Patrick has been an agent of change and opportunity thanks to his aggressive investigation of, and commitment to, new technologies," said Dolph Simons, Jr., CEO of The World Company, Sunflower's parent company. "Clearly, he's broken new ground in advertising before anyone else in the television industry and we're extremely proud of his leadership." Today, most advertising in VOD is produced directly into VOD programming and tied to a specific piece of content for its entire run, which ultimately requires advertisers to submit generic copy that can run for several weeks. SeaChange AdPulse, however, enables insertion of ads into VOD content at the edge, when the content is played. Making ads independent of the shows in which they run allows each to be trafficked separately, reducing lead times for ad copy and enabling ad rotation, targeting and message refresh during a campaign - without the need to reload program assets. CED's Pacesetter Awards recognize individuals at cable and other broadband service providers who have taken leading positions or innovative first steps with advanced services, applications and technologies. This year's five award categories included on-demand advertising, business services, telephony-commercial SIP/VoIP, broadband teamwork and digital video. To learn more about the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, visit http://expo.scte.org/. About Sunflower Broadband Serving 31,000 subscribers, Sunflower Broadband is a recognized leader among independent cable operators in the telecommunications industry. Although cable television programming remains the core business, Sunflower's advanced broadband network has become the conduit through which they can provide both residential and business customers with highly advanced video, data, and voice services. Sunflower is owned by The World Company, a privately owned Lawrence, KS-based media company that in addition to Sunflower operates eight area newspapers, an ABC affiliate in Topeka, KS, and World Online, a website and software design company. For more information on Sunflower Broadband, visit http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com. |

