Fox Television Stations, Inc. part of the Fox Entertainment Group, is one of the nation's largest owned-and-operated broadcast groups, and comprises 35 stations in 26 markets, covering nearly 45% of U.S. television homes. This includes five duopolies in the top 10 markets, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Washington D.C., as well as duopolies in Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Orlando.

Under the terms of the three-year agreement, Panasonic will be the exclusive supplier of certain electronic news gathering (ENG) equipment for Fox's owned-and-operated television stations. The agreement covers AJ-HPX2000 2/3" P2 HD camcorders, AJ-HPM100 P2 HD mobile recorders, P2 Cards as well as P2 drives and other P2 products.

John Baisley, President, Panasonic Broadcast, said, "We are very pleased to be chosen by Fox, one of our original development partners for P2, to supply its television stations with P2 HD and P2 equipment. This substantial commitment reinforces Panasonic's leadership in high definition."

"P2 is a proven technology with extensive customer experience, and Panasonic is deeply committed to the continued development of innovative yet practical P2 HD solid state solutions that deliver substantial workflow improvements and overall operating efficiencies," added Baisley Currently, five Fox stations – WNYW-TV and WWOR-TV, New York City; WTXF-TV, Philadelphia, KRIV-TV, Houston; and KTVI-TV, St. Louis; are using Panasonic's P2 standard definition equipment in their news production operations.

About P2 HD

P2 HD provides the reliability of solid state production, the immediate connectivity to existing IT infrastructures; the speed, ease of use and portability of P2 cards; and the interoperability with leading NLE systems. The core products within the P2 HD product line offer solid-state high definition recording without the mechanical wear and environmental limitations of tape, hard disk, and optical disc based systems. P2 HD insures the highest reliability, especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range, shock, and vibration. P2 HD products provide a significant reduction in maintenance costs, longer useful product life, and immediate access to recorded video (no need to digitize, ingest or create proxy video files) and metadata.

The multi-format AJ-HPX2000, the first shoulder-mount camcorder in Panasonic's P2 HD series, features a native HD progressive 2/3" 3-CCD system that offers superb recording in 1080i, 720p, 480i, 576i and in a total of 17 high definition and standard definition formats. Designed to support versatile compression rates, the AJ-HPX2000 is switchable between DVCPRO HD/50/25 and DV as well as the new AVC-Intra codec, the industry's most advanced image compression technology.

The AJ-HPM100 P2 Mobile features multi-format recording and playback with a six-slot P2 card reader, versatile inputs/outputs (including HD-SDI, IEEE 1394, USB 2.0), an SD memory card slot, broadcast-level editing controls including a job/shuttle dial and audio faders, and a 9-inch widescreen HD LCD monitor with stereo speakers. The P2 Mobile offers the benefits of solid-state performance with on-the-go recording, editing and playback in the world's leading video formats, including up/down/cross conversion between 1080i and 720p and between high definition and standard definition.

About Panasonic Broadcast

Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company is the North American headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast.