FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C., April 2, 2003 - During a gala ceremony the evening of April 1, the Cable Television Public Affairs Association (CTPAA) announced the winners of the 2003 Golden Beacon and Beacon Awards, recognizing excellence in cable television public affairs. CTPAA awarded the Golden Beacon, the association's highest honor, to C-SPAN Networks for C-SPAN's Presidential Timeline Giveaway. CTPAA also presented 77 Beacon Awards, representing work by MSOs, cable systems, programming networks and cable associations aimed at the community, customers, education, employees, government or media. A list of the 2003 Beacon Awards can be found at the end of this release. The Beacon Awards Ceremony was one of many highlights of CTPAA's annual conference, FORUM 2003: Capitalizing on Cable's Competitive Edge, held March 30 - April 2 at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC. Comedy Central's Ed Helm's was the master of ceremonies for the evening and Phyllis George introduced the 2003 Golden Beacon Finalists and announced the winner.

CTPAA presented the 2003 Golden Beacon, awarded to a public affairs initiative that has made an impact within the cable industry and enhances cable's image nationwide, to C-SPAN Networks for C-SPAN's Presidential Timeline Giveaway. In 2002, C-SPAN developed an educational outreach promotion for C-SPAN in the Classroom to highlight its American history resources, increase membership, and to drive home its cable funding message. To attain this goal, C-SPAN created a campaign to distribute a six-foot presidential timeline poster to middle and high school social studies teachers all over the country, free-of-charge. The poster includes the public service careers of all 42 U.S. presidents, major events in U.S. history, and the message that C-SPAN is created by cable and offered as a public service. This campaign was launched October 1, and ran through December 31. C-SPAN received requests for timelines from more than 60,000 educators and is in the process of distributing the posters. The two other initiatives nominated for the 2003 Golden Beacon Award were Lifetime Television's Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Violence Against Women and MTV's Fight For Your Rights: Protect Yourself. The 2002 Golden Beacon was awarded to Comcast Corporation for its Comcast Cares Day 2001.

In addition to the Beacon Awards, a variety of special awards were presented throughout the ceremony. The ESPN Good Sports Award, given annually to a project that generates outstanding community involvement through education and athletics, went to Cox Communications New England for its Celebrating Champions. This public affairs program, a live, interactive teleconference, was produced by Cox Communications and Special Olympics Rhode Island to help educate high school students and the community about the Special Olympics Experience and all its positive messages while creating compelling local programming and positive press for Cox 3. MTV received the Joel A. Berger Award, that honors a project achieving exceptional results in the area of AIDS awareness, for its campaign Fight For Your Rights: Protect Yourself. Developed in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation, and building off a five-year on-air and online commitment to sexual health, MTV's campaign focuses primarily on HIV/AIDS, other STDs, and unintended pregnancy. The campaign includes original programming, public service messages, an extensive Web site, a toll-free hotline, an online and printed guide, local forums, and opportunities for young people to get involved in their communities.

Each year, CTPAA's board of directors selects President's Award recipients, honoring individuals for the development and implementation of public affairs initiatives within their own companies and throughout the cable industry. The 2003 recipients were Henry Schleiff, Chairman and CEO of Court TV, and Michael S. Willner, Vice Chairman and CEO, Insight Communications.

CTPAA received 422 Beacon entries this year - evidence of the strong and continuing commitment by the cable industry to public affairs. Finalists and winners were selected after an extensive two-phase judging process in Washington, DC, at the NCTA headquarters in January.

CTPAA is the only national, professional organization specifically addressing the issues, needs and interests of the cable industry's public affairs professionals. Its mission is to develop and promote public affairs excellence to help achieve industry, corporate and social goals. A strong advocate of the public affairs professional's participation in all aspects of corporate decision-making processes, CTPAA works to enhance each member's status and influence through skill building and professional development. For more information on CTPAA, FORUM 2003 and the 2003 Beacon Awards, see www.ctpaa.org.

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2003 Beacon Awards --

Community; Print Materials; Cable Network III
Empowering Children in the Aftermath of Hate
Court Television Network/New York, NY

Education; Programming/Single Program; Cable Network III
Empowering Children in the Aftermath of Hate
Court Television Network/New York, NY