BigBand Networks Selected by Five Chinese Cable Operators for Digital TV Expansion

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — BigBand Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND), today announced that five additional Chinese cable operators are deploying its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR®) to process and deliver digital television services. The customers initiating these new deployments include Tibet Cable, Taicang Cable in Jiangsu province near Shanghai, Jiayuguan Cable in Gansu province, Nanchang Cable in Jiangxi province and Luan Cable in Shanxi province.

“The BMR’s ability to deliver and manage high-quality digital video services has made it a leading digital headend solution in China,” said Mr. Chuanhua Qu, director of Taicang Cable in Jiangsu province. “We’re using the BMR to deliver 100 digital TV programs to more than 80,000 subscribers.”

The new customers are using the BMR to improve the bandwidth efficiency and optimize picture quality of their digital TV services. China continues to be one of the fastest growing digital TV markets in the world, as local operators continue to expand digital services in advance of the upcoming 2008 summer Olympic games in Beijing. BigBand now counts more than 40 service providers in China as customers.

“The BMR’s reputation for quality and reliability is well-known in China, and the product has lived up to its reputation in our deployment,” said Dr. Li Zuoxin, general manager of Nanchang Cable. “We can use the BMR today for a range of digital video processing functions, with the potential to add support for switched digital video, video-on-demand and other advanced functions in the future.”

The BMR is one of the most widely-deployed video networking platforms in the world. The product’s programmable, modular architecture allows it to be upgraded and reconfigured easily, allowing service providers to add support for new functionality only as needed to generate increased return on capital investment. The BMR switches and processes MPEG content over IP, and supports a wide assortment of applications including switched digital video, digital ad insertion, HDTV, video on demand, network-based DVR, digital television management, IP video transport and digital simulcast.

“China’s digital television viewership is rapidly accelerating,” said Rick Ford, vice president of Asia-Pacific for BigBand Networks. “We’re leveraging our experience with some of the world’s most ambitious video service rollouts to support China’s operators as they scale to support millions of new digital TV subscribers in advance of next year’s Olympics.”