S2 Licensing Anticipates Close of Early Adopter Incentive Period

S2 Licensing announced today that incentives remain available to licensees who enter into its DVB-S2 Non-Exclusive Patent License Agreement by December 31, 2008. A number of early licensees have already taken advantage of S2 Licensing’s offer, which forgives royalties accrued before 01 September 2008, the launch date of S2 Licensing’s DVB-S2 license campaign. The DVB-S2 license offered by S2 Licensing covers the combined patent rights in DVB-S2 standardized technology held by DTVG Licensing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group, Inc. and the owner by assignment of DIRECTV’s essential DVB-S2 patents, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Radiotelevisione Italiana SpA (RAI).

DVB-S2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite, 2^nd Generation) is the second generation DVB system for broadband satellite communications, covering digital TV and HDTV broadcasting, interactive services, and professional links by satellite. DVB-S2 enables delivery of a significantly higher data rate (e.g. 30%) in a given transponder bandwidth than the previous DVB-S standard.

For the convenience of adopters, the license under the combined portfolios (currently representing over twenty patent families) is available to all parties practicing or planning to practice the DVB-S2 standard, and provides favorable terms to speed adoption of the DVB-S2 standard. For consumer applications, such as satellite television set-top box receivers, a license under the combined portfolios is available for a one-time royalty of US$0.50 for each encoder or decoder present in a product for quantities exceeding 500,000 over the term of the license, and US$1.00 per encoder or decoder in lower quantities. Terms for other applications, such as digital satellite news gathering, data trunking, and up-link station modulation, are offered at reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, available upon request.

Parties interested in more information or in securing a license are invited to contact John T. Whelan, Esq., CLP (info@S2Licensing.com), or visit our website at www.S2Licensing.com.

About DTVG Licensing, Inc.

DTVG Licensing, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTV) and is the owner by assignment of several families of patents essential to practice the DVB-S2 Standard. The DIRECTV Group is a world-leading provider of digital television entertainment services. Through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies in the United States, Brazil, Mexico and other countries in Latin America, the DIRECTV Group provides digital television service to more than 17.0 million customers in the United States and over 5.1 million customers in Latin America.

About RAI

RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) is the Italian Public Broadcaster for radio and television over the air, via satellite and cable or any other means. It provides program production and network operation for three national analogue television channels broadcast in VHF/UHF bands. These programs are re-broadcast in digital format by satellite and in two terrestrial bouquets, including a growing number of thematic channels in clear. It provides also production and network operation for three radio channels, broadcast in MW and FM, and of international radio programs in SW.

About ESA

European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization, with 18 Member States, set up to provide for and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications. ESA draws up a European space plan and has the task of carrying it out. Its activities span the fields of space science, Earth observation, telecommunications, satellite navigation, human spaceflight, microgravity research, exploration and space transportation systems. ESA has its headquarters in Paris, France, with establishments in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain, a launch base in Kourou, French Guiana, and offices in Washington, Moscow and Brussels.