ANIMAL PLANET SLAYS WITH BEST-EVER MAY IN NETWORK HISTORY

-- Monster Week's MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND Made Mighty Splash with More Than 3.4 Million Viewers --

(May 30, 2012, Silver Spring, Md.) - Animal Planet devoured the month with its best May ever, earning its strongest performances in both prime and total delivery among all key demos, including prime deliveries of 681K P2+ (+7%), 508K HH (+7%), 330K P25-54 (+21%), 301K P18-49 (+12%) and 193K M25-54 (+30%), and total day deliveries of 456K P2+ (+13%), 355K HH (+10%), 215K P25-54 (+26%), 203K P18-49 (+13%) and 120K M25-54 (+32%).

Animal Planet's May victory was propelled its first-ever Monster Week (the week of May 21), featuring MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND, which made a huge splash at the "tail" end of the week. MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND delivered nearly 2 million viewers (1.96M P2+) for its premiere, making it the most-watched telecast since the Steve Irwin memorial special in September 2006. The two-hour premiere scored a 1.3 HH rating and helped rank Animal Planet #2 in the timeslot, including 960K P25-54 (0.9), 482K M25-54 (1.0) and 477K W25-54 (0.9). The subsequent late-night airing of MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND earned the title of Animal Planet's most-watched late-night telecast ever, delivering nearly 1.5M viewers (1.46M P2+), bringing the combined viewership to more than 3.4 million viewers. MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND encores Thursday, May 31, from 8-10 PM ET/PT.

Monster Week was Animal Planet's most-watched week ever in total day, delivering 467K P2+ viewers and was the most watched in prime since 2003 among P25-54 (406K) and P18-49 (378K).

May also was bolstered by new series, including WHALE WARS: VIKING SHORES and key returning series, RIVER MONSTERS and TANKED. RIVER MONSTERS remains Animal Planet's top-performing series ever, while the WHALE WARS: VIKING SHORES debut hooked nearly 1.1M P2+ viewers and the season overall helped Animal Planet rank as the #1 non-fiction network in the Friday 9 PM timeslot among M18-49 (excluding movies and sports). This newly expanded franchise of the WHALE WARS series ranks among the top three Animal Planet series year to date among P2+ (837K), P25-54 (486K), P18-49 (480K), and M25-54 (333K) and M18-49 (317K). The second season of TANKED to date reeled in viewers with nearly 1M P2+ viewers (946K).

Monster Week introduced viewers to all-new episodes of and never-before-seen footage from fan-favorite creature features, including RIVER MONSTERS, CALL OF THE WILDMAN and GATOR BOYS, as well as new specials, including the MAN-EATING SUPER CROC and the much-anticipated, two-hour CGI-special, MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.