HGTV.com Renovated; Redesigned Home & Garden Television Site To Include New Content, Features, and Search Engine Capabilities

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2000--Home & Garden Television (HGTV)'s online resource for home enthusiasts, www.HGTV.com, has been renovated with a new look, expanded content and features, and improved search and navigation capabilities to help people pursue their passions.

The HGTV.com home page has been remodeled to give it a cleaner look and includes rotating "spotlight" how-to projects in each of the five HGTV categories: building & remodeling, design & decorating, gardening & landscaping, crafts & collectibles, and food & lifestyle. To make these projects more accessible, HGTV.com now features a powerful Verity search engine that uses the latest technology to organize the more than 23,000 projects in the site's online library.

In addition, HGTV.com has added new features, content and projects from 18 HGTV on-air shows in addition to the 40 shows already covered on the site. To help people estimate how much material they will need to complete a do-it-yourself project -- from redecorating a room to landscaping the yard -- the site includes several new project calculators for paint, tile, wallpaper, windows, grass seed, and fences. HGTV.com will also feature an original, online-exclusive daily video Tip Of The Day every day from HGTV's TIPical Mary Ellen Pinkham with a variety of home and garden hints. To take greater advantage of the real-time capabilities of the Internet, HGTV.com will feature several unique live Web cams this fall, including a Halloween Ghost cam set up in a real haunted house in Charleston, SC, and four cams set up in a warehouse in Pasadena, CA so flower fans can watch the creation of the famous Tournament of Roses Parade floats from start to finish.

In the newly re-designed Advice section of the site, people can get help with their home improvement projects in two interactive ways: with Live Expert Advice from HGTV experts in weekly online chats, or by posting questions and ideas on message boards in the People To People section and interacting with other users who also have a passion for everything home and garden. In addition, they can check out the HGTV Store with book titles from HGTV experts, videos of popular HGTV shows, HGTV apparel and gifts for their favorite home and garden enthusiast. And, of course, HGTV.com features a new and improved HGTV on-air program guide, with detailed show descriptions, host biographies and show listings. For home enthusiasts looking to be a part of their favorite HGTV shows, they can even check out the new Be On HGTV section of the site that searches for real people to appear on air.

"Home and garden enthusiasts are more wired than one might think we already average 13.7 million page views a month and rank among the top 15 cable TV sites according to Media Metrix. By remodeling HGTV.com, we've taken the best of the old site and integrated it with new features and technology to make it an even better resource," said HGTV.com's editorial director and redesign architect, Jim Sexton. "We've made the process of searching our tremendous library of projects and content much more streamlined, something our users have told us is very important to them. Whether you're an experienced do-it-yourselfer or just starting out, HGTV.com has the information you need to turn your ideas into a reality."

Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), which is now distributed in more than 65 million U.S. households, is one of today's fastest-growing television networks. Internationally, HGTV owns 33 percent of HGTV Canada and provides much of the Canadian network's daily programming. HGTV also is seen in Japan, Australia and the Philippines. HGTV is wholly owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP), which also operates the Food Network, Do It Yourself (DIY) network and Fine Living, a new network to launch in 2001.