Japan's Leading Digital Multi-Channel Satellite Broadcasting Company Redefines Perfection with Harmonic Digital Video Headend Systems

- SKY Perfect Communications to Upgrade Headend Sites with Award-Winning DiviCom^® Encoders to Expand Service and Improve Video Quality -

Sunnyvale, CA - November 17, 2003 - Harmonic Inc. (Nasdaq: HLIT) today announced that SKY Perfect Communications Inc., Japan's leading digital multi-channel satellite broadcasting company, is upgrading its video infrastructure with Harmonic digital headend systems. Harmonic's award-winning DiviCom^® MPEG-2 encoders and industry-leading DiviTrackXE™ statistical multiplexer, which form the foundation of the new service, are expected to effectively double the capacity of SKY Perfect's existing satellites while improving picture quality. SKY Perfect will also use Harmonic's NMX Digital Service Manager™ to maximize service availability and simplify the operation of its geographically distributed video infrastructure. The system is scheduled to be fully operational in January 2005.

With more than three million direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers, SKY Perfect is Japan's leading digital multi-channel satellite broadcasting company. A respected pioneer of digital broadcast services, SKY Perfect has grown its subscriber base by continually expanding its video and audio programming. Though satellite is the primary service platform, SKY Perfect is exploring delivery vehicles such as fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) to extend its reach.

"SKY Perfect's mid-term strategy calls for us to reach the five million subscriber mark by 2007 through the aggregation of rich entertainment and information content that addresses a wider range of our subscribers' needs and interests," said Mr. Hajime Shigemura, President of SKY Perfect Communications Inc. "After thorough research and evaluation, we found that Harmonic digital video solutions were best able to help us achieve our business objectives."

A recognized leader in video compression and transport, Harmonic systems provision digital television channels for many of the world's largest direct-to-home satellite broadcasters. Harmonic has refined two essential technologies that, when combined, can multiply the capacity of a network. DiviCom encoders with advanced noise reduction and filtering remove even subtle imperfections to deliver crisp and clear, broadcast-quality video at very low bit-rates. DiviTrackXE, the third-generation closed loop statistical multiplexing system, dynamically reallocates bandwidth between programs in a transport stream to further expand the service-carrying capacity. This system is fully compatible with SKY Perfect's installed base of set-top boxes and transport equipment, enabling a seamless transition that will increase the return on SKY Perfect’s existing infrastructure investments.

"In just a few years, SKY Perfect has built one of the most successful satellite broadcast services in the world. They have set a very aggressive growth plan in the face of increasing competition that assumes a substantial increase in the number and types of channels as well as an improvement in picture quality and service availability," said Anthony J. Ley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Harmonic Inc. "SKY Perfect’s evaluation process, one of the most rigorous of its kind, is a strong affirmation of our technology and service leadership."

Harmonic systems will deliver approximately 280 digital video and audio channels over SKY Perfect's 36 existing satellite transponders. Using Harmonic equipment, SKY Perfect can scale to more than twice the initial number of channels with bandwidth still available for future growth. Harmonic systems will also power two global redundancy and two test systems. Initially, each transponder, redundancy and test system will use between 7 and 14 encoders.

In addition, SKY Perfect will use Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager™, a powerful monitoring and management system, to maximize service availability and operational efficiencies. By managing the infrastructure as a series of services, rather than discrete hardware and software elements, NMX reduces the time and resources dedicated to system operation. With NMX, services can be quickly added or removed with a few mouse clicks. In the event of a failure, NMX automatically notifies an operator and re-provisions equipment to minimize downtime. The client/server architecture also enables the entire distributed infrastructure to be controlled and monitored locally or remotely.

About SKY Perfect Communications Inc.
SKY Perfect Communications Inc. (TSE MOTHERS: 4795) had total assets as of March 31, 2003 of approximately US$1,101 million and total annual revenues of approximately US$596 million. SKY Perfect Communications offers a digital multi-channel satellite broadcasting service in Japan and engages in subscriber management and marketing as a platform carrier. Aggressive subscriber acquisition has given SKY Perfect a leading market position in Japan. Visit www.skyperfectv.co.jp/skycom/e/ for more information.

About Harmonic Inc.
Harmonic Inc. is a leading provider of digital video, broadband optical networking and IP delivery systems to cable, satellite, telecom and broadcast network operators. Harmonic's open standards-based solutions for the headend through the last mile enable customers to develop new revenue sources and a competitive advantage by offering powerful interactive video, voice and data services such as video-on-demand, high definition digital television, telephony and Internet access.

Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT) is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with R&D, sales and system integration centers worldwide. The Company's customers, including many of the world's largest communications providers, deliver services in virtually every country. Visit www.harmonicinc.com for more information.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27(A) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21(E) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to: the upgrade of SKY Perfect headend sites, our expectations that our products will effectively double the capacity of SKY Perfect’s existing satellites while improving picture quality, the use of NMX Digital Service Manager to maximize service availability and simplify operations, our expectations that the system will be fully operational by January 2005, SKY Perfect’s strategy to reach five million subscribers by 2007, our expectations that a seamless transition will increase the return on existing infrastructure investments, and our expectations that our systems will deliver approximately 280 channels and power redundancy and test systems. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Harmonic’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report filed on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 and its subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Harmonic does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

Editor's Note: Product and company names used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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