BURLINGTON, Mass., May 17, 2000—Los Angeles-based DIRECTV, Inc., the nation’s leading provider of digital satellite television, has selected Cognos^® (Nasdaq:COGN; TSE:CSN) as the company’s new enterprise-wide standard for business analysis and reporting. The Cognos enterprise business intelligence solution will enable DIRECTV to make select corporate business information accessible to employees. Cognos is the world’s largest and most successful business intelligence company.

The Cognos solution will replace a competitive business intelligence product previously purchased by DIRECTV. "Our rapidly growing consumer- oriented business demands that we be able to effectively communicate with our various distribution and enterprise units," said Robert D. Pacek, senior vice president and chief information officer for DIRECTV, Inc. "Cognos’ business intelligence solution will enable DIRECTV to optimize the use of its business data for immediate reporting and analysis across company business units. The Cognos solution can be quickly implemented, allowing users to access information that is critical to business performance."

Hundreds of DIRECTV employees will be able to use the Cognos solution and report on enterprise-wide business activities via the Web. DIRECTV will also deploy Cognos’ e-Applications for sales and financial analysis. Cognos provides packaged, function-specific business applications that include pre-defined business metrics, key performance indicators, standard and customized reports and analysis necessary for rapid enterprise-wide deployments.

One of DIRECTV’s e-business initiatives will involve a "Dealer Scorecard," that will measure and track dealer performance across North America. DIRECTV employees will be able to analyze dealer-related information by specific dealer, region, product sold, profitability and other dimensions. The scorecard will allow DIRECTV sales and marketing personnel to quickly identify top performers.

"Global industry leaders like DIRECTV partner with suppliers that deliver broad business experience and high-value solutions to meet their enterprise business needs for both today and the future," said Joanne K. Masingill, Cognos senior vice president of marketing. "Cognos meets these requirements with 30 years of software solution experience and proven business ’best practices’, as well as a comprehensive business intelligence platform built for e-business across an enterprise with the capability to quickly deploy to thousands of end users via the Web."

About DIRECTV
DIRECTV, Inc. is the nation’s leading service provider of digital television entertainment with more than 8.5 million customers, including customers subscribing to the medium-power PRIMESTAR by DIRECTV service. DIRECTV is a registered trademark of DIRECTV, Inc., a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation. Hughes Electronics is the world’s leading provider of digital television entertainment, and satellite and wireless systems and services. The earnings of Hughes Electronics, a unit of General Motors Corporation, are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to the General Motors Class H common stock (NYSE: GMH).