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Geneva/Oslo 22 January 2021 – COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing. Rollout will commence with the successful negotiation and execution of supply agreements.

In further support of its mission to expedite early availability of vaccines to lower-income countries and help bring a rapid end to the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVAX also confirmed today that it will exercise an option – via an existing agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) – to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccine manufactured by SII.

Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing. The WHO review process, which is currently underway, follows approval for restricted use in emergency situations by the Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month, and is a critical aspect of ensuring that any vaccine procured through COVAX is fully quality assured for international use. According to the latest WHO update, a decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated by the middle of February.

COVAX also anticipates that, via an existing agreement with AstraZeneca, at least 50 million further doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine will be available for delivery to COVAX participants in Q1 2021, pending emergency use listing by WHO of the COVAX-specific manufacturing network for these doses. A decision on this candidate is also anticipated by WHO in February.

“Today marks another milestone for COVAX: pending regulatory approval for the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate and pending the successful conclusion of the supply agreement for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we anticipate being able to begin deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February. This is not just significant for COVAX, it is a major step forward for equitable access to vaccines, and an essential part of the global effort to beat this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.

Preparations, led by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, are already well under way for COVAX to deliver vaccines to economies eligible for support via the COVAX AMC, with Gavi making US$ 150 million available from its core funding as initial, catalytic support for preparedness and delivery.

“The urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines is not just a moral imperative, it’s also a health security, strategic and economic imperative,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “This agreement with Pfizer will help to enable COVAX to save lives, stabilize health systems and drive the global economic recovery.”

Building on the work of the past months supporting country readiness efforts, a “Country Readiness Portal” will be launched by WHO this month, which will allow AMC participants to submit final national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs). This is a vital step before allocations can be made, to ensure that delivered doses are able to be effectively deployed and to identify where, if necessary, further support is needed.

“These purchase agreements open the door for these lifesaving vaccines to become available to people in the most vulnerable countries,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “But at the same time we are securing vaccines we must also ensure that countries are ready to receive them, deploy them, and build trust in them.”

The COVAX Facility intends to provide all 190 participating economies with an indicative allocation of doses by the end of this month. This indicative allocation will provide interim guidance to participants – offering a minimum planning scenario to enable preparations for the final allocation of the number of doses each participant will receive in the first rounds of vaccine distribution.

Supply update

COVAX now has agreements in place to access just over two billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates. Negotiations continue for further doses to be secured through existing R&D agreements by COVAX co-lead the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), through evaluations of new products with promising results and through contributions from donors.

Based on this, COVAX anticipates being able to provide participating economies doses of safe and effective vaccines – enough to protect health care and other frontline workers as well as some high-risk individuals – beginning in Q1 2021. The aim is to protect at least 20% of each participating population by the end of the year – unless a participant has requested a lower percentage of doses. At least 1.3 billion of these doses will be made available to the 92 economies eligible for the Gavi COVAX AMC by the end of 2021.

To meet its goal of securing two billion safe and effective vaccines in 2021, COVAX has built a diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates which mitigates the risk of a product failing development, production or regulatory processes, and ensures availability of products suitable for various contexts and settings. This work will continue at pace to enable further supply of vaccines suitable for use across a wide range of populations and settings in 2021 and beyond.

“The progress in vaccine development so far has been extraordinary, and it is clear that we are now assembling the tools we need to bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end. But we cannot afford to slow our efforts given the speed with which this pandemic continues to wreak havoc,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. “The emergence of new variants of COVID-19 puts into sharp focus the need for us to be one step ahead of the virus by continuing to invest in vaccine R&D - specifically for next-generation vaccine candidates and to be ready for strain changes in existing vaccines - to ensure we have the tools to meet the needs of all populations in all countries for the long term.”

About COVAX
COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by CEPI, Gavi and WHO – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

CEPI is leading on the COVAX vaccine research and development portfolio, investing in R&D across a variety of promising candidates, with the goal to support development of three safe and effective vaccines which can be made available to countries participating in the COVAX Facility. As part of this work, CEPI has secured first right of refusal to potentially over one billion doses for the COVAX Facility to a number of candidates, and made strategic investments in vaccine manufacturing, which includes reserving capacity to manufacture doses of COVAX vaccines at a network of facilities, and securing glass vials to hold 2 billion doses of vaccine. CEPI is also investing in the ‘next generation’ of vaccine candidates, which will give the world additional options to control COVID-19 in the future.

Gavi is leading on procurement and delivery for COVAX, coordinating the design and implementation of the COVAX Facility and the COVAX AMC and working with Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery. The COVAX Facility is the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines through which COVAX will ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all 190 participating economies, using an allocation framework formulated by WHO. The COVAX Facility will do this by pooling buying power from participating economies and providing volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates. The Gavi COVAX AMC is the financing mechanism that will support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income countries in the Facility, enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and effective vaccines. UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will be acting as procurement coordinators for the COVAX Facility, helping deliver vaccines to all participants.

WHO has multiple roles within the COVAX: among other things it supports countries as they prepare to receive and administer vaccines and does so in partnership with UNICEF. It provides normative guidance on vaccine policy, regulation, safety, R&D, allocation, and country readiness and delivery. Its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization develops evidence-based immunization policy recommendations. Its Emergency Use Listing (EUL)/prequalification programmes ensure harmonized review and authorization across member states. It provides global coordination and member state support on vaccine safety monitoring. It developed the target product profiles for COVID-19 vaccines and provides R&D technical coordination. Along with COVAX partners, it is developing a no-fault compensation scheme for indemnification and liability issues. COVAX is part of the Act accelerator which WHO launched with partners in 2020.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that fund Gavi’s work here.

About CEPI
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated 11 partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes are leveraging rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.

Before the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI’s priority diseases included Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya virus. CEPI also invested in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).

About WHO
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
 
For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube

About ACT-Accelerator
The Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT-Accelerator, is a new, ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It was set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO, European Commission, France and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.

The ACT-Accelerator is not a decision-making body or a new organisation, but works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organisations to end the pandemic. It is a framework for collaboration that has been designed to bring key players around the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible through the accelerated development, equitable allocation, and scaled up delivery of tests, treatments and vaccines, thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the near term. It draws on the experience of leading global health organisations which are tackling the world’s toughest health challenges, and who, by working together, are able to unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID-19. Its members share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it.

The ACT-Accelerator has four areas of work: diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and the health system connector. Cross-cutting all of these is the workstream on Access & Allocation.

COVAX Announces New Agreement, Plans For First Deliveries...

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Brazzaville, 21 January 2021 – While the development and approval of safe and effective vaccines less than a year after the emergence of COVID-19 is a stunning achievement, Africa is in danger of being left behind as countries in other regions strike bilateral deals, driving up prices.

As of early this week 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in 50 mostly high-income countries. However, in Africa, Guinea is the sole low-income nation to provide vaccines and to date these have only been administered to 25 people. Seychelles, which is a high-income country, is the only one on the continent to start a national vaccination campaign.

“We first, not me first, is the only way to end the pandemic. Vaccine hoarding will only prolong the ordeal and delay Africa's recovery. It is deeply unjust that the most vulnerable Africans are forced to wait for vaccines while lower-risk groups in rich countries are made safe,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Health workers and vulnerable people in Africa need urgent access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.”

The COVAX Facility – which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and WHO – has secured 2 billion doses of vaccine from five producers, with options for over 1 billion more doses.

“COVAX is on track to start delivering vaccine doses and begin ensuring global access to vaccines, said Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director, Country Programmes, GAVI.” This massive international undertaking has been made possible thanks to donations, work towards dose-sharing deals and deals with manufacturers that have brought us to almost 2 billion doses secured. We look forward to rollout in the coming weeks."

In Africa, the coalition has committed to vaccinating at least 20% of the population by the end of 2021 by providing a maximum of 600 million doses based on two doses per individual disbursed in phases. An initial 30 million doses are expected to start arriving in countries by March with the aim of covering 3% of the general population, prioritizing mainly healthcare workers and other priority groups and then expanding to cover additional vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. Most of the doses are expected to arrive in the second half of the year. These timelines and quantities could change if candidate vaccines fail to meet regulatory approval or production, delivery and funding face challenges.

To make sure that vaccines are transported and stored adequately to remain effective, WHO, Gavi, UNICEF and other partners are working with countries to support their readiness to receive vaccines by mapping existing cold chain equipment and storage capacity as well as providing technical support for countries to be ready to receive and manage the vaccines.

According to the WHO vaccine introduction readiness assessment tool, African nations are on average 42% ready for their mass-vaccination campaigns, which is an improvement on the starting point of 33% two months ago. However, there is still a long way to go to reach the desired benchmark of 80%.

As the largest vaccine buyer in the world, procuring more than 2 billion doses annually for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries, UNICEF is coordinating and supporting the procurement, international freight and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines for the COVAX Facility. This is the biggest, most sophisticated ground operation in the history of immunization. UNICEF is stockpiling one billion syringes and buying 10 million safety boxes so that used syringes and needles can be disposed in a safe manner by personnel at health facilities, thus preventing the risk of injuries and blood borne diseases.

“UNICEF has put in place a global network of freight forwarders and logistics providers to deliver vaccines as quickly and safely as possible as part of this historic and mammoth operation,” said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director. “This invaluable collaboration will ensure that we have enough transport capacity in place for delivering COVID-19 vaccine doses, syringes and safety boxes to the front-line workers who ultimately protect the millions of children who depend on their vital services.”

All the 54 countries on the continent have expressed interest in the COVAX Facility.  Eight higher and middle-income countries will self-finance their own participation, while lower-middle income and low-income countries will access the vaccines at no cost through the Facility. The vaccines distributed by COVAX will have received WHO Emergency Use Listing authorization and as such will have undergone stringent validation of their safety and effectiveness. However, vaccine nationalism is threatening the COVAX initiative.

The COVAX initiative has raised US $6 billion in pledges but needs an additional US $2.8 billion in 2021 and WHO and partners are urging countries and donors to contribute and help end the pandemic globally.

Dr Moeti spoke during a virtual press conference today facilitated by APO Group. She was joined by Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director, Country Programmes, GAVI, and Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director.

(END)

Africa Needs Timely Access To Safe And Effective COVID-19 Vaccines...

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NEW YORK- Jan. 19, 2021-- ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAC, VIACA) announced today that its highly anticipated streaming service, Paramount+, will launch in the U.S. on Thursday, March 4, 2021.

ViacomCBS will also bring Paramount+ to international markets with initial debuts in Latin America on March 4, 2021; the Nordics on March 25, 2021; and Australia in mid-2021. The CBS All Access service in Canada will be rebranded to Paramount+ on March 4, 2021, and an expanded offering will be available later in the year.

Additionally, the company will host an investor event and issue fourth quarter and full year financial results for the period ending December 31, 2020 on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. The presentation will deliver a comprehensive overview of the company’s streaming strategy, including Paramount+, Pluto TV, and SHOWTIME® OTT.

A webcast of the ViacomCBS investor event can be accessed in the <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fir.viacomcbs.com%2Fevents-webcasts-annual-meetings%23menu&esheet=52363581&newsitemid=20210119005336&lan=en-US&anchor=Events%2C+Webcasts+%26amp%3B+Annual+Meetings&index=1&md5=f44d23882d793aced700731324e6b842" rel="nofollow" shape="rect">Events, Webcasts & Annual Meetings</a> section of ViacomCBS’ <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fir.viacomcbs.com%2F&esheet=52363581&newsitemid=20210119005336&lan=en-US&anchor=Investors&index=2&md5=cac5e0e356c99b6fd190f6e651cefb3d" rel="nofollow" shape="rect">Investors</a> website (<a href="http://ir.viacomcbs.com/">ir.viacomcbs.com</a>) beginning at approximately 4:15 p.m. (ET), following the release of its earnings materials. Virtual doors open at 4:00 p.m. (ET) with early tune in encouraged prior to the start of the event.

The earnings release and materials will be accessible on the Investors home page of ViacomCBS’ website.

A replay of the investor event will be available in the Events, Webcasts & Annual Meetings section of the ViacomCBS’ Investors home page.

About ViacomCBS

ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, its portfolio includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, CBS All Access, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster, among others. The company delivers the largest share of the U.S. television audience and boasts one of the industry’s most important and extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, ViacomCBS provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution and advertising solutions for partners on five continents.

ViacomCBS Announces March 4 Launch Date for Paramount+...

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More than 2,800 scientists from 130 countries gathered on Friday (January 15) in a virtual forum hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify knowledge gaps and set research priorities for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

They discussed the safety and efficacy of existing vaccines and new candidates, ways to optimize limited supply, and the need for additional safety studies.

“The development and approval of several safe and effective vaccines less than a year after this virus was isolated and sequenced is an astounding scientific accomplishment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in his opening remarks. “The approval of the first few vaccines does not mean the job is done. Far from it. More vaccines are in the pipeline, which must be evaluated to ensure we have enough doses to vaccinate everyone.”

More than 30 million vaccine doses have already been administered in 47 mostly high-income countries.

But the global vaccine rollout has exposed glaring inequalities in access to this life-saving tool. Only one of the 47 countries that have started vaccination to date is a low-income country.

“The spirit of collaboration has to prevail in these challenging times as we seek to understand this virus,” said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have to be mindful of the inequalities and we must deliberately promote investment in regional capacities to level the playing field and have meaningful collaboration to begin to address some of the challenges.”

Experts agreed the need for critical research on administering vaccines in different target populations, as well as on vaccination delivery strategies and schedules. This includes trials, modelling and observational studies, all of which would help to inform policy.

They discussed the impact of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants on the efficacy of vaccines, the impact of vaccines on transmission of infection, and the need to develop the next generation of vaccine platforms.

“The world needs multiple vaccines that work in different populations in order to meet global demand and end the COVID-19 outbreak. Ideally, those will be single-dose vaccines that do not require cold chain, could be delivered without a needle and syringe and are amenable to large-scale manufacture,” said Professor Mike Levine, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland.

The meeting concluded with agreement to establish a WHO-hosted platform for global sharing and coordination of emerging vaccine research information on efficacy and safety. The forum would enable scientists to share and discuss unpublished and published data and research protocols to further our collective understanding of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

“The WHO will regularly convene experts from around the world, promote collaborative research, provide standard protocols and develop a platform for sharing the latest knowledge in the field,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist.

Scientists Tackle Vaccine Safety, Efficacy And Access At Global R�...

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Munich. Title successfully defended. The MINI John Cooper Works Buggy has won the Rally Dakar for the second time in a row following the 2020 win . This time it was record winner Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger (FRA) who topped the podium after twelve stages through the Saudi Arabian desert. It was Peterhansel’s 14th overall win at the Dakar, and his third for MINI following his wins in 2012 and 2013. MINI now has a total of six overall wins of the famous endurance rally to its name. Carlos Sainz (ESP) and his co-driver Victor Cruz (ESP), who won in 2020, crossed the finish line in third place with their MINI JCW Buggy this time around.

Peterhansel and Boulanger crossed the finish line of the 43rd edition of the Rally Dakar in Jeddah (KSA) with a lead of 14:51 minutes in the overall standings. The duo only took one stage win, but showed great consistency and didn’t make any major mistakes. Third-placed Sainz and Cruz took three stage wins and had a deficit of 1:01:57 hours to the winners at the end.

Peterhansel added another chapter to his impressive Dakar record. He has now won the rally six times on a motorcycle (1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998) and eight times in a car (2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021). MINI took four consecutive wins with the MINI ALL4 Racing between 2012 and 2015, and now for the second time in a row with the MINI JCW Buggy after 2020.

At this year’s edition, in addition to Peterhansel and Sainz, a third MINI crew finished in the top ten. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS) and Dmitry Tsyro (UKR) crossed the finish line in sixth place in the MINI JCW Rally. A total of eight MINI cars competed in Saudi Arabia in 2021, six of which reached the finish line.

Quotes from Rally Dakar 2021:<a name="_Hlk535531515"></a>

Stéphane Peterhansel

“I’m over the moon with the win. The pressure was immense since we were leading the overall standings for much of the race. You can only lose in that situation. But I have to say, we drove almost a perfect Dakar without any major errors and once again that was the key to success. Things were perfect between Edouard and me, and I was delighted to have him sat next to me. He couldn’t have done anything better.”

Bernd Körber – Head of the MINI brand

“What a fantastic success for the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy, the X-raid team and in particular for Stéphane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger. Congratulations on winning the Dakar! Congratulations to Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz as well, who made it onto the podium again after their win in 2020. Second Dakar win in a row, sixth MINI victory since 2012 - everyone in the MINI family can be very proud of this record. In addition to the Buggy, the MINI John Cooper Works Rally with its four-wheel drive did a very good job once again. I’m happy for all the MINI entrants who took on the toughest endurance rally in the world and made it to the finish line. Unfortunately, this success is overshadowed by the tragic accident involving Pierre Cherpin, which affects us all deeply. We wish the relatives every strength.”

Sven Quandt – CEO X-raid

“It’s never easy winning, but this win was particularly difficult since the terrain is very similar to Africa: fast and slow sectors, with lots of stones – topped off by difficult navigation. We’re delighted to have brought home this sixth win for MINI. We didn’t dare dream of first and third place ahead of the Dakar. The past 14 days have been very tiring: leading the overall standings for much of the rally, the tricky navigation and lots of tyre damage. But once again Stéphane showed that it is not without reason that he is Mr. Dakar. He shone on difficult terrain and drove very cleverly strategically. He only got one day win, but a lead of 14 minutes in the overall standings.”

Rally Dakar 2021 – Sixth overall win for MINI: Record winner Stép...

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NEW YORK & BALTIMORE - ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIACA, VIAC) and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI) (“Sinclair”), today announced multi-year agreements across 13 CBS network affiliations for Sinclair stations, including four top-50 market affiliates, WKRC in Cincinnati, OH, WPEC in West Palm Beach, FL, WWMT in Grand Rapids, MI and WHP in Harrisburg, PA. The 13 markets combined reach about 5% of the U.S. audience serving nearly six million television households.

Sinclair is one of the largest operators of CBS affiliates, reaching 8% of the U.S. and serving 10 million households spanning 23 markets. Sinclair’s CBS affiliates will remain locally available to subscribers of CBS All Access, ViacomCBS’ digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Sinclair that covers several early renewals,” said Ray Hopkins, President, U.S. Networks Distribution, ViacomCBS. “We look forward to providing our best-in-class news, sports and entertainment programming to millions of households in Sinclair markets through our valued and long-standing partnership.”

Barry Faber, President, Distribution & Network Relations for Sinclair, commented: “We are happy to have reached agreement to continue to offer our viewers CBS content, including primetime and sports programming, which complements our stations’ valuable local news and syndicated content. The renewal is testament to the symbiotic relationship between a network and its affiliates.”

The agreement consists of renewals for the following CBS affiliates: WRGB in Albany, NY; KBAK in Bakersfield, CA; KFDM in Beaumont, TX; KBOI in Boise, ID; WKRC in Cincinnati, OH; KDBC in El Paso, TX; KVAL in Eugene, OR; WWMT in Grand Rapids, MI; WHP in Harrisburg, PA; KTVL in Medford, OR; KPTH in Sioux City, IA; WPEC in West Palm Beach, FL; and KIMA in Yakima, WA.

About ViacomCBS

ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, its portfolio includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, CBS All Access, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster, among others. The company delivers the largest share of the US television audience and boasts one of the industry’s most important and extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, ViacomCBS provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution and advertising solutions for partners on five continents.

For more information about ViacomCBS, please visit <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.viacomcbs.com&esheet=52360849&newsitemid=20210113005144&lan=en-US&anchor=www.viacomcbs.com&index=1&md5=52791b05797b572cf2ffe2a4ab71eba6" rel="nofollow" shape="rect">www.viacomcbs.com</a> and follow @ViacomCBS on social platforms.

VIAC-IR

About Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

Sinclair is a diversified media company and leading provider of local sports and news. The Company owns and/or operates 23 regional sports network brands; owns, operates and/or provides services to 190 television stations in 88 markets; is a leading local news provider in the country; owns multiple national networks; and has TV stations affiliated with all the major broadcast networks. Sinclair’s content is delivered via multiple platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and digital platforms. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbgi.net&esheet=52360849&newsitemid=20210113005144&lan=en-US&anchor=www.sbgi.net&index=2&md5=0ddf8c7d15f1beb46dfab8f3bb810837" rel="nofollow" shape="rect">www.sbgi.net</a>.

ViacomCBS and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Announce Affiliation Ag...