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Advent
of Educational Pay
TV by
Judah
Freed Apart
from the educational content broadcast for free to
the public by antenna-based terrestrial
broadcasters (local TV stations), "pay TV" services
also have gained a large market share by delivering
educational content. Cable, satellite and
microwave system operators are offering single
educational programs and series that fit into a
school curriculum rather than end-to-end
telecourses. They have steadily gained market share
by delivering superior video quality than broadcast
TV, and by offering multichannel services.
Two world champions in
educational TV content production are Jones
International and Discovery Communications. Let's
look at each. Glenn Jones bought
his first Colorado cable TV system in 1967 using
$400 borrowed against his Volkswagen. From that
tiny mountain community system, he's built a global
cablecasting empire by organizing public limited
partnerships to raise more than $1 billion in
capital to acquire of local cable systems. More
recently, Jones began selling off his local systems
to become only a programming supplier, including a
major radio programming service. He's now chiefly
pursuing his first love -- education. In 1987, Jones launched
Mind Extension University, M/EU, a cable channel
carrying varied educational programming, much of it
for participating colleges and universities linked
to M/EU students through the Jones College
Connection. The advent of the Internet helped
facilitate communication in these telecourses.
Ten years later, in 1997,
M/EU was rebranded as Knowledge TV for carriage in
the US and Europe as a source of programs for
college students and adult home learners who want
to extend their minds. Jones seems to be putting
all his eggs into the Knowledge TV basket. This
effort is now called Jones International
University, the world's first fully accredited
degree-granting 100 pecent online acadamic
institution. A rival pay TV service is
The Discovery Channel, founded in 1985 by John
Hendricks. Acting on his vision of a channel
offering quality documentaries. After years of
being rejected by potential investors, Hendricks
finally obtained finacial backing from Westinghouse
Group W Satellite, New York Life and others. He
showed the business case for a basic cable channel
deftly targeting the highest common denominator
among subscribers. Think advertising. Hendricks broke ground by
proving that ideals are profitable if backed by
sound business principles. His argument that since
won investments from hardnosed cable operators like
TCI, United, Cox, and other major players in or out
of cable. Since negotiating
contracts delivering Discovery to seven million
U.S. households in its very first year of
operations, Discovery's audience has grown until
today's tally surpassing 60 million cable and
satellite viewers worldwide. Where once Hendricks
obtained rights to others' work, Discovery now
commissions tis very award-winning original
documentaries. Journalistic accuracy and
high production values of Discovery documentaries
have earned the programs a place in the curriculum
of numerous educational institutions, from grade
schools through graduate schools. Discovery
recently launched derivative niche programming
services, like The Learning Channel, and the
initial response looks good. Another American pay TV
player with global importance is Ted Turner, now
part of the Time-Warner team, creator of
superstation TBS and the Cable News Network (CNN).
He overcame endless skepticism to establish CNN as
the world's leading news service (chiefly through
the Gulf War). CNN recently launched a K12 school
service in the USA under the umbrella of Cable in
the Classroom, Cable in the Classroom is
important. A coalition of cable companies provides
content that teachers can record and replay,
royalty free, to educate students from kindergarten
through high school, enacting a genuine commitment
to public education within the cable industry.
Cable in the Classroom reaches more than 90 percent
of the public primary and secondary schools in the
United States. These ventures represent
only the tip of the iceberg, of course, yet the
trend is clear. Subscrption TV services have played
and will continue to play a vital role in the
evolution of educational media. (c)
1998-2005
by
Judah Ken
Freed.
Based on the book, Financial
Opportunities in Educational
Television, .
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