Library Video Company and SAFARI Video Networks Announce an Unprecedented Major Industry Alliance Among the Premier Educational Video Publishers

Business Wire, June 27, 2005

PHILADELPHIA -- Library Video Company

Extraordinary Alliance Will Bring Scholastic, Weston Woods Studios,
Disney Educational Productions, A&E Home Video and National Geographic
    Digital Content Directly Into School Classrooms and Libraries -
            Joining PBS, WGBH Boston and Schlessinger Media

Library Video Company and SAFARI Video Networks announced today an unprecedented distribution agreement with the leading educational video publishers in the world. Scholastic, Weston Woods Studios, BBC, Disney Educational Productions, A&E Home Video and National Geographic are the latest publishers to join the esteemed PBS, the Boston public broadcasting producer, WGBH, and Schlessinger Media on SAFARI Montage - a broadcast-quality, plug & play video server for every school. This alliance brings even more premier educational programs to schools in a digital format.

Library Video Company's new Video-on-Demand server, SAFARI Montage, will provide schools with digital access to their choice of educational video content, including preeminent educational series such as Scholastic's Magic School Bus, Dear America and Royal Diaries; Weston Woods Studios' Chrysanthemum, Miss Nelson Has a Field Day and The Mouse and the Motorcycle; the BBC's Eyewitness and Walking With Dinosaurs; Disney Educational Productions' Bill Nye the Science Guy and ABC News Classroom Edition; A&E Home Video's History Channel and Biography; and National Geographic's distinguished library of programs - including videos made specifically for the classroom - in addition to the previously announced PBS's Ken Burns' The Civil War, Cyberchase and WGBH's Arthur, NOVA, American Experience, Frontline and Between the Lions. The SAFARI Montage server will reside in the school media center or computer room, and it can be expanded to accommodate more programming and, ultimately, self-created content.

The SAFARI Montage server avoids the problems associated with streaming, comes preloaded with programs, fully segmented, and also allows teachers to "bookmark" particular segments for classroom use. Additionally, this content will be indexed and correlated to state curriculum standards.

"We are honored and humbled by the overwhelming support shown for SAFARI Montage by the world's most distinguished educational brands. The latest agreements with Scholastic, Weston Woods Studios, BBC, A&E Home Video, Disney Educational Productions and National Geographic to join SAFARI Montage along with PBS, WGBH Boston and Schlessinger Media, are only the beginning of a multitude of publishers planned for SAFARI Montage," said Andrew Schlessinger, President and CEO of Library Video Company. "Every school in the U.S. and Canada is going to want to have access to the finest selection of educational programs from these preeminent publishers, in addition to Schlessinger Media programs," he added.

"National Geographic serves educators with a range of outstanding products, and we are extremely pleased to add our digital video to Library Video Company's new SAFARI Montage server," said Matthew White, Executive Vice President, digital markets, for National Geographic Digital Media. "Our award-winning programming covers a diverse range of subject matter, including natural history, science, archaeology, and other subjects of superior educational value from locations across the globe. It provides an important contextual backdrop for students to learn more about their world."

"We are very excited to be working with Library Video Company/SAFARI Video Networks as we enter into the digital delivery arena," said Steve Miller, Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Planning at Disney Publishing Worldwide. "We are pleased to be in the company of such well-respected educational publishers."

"This is an exciting relationship for A&E Home Video and our exclusive worldwide distributor, New Video Group. We're delighted to be able to provide educators a new way of accessing our acclaimed library of educational programming," said Kate Winn, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for A&E Home Video.

"Weston Woods is excited about this new partnership with Library Video Company/SAFARI Video Networks, as we view this as an excellent opportunity to further extend the mission of Weston Woods to instill a lifelong love of books and reading in children," said Linda Lee, Vice President and General Manager.

"Educators are an absolutely essential audience for PBS, and we're looking forward to both teachers and school library media specialists having unprecedented in-school access to our award-winning content through SAFARI Video Networks," said Andrea Downing, Vice President, PBS Consumer Products. "A recent Grunwald Associates survey showed that teachers pick PBS as their top classroom choice for TV content, and this agreement will help make it even easier for them to provide PBS resources to the nation's students."

"We are delighted to be working with Library Video Company and SAFARI Video Networks," said David Bernstein, Vice President and General Manager of WGBH Enterprises. "Through this partnership and the technology developed by Library Video and SAFARI, WGBH's award-winning programming and ancillary materials will be more broadly available to, and easily accessed by, the educational community and the students they serve."