Discovery Communications, Inc. Announces Acquisition of United Learning, Inc.; Positions Discovery as Leader in Educational Media 9/4/2003
From: David Leavy, 240-662-3653 or Pat Lute, 240-662-2901, both of Discovery Communications SILVER SPRING, Md., Sept. 4 -- Discovery Communications, Inc. (DCI), the leading global real-world media and entertainment company, announced today the acquisition of United Learning, a leading producer and distributor of audiovisual educational products and services based in Evanston, Ill. Its acquisition of United Learning, combined with the existing in-school activities of Discovery Channel School, position Discovery as an innovator and leader in providing schools with media content in digital formats that both engages students and improves their academic performance. DCI President and COO Judith A. McHale made the announcement. "United Learning will expand the strength of Discovery Channel School and be a strategic complement to our educational content portfolio. Our goal is to provide educators with the best video-based content possible. The content and technologies developed by United Learning allow us to do that and to significantly improve students' classroom experience," said Ms. McHale. United Learning was founded in 1954 by Gilbert Altschul and recently named one of the most innovative companies in the education market today. In addition to offering hard copy and digital video content in all core curriculum areas, United Learning is a recognized leader in the prevention education arena focusing on building social skills in youth to prevent violence and drug abuse. The company also produces nutrition and parenting video-based programs for Women, Infant & Children (WIC) clinics nationally. In 2001, United Learning launched unitedstreaming(tm), a subscription-based, Internet-delivered application, that has been shown by scientific research to increase student achievement by an average of 12.6 percent and was presented to a Congressional Committee as a model of the No Child Left Behind Legislation. unitedstreaming delivers more than 2,000 core-curriculum, standards-based videos, lesson plans, teacher resources, and student activities on-demand to any computer with an Internet connection. Videos have been divided into clips to reflect concepts within the national standards for science, math, social studies, language arts, and health. Over 24,000 schools currently subscribe to unitedstreaming. "The mission of United Learning is to help people of all ages learn and stay healthy. Being part of the Discovery Communications family will allow us to reach more educators and students with high quality content and to have a greater impact on student achievement and well being," said Joel Altschul, chairman and CEO, United Learning. Discovery Channel School is a leading provider of media content to America's classrooms, offering teachers a growing line of educational video, print, and multi-media resources. Drawing much of its content from Discovery Networks programming, its product line includes more than 600 videos, CD-ROMs and print resources tailor-made for use in todays classrooms. Discovery Channel School products reach 90,000 K-12 schools, 1.5 million teachers, and benefit 35 million students each year. Discovery's educational initiatives have received numerous honors including several Distinguished Achievement awards from the Association of Educational Publishers and a Daytime Emmy nomination for its public service classroom series Assignment Discovery. Its free Internet service Discoveryschool.com remains one of the most highly trafficked education-focused websites and has been cited by the Wall Street Journal and other publications as one of the best online destinations for homework help. "The acquisition of United Learning and their unitedstreaming service opens the door for Discovery Channel School to compete in the large and growing markets for web-based services, educational software, continuing education and advanced broadband applications," said Michela English, president, Discovery Consumer Products. Students and teachers are constantly searching for high-quality, accessible formats across a broad spectrum of core curriculum and elective topics. Our challenge will be to use the combined resources of Discovery and United Learning to deliver the most engaging educational content in the most user-friendly formats that make learning both enjoyable and effective." Discovery Communications, Inc. is the leading global real-world media and entertainment company. DCI has grown from its core property, the Discovery Channel, first launched in the United States in 1985, to current global operations in more than 155 countries and territories with over 950 million cumulative subscribers. DCIs 33 networks of distinctive programming represent 14 entertainment brands including TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Discovery Wings Channel, Discovery Home & Leisure Channel, Discovery en Espanol, HD Theater and The Health Network. DCIs other properties consist of Discovery.com and 138 Discovery Channel retail stores. DCI also distributes BBC America in the United States. DCIs ownership consists of four shareholders: Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L), Cox Communications, Inc. (NYSE: COX), Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, the Companys founder, chairman and CEO. unitedstreaming is a multiple award-winning, digital content delivery application that offers more than 20,000 core-curriculum, standards-based video clips, lesson plans, and assessments in science, social studies, math, language arts, and health, with extensive professional development and implementation support available. Newly enhanced this year, unitedstreaming now features a historical calendar coordinated to video clips, a high-resolution image library and extensive interactive quiz center. The application is available in more than 24,000 schools, and to more than 9 million students across the United States. Video content developers include United Learning, Slim Goodbody Productions, Discovery Channel School, Standard Deviants, Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, Weston Woods, TV Ontario, Environmental Media Corporation, Sunburst Communications, Rainbow Educational Media and Comprehensive Health Education Foundation. Recent unitedstreaming awards include: -- eSchool News Reader's Choice Award for Best Cross-Curricular Video Service -- Streaming Magazine Readers Choice Award for Best in Educational Streaming Deployment, March 2003 -- Media & Methods Awards Portfolio 2003 Winner -- ComputED's 2002-03 Best Educational Software Award -- Instructor Magazine perfect 10 product rating, March 2003 -- eSchool News Best Practice, December 2002 United Learning was founded in 1954 to bring high quality educational content into the K-12 classroom. The company, based in Evanston, Ill., now offers more than 5,000 core-curriculum educational videos as well as being a leading provider of health and prevention programs for schools and communities. United Learning reaches customers in all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The United Learning website offers a searchable database of standards-based titles in science, social studies, math, language arts, guidance, and health for the school and higher education markets. United Learning's content is delivered on VHS, DVD, and video-on-demand streaming and video-on-demand downloading from www.unitedstreaming.com. For more information, visit http://www.unitedlearning.com or phone 800-323-9084. | |