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Contact: Paul Moniz
Widmeyer Communications
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Paul.Moniz@widmeyer.com

Films Media Group Launches FMG ON DEMAND
Proprietary Digital Delivery System To Offer Maximum Flexibility, Superior Compression Technology, Rich Content and Array of Delivery Options for Colleges

Lawrenceville, NJ - September 15, 2005 - Films Media Group, North America’s leader in educational video, announced today that it is launching FMG ON DEMAND, a proprietary digital video system offering colleges and universities access to the superior content offerings of FMG’s quality collection of programs.

FMG ON DEMAND currently has 2,000 titles from leading producers and broadcasters including PBS, BBC and ABC News available through digital delivery, adding about 200 new titles each month. FMG’s Films for the Humanities & Sciences brand is tailored specifically for college-level educators, making ON DEMAND the only digital delivery provider with titles for colleges, universities and community colleges.

In an age when college campuses are heavily wired, savvy students expect their institutions of higher learning to offer the latest technology both inside and outside the classroom. And colleges are responding. The 2004 Campus Computing Survey of more than 500 colleges and community colleges indicates nearly half (47.4%) of private four-year colleges and more than one-third (37.3%) of community colleges have increased funding for academic computing in the current budget cycle. Information Technology departments will clearly need quality programming to take advantage of increasingly robust infrastructure.

To maximize efficiency of FMG ON DEMAND, faculty members have the option of choosing individual ON DEMAND titles, bundled “libraries” or every title offered by FMG. The titles can either be leased for a period of one to three years or purchased outright, an option that only FMG offers. FMG also provides the cost-saving option of paying only for those titles educators want rather than buying a “content package,” likely to include videos never to be watched.

“We designed FMG ON DEMAND to meet the needs of educators,” said Wendy Collins, FMG’s director of digital strategies. “We wanted to make sure that educators know they have complete control over their choice of content and how they receive it. While some higher learning institutions may want access to all of our titles, we understand that there are others that may have specific needs for which our entire catalog isn’t necessary. Regardless of the titles they choose, ON DEMAND offers the most state-of-the art, high resolution streaming capabilities for any professor who needs immediate access to any title in our catalog.”

Often-cited research by Wiman and Mierhenry has shown that people retain only about 10 percent of what they read, but 50 percent of what they see and hear. A report entitled Television Goes to School by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting points out that video enhances student comprehension and discussion of content, better accommodating diverse learning styles and increasing student motivation for learning. The evidence that video can facilitate learning is overwhelming.

"Faculty members who teach in smart classrooms or online rely on viable media content to add depth and quality to their instructional content,” says Jane Hutchinson, Associate Director of Instruction & Research Technology at William Paterson University. “In the past, we had to settle for using media either in a linear fashion or through chapters, but FMG ON DEMAND provides the ability for faculty to customize this content to suit their own instructional needs any place, any time."

All FMG ON DEMAND titles contain predefined learning objects. Learning objects are individual segments from videos that can be integrated into lectures and presentations to demonstrate or reinforce a concept, avoiding the hassle of “queuing” up that is necessary with videos and DVDs. In addition, educators can create their own learning objects using tools within FMG ON DEMAND to designate start and stop points, allowing them to customize the segment to their teaching needs.

Educators can also create personal playlists, incorporating learning objects from various titles to suit their syllabus. During a typical class, this makes efficient use of time. With FMG ON DEMAND, professors don’t waste an entire class watching a single video when they can isolate the most relevant portions in seconds or minutes. Another big selling point is that FMG ON DEMAND allows professors to give their students access to their playlists using a code, so students can view programming at home, a study hall or any location that supplies internet access. This allows maximum flexibility and saves valuable classroom time.

An increasing number of higher education institutions are using digital video as a teaching tool, with ease of access and variety of content major factors in their selection of a vendor. FMG ON DEMAND offers three options for digital delivery, giving colleges, universities and community colleges the freedom to choose the method that works best with their existing technology. Content can be:

• Streamed over the Internet for real-time playback on demand on both Apple’s Quick Time and Microsoft’s Windows Media Player to an individual classroom’s computer
• Downloaded from the Internet to be stored on to a college’s server for playback over its local area network
• Pre-loaded on to a hard drive and delivered to the college where it can be connected to the local area network for playback.

Video streamed over the Internet can be accessed at 300 Kbps. If accessed from a local area network, DVD quality 1.2 Mbps files are available.

Sign up for a free trial: http://www.fmgondemand.com/PortalFreeTrial.aspx/c_LCY
View interactive Flash tutorials: http://www.fmgondemand.com/PortalTrainingCenter.aspx/c_LCY
Read the User's Guide: http://www.fmgondemand.com/PortalTechCenter.aspx/c_LCY

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About Films Media Group: A PRIMEDIA company based in Lawrenceville, NJ, Films Media Group (FMG) is North America’s leading source of high-quality educational media products to schools, colleges, libraries, and other institutions. The FMG brand family includes Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education, and Shopware.

FMG’s collection of programs—more than 12,000 titles from many of the world’s best-known producers and broadcasters—provides educators with an unparalleled choice of topics and a multifaceted content delivery approach that includes DVD, VHS, MPEG, and FMG ON DEMAND.