A&E Television Networks Announces Creation of History Education(TM)

A&E Television Networks Announces Creation of History Education(TM)

New Brand Created to Develop and Sell Educational Resources

The History Channel(R) Multimedia Classroom Product Line Launches February 10th

NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- After months of research and development, A&E Television Networks (AETN) has announced the formation of HISTORY EDUCATION(TM), a new business venture that develops and sells resources for schools and community colleges. An extension of The History Channel(R), History Education offers a new multimedia product line based on the network's acclaimed programming that challenges, inspires and encourages the love of learning.

The first release under the History Education brand is The History Channel Multimedia Classroom, a set of new social studies teaching tools that are specifically correlated to meet national and individual state curriculum requirements. Created for students in Middle School through Junior College, each lesson plan combines short clips of original programming with primary source documents, discussion questions, extended activities, maps and images, and suggested reading lists. The lesson plan components, in CD-Rom format (both PC and Mac compatible), are paired with closed-captioned DVD versions of the full-length programs on which they are based.

The History Channel Multimedia Classroom product line will launch on February 10, 2006 with American History, a comprehensive set spanning six distinct periods in the history of our nation. The American History set is comprised of 21 lesson plans within six subsets including Founding of a Nation, Early Expansion, Nation in Conflict, America in Transition, Years of Crisis, and New World Order.

"Over the years, it has been the mission of AETN and The History Channel to actively support teachers' and parents' efforts to bring history alive for students in the classroom and at home," said Dr. Libby O'Connell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Outreach and Chief Historian, AETN. "History Education is a culmination of the company's major effort to ensure that the finest multimedia tools are developed, presenting history lessons in an easy-to-use format."

The set, packaged together in an elegant, classroom ready collector's box, is designed to offer maximum flexibility. Teachers can select entire plans or only the elements they need, allowing them to individually tailor each lesson.

"One of AETN's primary goals for the History Education product was to create the richest, most expansive teaching tools but at an affordable price." said Andrew Wise, Vice President, Consumer Products, AETN. "We believe that a wide variety of students at a diverse range of educational levels will greatly benefit from this multimedia offering."

The entire American History set, which includes 29 DVDs along with the 21 CD-ROM lesson plans, is $849.00, a 15% savings off the individual volume prices, and can be ordered through http://www.history.com/education. In order to offer teachers and parents an opportunity to sample The History Channel Multimedia Classroom Product, AETN is offering Ben Franklin, a single title from the American History set, at a discounted rate of $24.95. The six American History subsets can also be purchased separately. The price of each subset varies according to the number of disks in each set, but ranges from $119.00 to $199.00 per set.

Three new Multimedia Classroom products scheduled to be issued later in 2006, include The U.S. Presidents, Global History, and Diversity in America.

A&E Television Networks, a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, ABC, Inc. and NBC Universal, is an award-winning, international media company offering consumers a diverse communications environment ranging from television programming, to home videos/DVDs and music CDs, to Web sites, as well as supporting nationwide educational initiatives. AETN is comprised of A&E Network(R), The History Channel, History International(R), The Biography Channel(R), Military History Channel(TM), The History Channel en espanol(TM), Crime & Investigation Network(TM), AETN International, and AETN Consumer Products. The A&E web site is located at http://www.aetv.com/, the Biography web site is located at http://www.biography.com/ and The History Channel web site is located at http://www.history.com/.

Source: The History Channel

CONTACT: Susan Raisch, +1-718-667-5576, sraisch@verizon.net, or Kerri
Tarmey, +1-212-551-1504, Kerri.tarmey@aetn.com

Web site: http://www.aetv.com/
http://www.shopaetv.com/
http://www.history.com/
http://www.biography.com/

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