ResearchChannel Launches Nationwide on EchoStar's Dish 500 Network

Viewers Gain "Front Row Seats" to the Latest Scientific Reports from Country's Leading Research Institutions

Seattle, WA, February 2, 2000--The ResearchChannel, the nation's first round-the-clock research television/Internet channel produced by the country's most highly acclaimed research institutions, is now transmitting its original programming to public audiences via EchoStar's Dish 500 Network on channel 9400.

Institutions providing high quality programming for ResearchChannel's premiere include Duke University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rice University, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, University of Colorado, University of Hawaii, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas-Austin, University of Virginia, and University of Washington. Programming includes public and exclusive presentations, interviews, and fieldwork featuring leading researchers and Nobel laureates representing work that runs the gamut of studies at research institutions across the country.

"The high quality coverage on the ResearchChannel offers research institutions the opportunity to share a more candid and accurate point of view of research," said Gene Block, vice president for research and public service, University of Virginia. "This exposure can change people's perspective on the methodological process of science - not through short sound bites, but through more thorough understanding and more facts."

Viewers will have the unique opportunity to access information as it is reported and described by the scientists involved in research endeavors - from astronomy, medicine, computer science and engineering, and oceanography to politics, childhood development, arts and literature, law, criminology, and much more.

"The launch of the ResearchChannel ushers in a new era of public access to the research that serves as the foundation of our country's development and prosperity," said Ed Lazowska, professor and chair, department of computer science and engineering, University of Washington. "The founders of the ResearchChannel are to be congratulated for this unprecedented effort that contributes a significant resource to our national dialogue and public understanding of research."

The ResearchChannel is an initiative established in 1996 by a consortium of leading research institutions with the goals of creating direct access to public audiences with information about the plethora of research and development activities in progress across the country - and to experiment with new technologies to make this possible.

In addition to traditional satellite distribution technologies, programs are available through ResearchChannel's website as regular webcasts and searchable on-demand video. The ResearchChannel uses its experiments to ensure the highest quality distribution of better-than-broadcast quality video over the Internet, and continues to break ground in areas such as video transfer over the "next generation" Internet. Generous support for ResearchChannel's experiments and development is made possible by the participation of corporate research centers including Sony Electronics, Inc. and IBM Corp.

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About ResearchChannel
ResearchChannel links a growing global audience to the revolutionary developments, insights and discoveries of leading research and academic institutions through online, on-air and on-demand video distribution formats. Founded as a way to share breakthrough research with the public, the ResearchChannel consortium includes world-renowned universities and research institutions. Video programming ranging from technology and science innovations to fascinating arts and humanities topics is shared in its original form and without interruption.

To receive the ResearchChannel via satellite: EchoStar's DISH 500 Network, 1-800-333-DISH.

To receive the ResearchChannel webcasts and on-demand video: www.researchchannel.org

Visit the ResearchChannel at booth 122 at the AAAS Annual Meeting and Science Innovations Exposition in Washington, DC, Feb 17-22: www.aaas.org/meetings/2000/