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Department announces preferred bidder for new Teachers TV contract

DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES News Release (2008/0050) issued by The Government News Network on 14 March 2008

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has announced the preferred bidder for the contract to deliver Teachers TV.

Education Digital 2, a consortium of Ten Alps PLC and ITN, is in final negotiations over the £50m five-year contract to provide high quality news, information and resources to people who work in schools.

Schools Minister, Jim Knight, said:

"The next few years will be an exciting time for the Teachers TV service. We will build on the existing success of the channel and begin the important transition to a service which will take full advantage of the opportunities presented by on-demand and web based delivery."

Teachers TV was launched on 8th February 2005. It is available 24 hours per day to viewers across the UK on Sky, Virgin Media and Tiscali TV and on Freeview from 4-5pm daily.

Programmes are also made available through the channel's website at http://www.teachers.tv. More than 2,000 complete programmes are available to view on demand through the web site and this number grows weekly.

NOTES TO EDITORS

* The current contract for delivering Teachers TV with Education Digital ends on 31 August 2008. A full procurement exercise was taken forward following EU procurement rules.

* The objective of the channel is to raise standards in schools by providing continuing professional development materials, news and debate from the education sector, and access to TV-based classroom resources.

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