ResearchChannel Leading iTunes U Downloads List

Free online educational video site proves popular on YouTube, iTunes U

SEATTLE, March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ResearchChannel's recent entree into iTunes U and YouTube platforms is quickly making ResearchChannel the Web's most popular free online educational video site.

ResearchChannel is proud to claim more top spots among iTunes U's most popular downloads list than any other iTunes U participant. Since launching in late January, as many as 18 of the top 100 videos on iTunes U have been ResearchChannel programs. In just one month, visitors to the site downloaded more than 117,000 ResearchChannel videos. Many of these visitors demonstrated intense interest in the subject matter and programs by downloading entire series at once.

ResearchChannel has also seen a tremendous response since the debut of its new YouTube channel one month ago. Already, almost 2,000 people have visited the new channel and watched ResearchChannel videos nearly 20,000 times.

The National Science Foundation, which joined the ResearchChannel consortium last year, recognizes ResearchChannel's expanding online, on-air and on-demand distribution outlets. To help fulfill their goal to communicate to the public the relevance and importance of scientific and technical topics, the Foundation plans to provide to ResearchChannel up to 150 hours of programming each year.

"This exciting response from iTunes U and YouTube users demonstrates that there is clearly an appetite for this type of information in the public at large," Jeff Nesbit, director of the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs at NSF said. "NSF's broader impacts policy is designed to make science and research that NSF funds available to the public, so it's rewarding to see that validation with numbers like these."

In addition to producing its own programming, the National Science Foundation encourages NSF-funded researchers to submit programming to ResearchChannel to fulfill their obligation to demonstrate the broader impact of their publicly-funded science research. This obligation was established by Congress in 1997, and researchers can fulfill this requirement by broadly disseminating research findings to enhance the public's understanding of the relevance and importance of their project.

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. ResearchChannel programs are available though satellite and many local cable TV providers, and online as both live and video-on-demand streaming at http://www.researchchannel.org.