After over one year of research and development in the United Kingdom,  the Open Student Television Network (OSTN), the first and only 24/7 global television network exclusively devoted to student-produced programming, announced today the launch of OSTN UK, the first and only 24/ channel devoted exclusively to student-produced programming from the United Kingdom.

Funded by the CampusEAI Consortium, a non-profit international consortium of universities, OSTN was first launched in the United States in 2005 in collaboration with Internet2, the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. OSTN's mission is to to provide opportunites for students through for students through resources, community, exposure and experience. Over the past three years OSTN has been recognized as the minor league of Hollywood; a showcase for the best student talent.

In July of 2007 OSTN formed a collaboration with JANET, a network that connects the UK's education and research organisations to each other, to distribute OSTN to all of the JANET member higher education institutions and to aggregate student-produced programming from institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this collaboration is not only to give students access to a whole host of vibrant new resources but also to encourage collaboration across campus and indeed the whole education.

Based on the interest from institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom since July 2007, and the volume of student-produced programming being generated from student unions, film, and journalism schools in the United Kingdom, OSTN launched OSTN UK, the first and only 24/7 television channel devoted exclusively to student-produced programming from the United Kingdom.

OSTN UK's current 24/7 programming schedule includes a variety of genres such as college-themed soap operas, student-produced dating shows, controversial talk shows, cutting edge digital animation, telling documentaries from a number of National Student Television Association (NASTA) member institutions including NerveTV from Bournemouth,, Loose TV of the London School of Economics, and LSU TV of Loughborough University. In addition, OSTN UK also features OSTN News, the first international collegiate news show where the students report the hottest stories from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The OSTN UK channel is currently available to over 18 million students at over 200 university JANET member higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. Many JANET members are already receiving OSTN UK successfully including Leeds University, Oxford Brookes University, University College of Falmouth, and Lancaster University. The channel can be viewed in broadcast-quality on personal computers.  OSTN UK is also delivered to OSTN's over 60 million subscribers that have access to OSTN in 45 counties outside of the United Kingdom such as the United States and Canada.