Blinkx Evri partnership

Wednesday 29 September, 2010

Blinkx Plc
Blinkx Evri partnership
RNS Number : 4938T
Blinkx Plc
29 September 2010




blinkx Partners with Evri to Power Video for New iPhone and Android Applications



Evri's New Suite of Content Discovery Apps Tap blinkx's Mobile Video Index for Content from Premium Sources



SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.-Sept 29, 2010-blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced a partnership with Evri, the real-time content discovery engine. Under the terms of the agreement, Evri's exciting new multimedia apps, including EvriThing Tech, EvriThing Gossip and EvriThing Baseball, will be enhanced by video from blinkx's Mobile Video Index, which contains millions of videos from an extensive network of top-tier content providers.



As the universe of digital content available to consumers continues to expand exponentially, the need for intelligent technology that helps us search, filter and present this content in a meaningful way becomes ever more important. Evri solves this challenge by applying its unique semantic capabilities to analyze thousands of Web sources, categorize them and then deliver the most compelling, relevant content to consumers through a suite of topic-based apps. The "EvriThing" apps, which include gossip, sports and music-oriented options, deliver a compelling multimedia experience-articles, blog posts, photos and videos from blinkx-to mobile devices.



"Video streaming is the fastest-growing mobile activity, and there's a tremendous consumer demand for rich media apps," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "Evri's unique technology enables them to deliver a highly compelling multimedia experience to mobile audiences, and we're delighted to be powering the video component of their new suite of apps."



"By partnering with blinkx, we're able to tap into a rich and varied library of mobile video to complement and enhance the real-time content streams in our apps," said Evri CEO Will Hunsinger.

"Evri aggregates and sorts through thousands of sources to deliver the best, most relevant information to our audience, and blinkx's premium video content rounds out our multimedia offering perfectly."



As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has made more than 720 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.



About blinkx

blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 35 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx's founders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.



About Evri

Evri (www.evri.com) automates how content is understood, filtered and shared, allowing consumers to discover the content that matter most to them. With millions of real-time topical streams across thousands of categories, Evri is rapidly improving consumers' access to information. Evri is based in Seattle, WA, and San Francisco, CA and is funded by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital. More information is available at www.evri.com.



Press Contacts for blinkx

Nicole Love

Marlin PR

+44 207 869 8328

nicole.love@marlinpr.com



Tim Turpin

Sparkpr

+1 (415) 321 1894

tim.turpin@sparkpr.com



Charles Lytle

Christopher Wren

Citigroup Global Markets Ltd

NOMAD and Broker for blinkx plc

+44 207 986 9756



Press Contact for Evri

Mallory Thompson

Hill & Knowlton

+1 (206) 441 7213

mallory.thompson@hillandknowlton.com



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

Sony Ericsson confirms Symbian spurning

Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it has no plans to make more handsets based on Symbian, which shouldn't surprise anyone but is still bad news for the dominant smartphone OS.

Sony Ericsson did make some nice Symbian handsets in its time, but had clearly moved over to Android along with most of the industry (Nokia excepted), so the comments made to Bloomberg come as less of a change and more the final closing of the door that some hoped had been left ajar....

from The Register

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Comment: Even more handsets for Blinkx Android apps to run on. Luvverly...

TV Ad Market Picks Up

Building on strong gains in the second quarter, two top cable-programming executives said last week that the domestic advertising market continues to show signs of life and that momentum should continue for the rest of the year....

At Time Warner, which includes cable powerhouses CNN, TBS and TNT, chief financial officer John Martin said that the ad market continues to be “really strong,” adding that scatter pricing is up 20% in some cases over the upfront.

The two men differed slightly in their approaches to online video distribution, with Martin predictably embracing the TV Everywhere concept pioneered by Time Warner and Comcast and Dauman taking a more wait and see attitude.

“I can’t remember a time when our content had more demand around it. There are more and more players that want to help us try to monetize our content,” Martin said at Communacopia. “We have a very strong view that digital is going to be good for our business.” ...

from MultiChannel News

Blinkx -- don't miss it

THE young head of a high-flying Cambridge
technology spin-out company has spoken exclusively
to Business about its success, and its future.

Cambridge University-educated Suranga
Chandratillake is the chief executive of Blinkx, which
was launched five years ago as an offshoot of
Autonomy.

Five years on, the company has grown from a staff
complement of four to 120, a third of whom are
based on the Cambridge Science Park. Its annual
turnover is £20m – and it is worth £350m.

The business idea that has triggered such
phenomenal growth is a search engine, called Blinkx,
which trawls the internet for video content...

from Cambridge-News.co.uk

BlackBerry tablet ready to take on Apple iPad

Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, is expected to unveil a tablet computer as early as next week. Dubbed the “Blackpad” inside RIM, it is expected to go on sale before Christmas...

from This Is London

Secret Apple deal hints at TV future

Secretive Apple has inked a secretive deal with a major entertainment-info supplier that has revived speculation that Cupertino is readying a living-room putsch push far more aggressive than its Jobsian hobby, the Apple TV.

"We believe this announcement is further evidence that Apple is developing live TV and DVR features for its Apple TV product," wrote Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in a research note to his clients Monday, "and will likely launch an all-in-one Apple Television in the next 2-4 years."..

from The Register

91% of all online video advertising is being noticed...

[click for larger image]

From New Media Age, 15th September 2010

SeeSaw marcomms

[click for larger image]

This popped into my email inbox yesterday...

A Mouse Maker Stakes Its Future on TV Sets

Gerald Quindlen, chief executive officer of Logitech International (LOGI), looked around in early 2009 and saw that the Swiss maker of keyboards and mice faced a grim future. Sales of desktop PCs were falling as smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices captured consumers' fancy. Most of those products don't require the computer peripherals that make up 89 percent of Logitech's sales.

After giving thought to adding digital accesories such as iPad cases, the American-born CEO decided to team up with Intel (INTC) and Google (GOOG) on a $300 book-size black box called Revue. The gadget, set to debut in October, will be the first product to use Google's software for flowing content off the Web onto a regular TV set...

from Bloomberg Business Week

Ioko secures Samsung web-TV accreditation

14 September, 2010 | By Will Strauss

Sky Player and SeeSaw developer Ioko has announced that it is teaming up with Samsung to develop direct-to-TV web applications for its TV sets.


The accreditation will allow Ioko to help content providers take advantage of the growing market for web-connected TVs.

It is the first time that the digital media systems integrator has joined forces with a consumer electronics device manufacturer.

Ioko recently developed the H.264 video player for Samsung TVs that provides web-based access to movie service LOVEFiLM.

Ioko vice president of media solutions Fearghal Kelly said: “With the market for internet-connected TVs poised for take off, our tie up with Samsun is hugely strategic for us.

“As we’ve seen with LOVEFiLM’s direct-to-TV service, there’s a growing appetite from consumers to access on-demand programming on their TVs and, with Samsung’s range of Internet@TV sets, the devices are available to meet this demand. Ioko will help content providers capitalise on these emerging and lucrative routes to market.”

from Broadcast

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Comment: Small world - I contracted for Ioko for a few months about two years ago...

Piper Jaffray: Android Army’s Victory Over iPhone Inevitable

"The battle for dominance in the smartphone market will shake out in the next five years and when it’s finished, Google (GOOG), not Apple (AAPL), will emerge the victor. That’s the outlook from Piper Jaffray which sees Google’s Android OS aggressively capturing market share in the years ahead..."

from Digital Daily

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Comment: Mind you, if PJ's (wildly wrong) predictions about the Blinkx share price are any guide to their wider analytical prowess, I wouldn't attach too much significance to it...

Is Android Only Surging Because Apple Is Letting It?

This weekend, I’ve been catching up on some reading. One post that was of particular interest to me was David Beach’s article from last week about developing for Android. Beach, who is a product manager at eBay Mobile and a co-founder of 12seconds, basically says that the experience sucks for a number of reasons (all of which Google can fix, but will take quite a bit of work and time)...

from Seeking Alpha

Apple TV: Third time unlucky, Mr Jobs

"Fox and Disney have tossed around an old idea of Apple’s (about two years old) to lower the price of downloaded TV series to $0.99 from $1.99, and to allow them to be streamed.

But instead of launching it only with Apple, they are going to let everyone who can meet their terms join in. Potentially this could eventually include Google, though we must remember that most of the content businesses (studios) who supply the broadcast networks with content, hate Google passionately because of YouTube and its $1bn lawsuit for showing Viacom copyrighted content..."

from The Register

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Comment: So much content, going through so many channels... Got to be opportunities for Blinkx search functionality to help some of those companies make sense of the content and their users to search for it...

Gilder's Tenth Law (George Gilder, author of Telecosm): If you own content, you want it to flow through as many channels as possible. If you own channels, you want them to carry as much content as possible. Conflicts arrive where companies own both channels and content...

If anyone doubts the truth of that, consider the recent spat where Sky pulled Sky One from Virgin...

I’m Telling You, Apple (And Ping) Just Killed MySpace Or Why Ping Is the Future of Social Commerce

"What if they [users] too could share their likes and dislikes via a social layer inside Amazon.com? Or what if I could follow my favorite authors and get updates on their books?"

from Usability Counts

Lessons that Blinkx could learn for Cheep?

Round-up of news links about Android tabs and social media

Chinese Tech Firms Plan More Android Devices
All Things Digital

Toshiba: Portable video on tablets ‘is the future
BBC News

Samsung Galaxy Tab preview
Engadget

Toshiba touts £329 Folio Android tablet
The Register

Ping Averts Its Gaze: Apple’s New Social Network Doesn’t Really Want to Know Much About You
All Things Digital

Social Music Mystery! What Happened to Apple’s Ping-Facebook Connection?
All Things Digital

Ongoing by Tom Bray - Galaxy Tab

7" Android Tablet Touch PC, indeed.
BoingBoing

Galaxy Tab unveiled as Samsung's first tablet computer

Samsung has become the latest challenger to into the tablet computer battle, unveiling its Galaxy Tab at the IFA conference in Berlin.

The device will run on Google's Android operating system, with a capacity of 16 or 32Gb, expandable by 32Gb more.

It weighs 380g (14oz), and has an 18cm (7in) screen - smaller and lighter than its principal rival the iPad.

Vodafone has announced that it will distribute the device in European markets including the UK in October.

The tablet can connect via 3G networks, as well as wi-fi and Bluetooth.

It will employ Samsung's "Reader's Hub" for e-books and the "Media Hub" for music and videos. It supports Flash video and will be able to stream content to a TV...

from BBC News

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Comment: '...supports Flash video' - I don't know (yet) whether the Blinkx Beat app is on the Tab, but it's on the Galaxy S smartphone, so here's hoping...

Samsung Galaxy Tab Video Teaser Reveals A Would-Be iPad Killer

"The first of the would-be, Android-toting iPad killers is about to arrive in the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s set to debut at next week’s IFA conference in Berlin, but as you can see, Samsung’s already teasing the device..."

from Cult of Mac

Nice deal...

ITN signs Metro web video deal
Metro.co.uk to take news, sport and showbiz video clips as freesheet looks to expand its online offering

ITN has struck a deal to provide video clips to the free daily newspaper Metro.

From today, ITN will syndicate video including UK news, world news, sports and showbiz to Metro.co.uk, as the title, which is owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust, looks to expand its digital offering.

Metro distributes 1.3m copies every weekday in 16 cities across the UK, while Metro.co.uk publishes to 2.5 million monthly unique users in the UK.

Jamie Walters, digital director of the Metro, said: "We are really excited to be able to offer our users of Metro.co.uk more choice in the way they consume their online news."

Metro joins a host of UK publishers taking video content from ITN, in which DMGT has a 20% stake. Earlier this year the broadcaster began providing video news to AOL UK, syndicating hundreds of hours of video news to the company which has pledged to be the "largest net hirer of journalists in the world". It also added local newspaper company Iliffe News & Media to its Premium News Network video syndication package, which includes advertising provided by Blinkx.

from The Guardian

Mike Lynch of Autonomy in October 2010 Wired magazine

[click image for larger version]

...in an article entitled "Europe's Next Billion Dollar Start-Ups". Of course Autonomy is hardly a start-up, but still...

Microsoft Launches Advertising Platform In China

09/01/2010 07:42:52 - Microsoft Launches Advertising Platform In China

BEIJING (AFP)--Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) has launched an advertising platform in China in an attempt to grab market share from rival Google Inc. (GOOG), which has been wrangling with Beijing over censorsip, state media said Wednesday.

The U.S. Internet titan's adCenter will target Chinese exporters wanting to advertise overseas, said Anderson Liu, general manager of Microsoft's domestic joint venture MSN China.

"It's time to join the market and let Chinese advertisers have more choices," Liu was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

AdCenter helps businesses place advertisements online, on places such as Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Microsoft hopes revenue from the pay-per-click ads will account for half of MSN China's business in the future, Liu said, without providing further details.

In July, Google parted ways with two Chinese advertisers following its standoff with Beijing over censorsip and cyberattacks the U.S. search giant claims originated in China.

Google cut ties with Universal Internet Media and Xi'an Weihua Network, two major advertising agencies that worked in eastern and northwestern China, the China Daily said, citing Marsa Wang, Google China spokeswoman.

In January, Google said it wouldn't buckle to Chinese government pressure to censor its content, and threatened to pull out of the country entirely.

It later effectively shut down its Chinese site google.cn, re-routing mainland users to its uncensored site in Hong Kong.

In March, a group of 27 Chinese advertising agencies sent Google a letter calling for talks over compensation for possible business losses amid the censorsip wrangle.

Google's share of China's online market fell to 24.2% in the three months to June, from 30.9% in the first quarter, research firm Analysys International said in a recent report.

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Comment: sure sounds like MS could use Blinkx's tech... Only problem is I think they're (that is, Blinkx) barred from using the technology they licensed from Autonomy in China.

Maybe MS should just have done with it and take over both Autonomy and Blinkx. Might cost 'em $10bn for the two, but not very high price for leapfrogging Google in what will soon be the world's largest market...