RTHM.L Regulatory News (RTHM)

16 Jan 2008 07:01

Blinkx Plc16 January 2008 blinkx Signs Top Indie Media Partners to Bring Users Thousands of Hours of Cutting-Edge Film, Television and Music Programming Unique Cinema and Art from the World's Most Exciting Independent Producers Now Available at www.blinkx.com SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - January 16, 2008 - blinkx, the world's largest videosearch engine, today announced that it has partnered with 13 new independentcontent providers including Calon TV, ChannelFlip.com, Channel X, FoothillEntertainment, Future Shorts, jeko.tv, Journeyman Pictures, Looking GlassInternational, MoMedia, Monster Distributes, Reelport, Wysiwyg Films andYoungCuts to bring users thousands of hours of cutting-edge film, television andmusic programming. Through the partnerships, content will be fully searchableand playable at www.blinkx.com. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkxwill also place contextually relevant advertising against the video and shareresulting revenue with partners. As barriers to online content distribution fall and search continues to improve,many independent filmmakers are able to realize the true potential of onlinetelevision and video. Traditionally, showcasing and distributing work to largeaudiences has been a struggle. However, as levels of quality and consumptionevolve, independent producers are well-positioned to leverage and monetize theirwork online via partnerships with companies like blinkx. "The Internet has enabled a generation of young filmmakers to express creativityand make it available for millions of viewers around the world in a way neverbefore possible," said Louise Kierans, president of YoungCuts Film Festival, anevent showcasing the best independent films by undiscovered talents. "Forget the movie theater, Sundance, or even your television - many of the mosttalented and innovative writers, producers and directors are bringing contentdirectly to the Internet," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO ofblinkx. "blinkx is thrilled to serve as a vehicle for making this original,avant-garde entertainment easily searchable and available to viewers everywhere." "We create original programming and channels designed specifically for digitalplatforms," said Mark Benmore, chief operating officer of MoMedia International,a leading producer and distributor of digital video for IPTV, mobile, broadbandand narrowcasting platforms. "There is an insatiable appetite for digitalentertainment and it's growing all the time. With blinkx, we easily deliver ourcontent, making it available to a limitless audience." As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx serves more than 50 millionunique visitors every month. blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest wayto search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 220 partnersand 18 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TVmoments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more,blinkx uses advanced speech recognition technology to deliver results that aremore accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches. About blinkx blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world's most comprehensive video searchengine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 18 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 anduser-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologiesonly scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - andeven see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search resultsnot available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many ofthe world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London.More information is available at www.blinkx.com. About Calon TV Calon TV is a new company formed by the former management of Siriol Productions.Siriol were the producers of the BAFTA-winning SuperTed, Hilltop Hospital andthe animated Under Milk Wood. www.calon.tv/keepfit.html About ChannelFlip.com ChannelFlip.com is an end-to-end video production company based in Oxford,England, that makes TV programs, sells advertising on them and distributes themover the internet to viewers. www.channelflip.com About Channel X Channel X is one of the U.K.'s leading comedy and entertainment specialists witha 20 year history of producing cutting-edge award-winning programs for all themajor U.K. broadcasters. The company specializes in scripted broken andnarrative comedy, comedy-entertainment formats and game shows and has workedwith all the leading comedy talent in the U.K. for the last two decades.www.channelx.co.uk About Foothill Entertainment Foothill Entertainment is a family-owned production company based in SantaBarbara, California. Formed September 2000 by Gregory Payne and JoKavanagh-Payne, Foothill specializes in the co-development and distribution offamily and children's entertainment programming. Foothill also acts as executiveproducer of projects in all media, using years of media expertise to help fundand distribute advances and pre-sales of family-friendly entertainment acrossthe globe. www.foothillentertainment.com About Future Shorts Future Shorts is the largest and most innovative short-film label in the world.Operating in 25 countries with 15,000 attending monthly, the festival hasredefined the short-film medium in international screen culture. Future ShortsDistribution acts as a unique deliverer of the very best short formatentertainment to multiple platforms worldwide. www.futureshorts.com About jeko.tv jeko.tv was created to broadcast high-quality documentaries, short films, musicvideos, reports and video art. www.jeko.tv About Journeyman Pictures Journeyman Pictures is London's leading independent distributor of topical newsfeatures, documentaries and footage. We're like a video encyclopedia of theworld. Use this Web site to preview our latest films, as advertised in 'TheJourneyman Weekly', or to search our archive of over 4,000 films. http://journeyman.tv About Looking Glass International LGI is an Australia-based independent production and distribution companyspecializing in factual programming to the international market. Our catalogueincludes award-winning documentaries as well as programmes covering the genresof history, science, natural history, travel/lifestyle and people & places.Whether you are looking for compelling stories about the world or an irreverentbut passionate look at the world from another point of view, LGI will bring yousome of the best stories out there! www.lookingglassint.com About MoMedia International MoMedia International is a leading digital producer and distributor ofentertainment programmes for mobile networks, broadband internet, IPTV andemerging digital platforms. Backed by Endemol and with offices in London andHong Kong, MoMedia manages the digital rights to thousands of hours of contentfrom 60+ production companies, distributing content globally to over 35countries. The company also creates original programming and channels that aredesigned specifically for digital platforms. MoMedia was founded in 2004 byLucas Bertrand and Mark Benmore. www.momediatv.com About Monster Distributes Monster Distributes is an international distribution company. Its flagshipprojects include the 130 episode music series, Planet Rock Profiles, which hassold to 162 countries and 61 airlines, the 2005 Oscar nominated best ShortAnimation, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, the 2004Oscar winning Short Animated Film, Harvie Krumpet, and more.www.monsterdistributes.com About Reelport GmbH Reelport.com is the only platform world-wide that enables a complete digitalsubmission process for buyers and sellers, film festivals and film archives.Several thousands of users distribute more than 10,000 short and feature filmsvia the online b2b platform reelport.com. Renowned international festivals andsatellite TV, VoD and Web-TV services view and acquire films in Reelport'sonline film catalogue. www.reelport.com About Wysiwyg Films Wysiwyg acquires independent content and distributes it through all reputabledigital outlets. If you have bought a set-top-box, downloaded a DVD or streameda show from any reputable service then the chances are that you already haveaccess to Wysiwyg's quality content. This ranges from the Mike Leigh endorsedurban drama, 'The Plague', to the immensely popular Caribbean TV serial,'Westwood Park'. www.wysiwygfilms.com About YoungCuts The YoungCuts Film Festival is the premiere showcase for great short films bythe best young filmmakers. In addition to promoting great undiscovered talent,YoungCuts works with young filmmakers to produce and virally distribute brandedentertainment. www.youngcuts.com Press Contacts: Tim Turpin Sparkpr +1 (415) 321 1894 tturpin@sparkpr.com Clare Gayner Bite Communications +44 (0)20 8834 3454 Clare.Gayner@bitepr.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange