ABC Television Network, a unit of The Walt Disney Company, has reached agreement with Teletrax to electronically track the U.S. television airings of its TV show promotions. ABC will use Teletrax to detect and monitor usage of its on-air promotions by ABC broadcasters in the top 100 U.S. markets.
ABC will use Teletrax to monitor television promotions for some of its most popular series including “Alias”, “NYPD Blue” and “The Bachelor.” ABC produces thousands of promotions every year that are featured in news, daytime, primetime, late night, and sports slots, which will now be tracked by Teletrax. In employing Teletrax’s patented technology and monitoring service to track and analyze TV airings of show promotions, ABC joins other high-profile Teletrax clients who have also signed long-term contracts with the video watermarking company to monitor similar content.
“Each day, ABC television programming entertains and informs millions of Americans, making the network’s content eminently valuable,” said Andy Nobbs, managing director of Teletrax. “We are delighted that ABC has selected Teletrax’s unrivaled short-form, promotional spot tracking service to enhance the ROI practices for its properties.”
Teletrax’s technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, broadcast or duplicated. A global network of decoders, or “detectors,” then captures all occurrences of the embedded video being broadcast via satellite, cable or terrestrially and generates tracking reports for the original content owners. Additionally, Teletrax can detect usage with granular precision, down to one second of video, and it is unaffected by conversion from one video format to another, such as transfer from NTSC to PAL, the two most widely used television systems worldwide.
Launched more than two years ago as a service using patented technology developed by a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and Medialink, Teletrax is the first and only global video watermarking service. With the continuing growth of TV channels worldwide fueling demand for video material, Teletrax services and technology hold vast potential to help content providers such as motion picture studios, TV sports and entertainment program producers and distributors, news organizations and advertisers unlock greater benefits from their video assets. Significant applications of Teletrax include monitoring contractual compliance, auditing residuals, understanding repurposing of long-form and promotional material, and managing copyrighted material.
Since 2002, Teletrax has rapidly expanded its global monitoring network to nearly 50 nations with more than 800 channels currently tracked in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and South America.