Teletrax today announced it has renewed a multi-year contract with NBC News Channel, a unit of NBC News, to electronically track broadcast usage of its television news video. Teletrax, a subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated, is the first and only global digital video monitoring and media asset management service that provides vital broadcast television intelligence to video content providers such as entertainment companies, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. NBC News is a unit of NBC Universal, whose parent is General Electric.
NBC News Channel distributes approximately 300 news stories each day to NBC affiliates and international clients for use in their news broadcasts and has been successfully using Teletrax to report and evaluate airings of its news video broadcasts for the past three years. Teletraxs comprehensive monitoring service provides NBC News Channel with reports containing detailed intelligence on how content is used and disseminated by its affiliate stations.
In addition, NBC News Channel will use Teletrax at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Torino, marking the second time in a row it has relied on the video monitoring firm to track distribution of live and taped news stories coming directly from the Olympic Games. Teletrax was also employed onsite in Athens by NBC News Channel during the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Teletraxs services have become an integral part of our daily news process, helping us offer our clients the most useful service on a 365-day a year basis, said Bob Horner, president of NBC News Channel. Having access to such precise data on a real-time basis during this major story will help us fine-tune our offerings to our clients during the 2006 Winter Olympics.
NBC News Channels decision to enlist Teletrax to track usage of its output at this high-profile global event now for two consecutive Games is a testament to the power of our comprehensive broadcast intelligence service, said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. We are extremely proud to continue our longstanding partnership with one of the worlds premier news organizations.
Launched in 2002 as a service developed by a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink, with an underlying technology that is patent protected both by Philips and Digimarc Corp., Teletraxs technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, transmitted, broadcast or duplicated.
A global network of decoders or detectors, then captures all occurrences of the embedded video being transmitted via satellite, cable or terrestrially and generates tracking reports for the content owners. Reports of individual broadcast airings are delivered online in near real-time to each clients custom-designed portal or in data file transfers. Each clients broadcast activity is updated dynamically, 24 hours a day, enabling clients to respond immediately to reported results such as changes in end-user preferences or detections of unauthorized use.
Teletrax currently maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitor the television broadcasts of over 1,100 channels worldwide. Its expanding U.S. footprint includes more than 800 television stations and cable channels in the top 150 markets and beyond in the United States, representing more than 90% of all U.S. television households. Its international network monitors nearly 200 channels being broadcast from 50 nations and is comprised of 12 monitoring stations in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South America.
Entertainment, news and media organizations both within and outside of the United States that are also using Teletrax for the tracking of news video, advertising or promotional content include BBC, Buena Vista Television, ABC Television Network, Tribune Entertainment, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, Reuters Television, Advanced Results Marketing, Mercury Media, Media Review International, Internet Broadcasting Systems, and Medialink. A number of other companies are also in active trials with the Teletrax service.