RTHM.L Regulatory News (RTHM)

9 Apr 2008 07:01

Blinkx Plc09 April 2008 blinkx Partners with Zodiak International to Bring Quality Television Programming to Users Highly popular TV series available at www.blinkx.com SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - April 09, 2008 - blinkx, the world's largest videosearch engine, today announced a partnership with Zodiak International(www.zodiakinternational.com), a leading commercial distributor of qualitytelevision programming. From game shows and reality TV to sketch comedy andscripted dramas, users will soon be able to find and watch Zodiak's content atwww.blinkx.com. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkx will also placecontextually relevant advertising against the footage and share resultingadvertising revenue with Zodiak. Zodiak International is the international sales and distribution arm of ZodiakTelevision AB, one of the largest independent television production companies inEurope. Working to develop, co-produce and distribute fresh, diverse contentwith partners to international audiences, Zodiak International is home to boththe long-running series "COPS Uncut" and the popular "World of Stupid." "The consumer appetite for online digital entertainment is growing all the time," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "We're thrilled to serveas a vehicle for making Zodiak's quality programming easily searchable andavailable to viewers everywhere." "Because digital is a major player in the way we view content today, ourstrategy has been to get our programming out to as many people in as many waysas possible. Braindead, Zodiak's online brand of male-skewed content, has beenlive for over a year now, and with the success of this we have been keen toexpand to other digital platforms," said Patrick Kydd, digital project manager,Zodiak International. "blinkx's unique search engine technology allows ourcontent to be found easily by the viewer, a great benefit to the platform.We're pleased to have our content on blinkx." As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as thesmartest way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than220 partners and 18 million hours of indexed video and audio content, includingfavorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogsand more, blinkx uses advanced speech-recognition technology to deliver resultsthat are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keywordsearches. 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 Zodiak International Zodiak International is a leading commercial distributor, representing more than10,000 hours of quality television programming across all genres, ranging fromhigh rating formats and critically acclaimed dramas to finished programs andmobile/IPTV content. Zodiak International is the commercial hub of the ZodiakTelevision Group (AB), now one of largest and most successful European playersin television production. Today Zodiak Television AB comprises a wide range oftelevision brands based throughout Northern and Eastern Europe, UK and US,including well-known brands such as Mastiff, Jarowskij, Kanakna, DiverseProduction and TeleAlliance. Press Contacts for blinkx: Tim TurpinSparkpr+1 (415) 321 1894tim.turpin@sparkpr.com Clare GaynerBite Communications+44 (0)20 8834 3454Clare.Gayner@bitepr.com Press Contact for Zodiak: Debbie LawrenceLippin Group+44 203 008 5406dlawrence@lippingroup.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange