RTHM.L Regulatory News (RTHM)

30 Apr 2008 07:02

Blinkx Plc30 April 2008 blinkx Partners with Hearst Digital's Handbag.com to Bring the Hottest Women's Lifestyle Content to Viewers Stay up-to-date on fashion trends, beauty tips and celebrity gossip at www.blinkx.com SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - April 30, 2008 - blinkx, the world's largest videosearch engine, today announced a partnership with Hearst Digital(www.hearstdigital.co.uk), the commercial aggregator of all of the NationalMagazine Company's online properties, including Handbag.com. Under the terms ofthe agreement, Handbag.com's women's lifestyle video content is now fullysearchable and playable at www.blinkx.com. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform,blinkx will also place contextually relevant advertising against the footage,and will share resulting advertising revenue with Hearst Digital. Launched in 1999, Handbag.com became part of the Hearst Digital Network in 2006.The first dedicated women's lifestyle Web site in the U.K., the site offersexpert insight, discussion forums, videos and more on all matters that women areinterested in, including fashion, beauty and celebrity gossip. In addition,Handbag.com's Handbag TV provides video content ranging from next season'scatwalk collections and film trailers to the funniest viral videos on the Web. "Handbag.com is enormously popular because of its relevant, fresh content forwomen," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "We are thrilledto add their video content to blinkx.com, giving our women viewers access tohigh-quality lifestyle videos, on demand and in easy-to-consume formats." "We really value the opportunity to share the female point of view with an evenlarger audience," said Alex Ballantyne, managing director, Hearst Digital. "Ourpartnership with blinkx enables us to increase the reach of our content, andbrings our compelling forum to women everywhere to share and learn from eachanother." 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 largest and most advanced 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 handbag handbag was the first dedicated women's lifestyle website to launch in the UK,and is now the market leader with over 1.5 million unique readers every month. handbag is a stylish, glamorous, trusted and informative editorial titleproviding the inside track for busy women online on everyday important issueslike relationships, health, careers and beauty. With the luxury look of a glossyand the lightening reactions of a daily, handbag offers a breadth of coveragefrom expert writers, establishing a powerful reputation as the leader in acrowded field. Launched in 1999, the title was acquired by the National Magazine Co. in October2006 alongside its subsidiary sites getlippy.com, aimed at 18- to 30-year-oldwomen, allaboutyou.com for women aged over 35 and gomamatoday.com, a pregnancyand birth site. handbag is part of the company's Hearst digital network. About The Hearst digital Network The Hearst digital Network, a division of National Magazines, publishes thefollowing websites: www.handbag.com, www.netdoctor.co.uk, www.getlippy.com,www.allaboutyou.com, www.babyexpert.co.uk, www.cosmopolitan.co.uk,www.prima.co.uk, www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk, www.youandyourwedding.co.uk,www.countryliving.co.uk, www.menshealth.co.uk, www.runnersworld.co.uk. Press Contacts:Tim TurpinSparkpr+1 (415) 321 1894tim.turpin@sparkpr.com Clare GaynerBite Communications+44 (0)20 8834 3454Clare.Gayner@bitepr.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange