A+E Networks doubles deal with Blackbird

25 March 2020

Blackbird plc

(the "Company")

A+E Networks® doubles video edited through Blackbird

New York and London - Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD), developer and seller of the market-leading cloud video editing platform, announced today that A+E Networks® will double the volume edited through the Blackbird platform to both enable a significant expansion of remote video production capability, while ensuring the overall safefy of its editors who will now be able to work even more effectively, remotely.

A+E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst and Disney, has a portfolio of global brands that includes A&E®, HISTORY®, Lifetime®, LMN®, fyi® and Viceland®. The international media network first incorporated Blackbird within its infrastructure for a range of key cloud video production workflows in June 2019 - delivering major productivity enhancements across its operations.

This latest expansion sees A+E Networks double the volume of file-based content available to its production teams for access through Blackbird. The visibility, immediacy and management of A+E Network's entire video archive will be significantly accelerated for the repurposing of content. Production teams will use Blackbird to rapidly ingest, view, edit and publish content using a choice of hybrid workflows - on-premise through the Blackbird cloud as well as on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud.

Blackbird will also enable A+E Networks' entire production team to work remotely and collaboratively offsite. Production staff will have access to Blackbird's professional suite of editing tools in a browser from home or anywhere else as needed - even on low bandwidth.

A+E Networks SVP Production Operations, Ed Russo said: "We have moved swiftly to enable our video production teams to work safely and remotely. Blackbird gives us all the tools needed to do this by providing professional grade cloud video editing and publishing capabilities in a browser, even under low bandwidth conditions."

Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough, said: "A+E Networks and Blackbird have been building a very strong partnership this past year. As changes to working practices rapidly come into force, we will be there to fully support them as we will the rest of our global client base."

Blackbird drives awareness, reach and monetisation for brands in the sports, news, entertainment and enterprise sectors. Customers include IMG, Deltatre, Peloton, TownNews, Eleven Sports and the U.S Department of State.

Contacts:

About Blackbird plc

Blackbird operates in the fast-growing SaaS and cloud video market, and has created the world's most advanced suite of cloud-native computing applications for video, all underpinned by its lightning-fast codec. Blackbird's patented technology allows for frame accurate navigation, playback, viewing and editing in the cloud. Blackbird underpins multiple applications, which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, esports, live events and content owners, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

Since it is cloud-native, Blackbird removes the need for costly, high end workstations and can be used from almost anywhere on almost any device. It also allows full visibility on multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for social media distribution, and ultimately results in much more effective monetisation.

Blackbird® is a registered trademark of Blackbird plc.

Websiteswww.blackbird.video

Social media

www.linkedin.com/company/blackbird-cloudwww.twitter.com/blackbirdcloudwww.facebook.com/blackbirdplc

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