News
Cellcast launches Sumo.TV at MIPCOM
09 October 2006
World’s first user-generated content solution for broadcasters
Cellcast plc (MIPCOM Booth G3-15), the global interactive digital broadcaster, today announces the launch of Sumo.TV, the world’s first integrated user-generated content (“UGC”) platform for TV broadcasters and media groups.
Sumo.TV has been developed to provide broadcasters with a global and fully searchable source of short form user-submitted content which can rapidly and cost effectively be used as the backbone of a diverse range of innovative new programme formats. Television audiences are increasingly switching their viewing time and loyalties to online and social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube. Sumo.TV will enable broadcasters to utilise this demographic change right now, and create new programming, retain current audiences, whilst capturing new audiences and revenue streams.
Mahesh Ramachandra, VP International & Product Development at Cellcast, said: “The news surrounding YouTube has heightened general awareness of the fantastic potential of UGC in the current media spectrum. Today’s launch of the Sumo.TV platform marks an extremely exciting point in the evolution of UGC as it enables broadcasters for the first time to benefit from this new source of dynamic content.”
Sumo.TV’s multi-platform technology and associated content management systems enable broadcasters to immediately exploit the creative programming opportunities and capture significant new revenue streams that can be derived from user-generated content and video sharing applications.
Broadcasters who license Sumo.TV have immediate access to all the components of next-generation UGC programming:
- Original user-generated content
- UGC-oriented interactive TV formats
- 3D video jukebox
- Content management system and production tools
- Video-sharing and community website
- Mobile services
These powerful tools and services allow a broadcaster to create anything from an hour-long weekly television show, to an entire UGC-driven 24/7 television channel. The viewer-driven content is sourced not only from the global Sumo.TV content library, but can also include the broadcaster’s own archival content.
The Sumo.TV solution enables multi-platform distribution across TV, the web and mobile, and incorporates premium content billing solutions that allow broadcasters to benefit from new revenue streams beyond traditional advertising.
Mahesh Ramachandra, VP International & Product Development at Cellcast, said: “Sumo.TV provides broadcasters with a template and structure to enable them to profit from the UGC revolution that is challenging their current business model. Our turn-key content and technical solutions will enable each affiliate to quickly establish a true multi-platform presence. Failure to get involved in the UGC media world now will mean it is much more expensive for broadcasters to do so later.”
Broadcasters who become licensees of Sumo.TV will join a network of television and other content partners around the world. Each licensee is able to contribute to and use a growing global library of UGC content; at the same time, licensees and individuals are rewarded every time their content is used. It is a system that rewards all contributors, and fosters language and cultural-specific content creation, and its widespread distribution.
Sumo.TV also brings together a compelling consumer proposition, offering users new ways of finding that ‘15 minutes’ of fame, new ways of making money from their content, and new ways of expressing themselves and making friends.
Sumo.TV includes a leading-edge multi-platform technical solution offered to broadcasters at either a fraction of the cost of existing broadcast solutions, or on a revenue-sharing basis. This system includes:
- Multi-language tagging and search of video content
- Global content usage tracking
- Micro-payment solutions for content contributors
- Ability for television producers and individual contributors to create video playlists for broadcast on television
- On-the-fly playout of video content via top-of-the-line 3D video jukebox and virtual studio system
- Automatic transcoding of video, audio and image content from multiple-platforms, including mobile
- Broadcasting of approved content through television, website, and mobile downloads and streams
Cellcast has a track record of pioneering innovative new multi-platform (TV, mobile, web) formats and has been among the leaders in the development of interactive and participation media, and has worked with broadcasters of all sizes across the globe, including Star TV in India, Telefe in Argentina, Future TV in the Middle East, TV3 in Malaysia and STB in Ukraine.
Sumo.TV may be visited at Booth G3-15 at MIPCOM, and is being presented at the User-Generated Content Showcase on Thursday 12 October at 12.15 p.m.
For further information:
Cellcast plc |
|
Andrew Wilson, CEO |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7190 0300 |
| andrew@cellcast.tv | www.cellcast.com |
Mahesh Ramachandra, VP |
Mobile: +44 (0) 778 643 2416 |
Media enquiries:
Abchurch |
|
Henry Harrison-Topham / Gareth Mead |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700 |
Notes to Editors:
Cellcast plc
Cellcast plc is a leading international provider of participation television applications and interactive mobile content in the fast-growing multi-platform digital entertainment sector. Headquartered in London, with associated operations in Paris, Beirut, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, Cellcast’s applications and programming are distributed on the Sky Digital platform in the UK and broadcast partners include Canal+ in France; STB in Ukraine; Future TV, Dubai Television and Rotana TV in the Middle East; Zee TV and Star TV in India; TVS-3 in China; Telefe in Argentina; and TeleAmazonas in Ecuador.
Cellcast’s revenues streams are independent of both advertising and subscription fees. With a network of revenue sharing agreements with telecommunications carriers and aggregators across five continents, Cellcast receives a share of the call revenue every time a consumer uses a mobile or fixed-line phone to participate in its interactive entertainment, revenue which is retained or shared with its broadcast partners. Cellcast’s programme formats and proprietary Interactive Platform (CIP) also facilitate delivery of content to mobile phones, the internet and broadband-delivered IPTV. This enables viewers to continue participating in a programme away from the TV, generating 24/7 revenue opportunities. In May 2006, Cellcast announced the launch of a range of new interactive entertainment services on Freeview’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform in the UK which included a breakthrough in interactive TV technology.
Cellcast plc joined the AIM market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange on 21 September 2005.
