MediaScrape takes on conventional broadcasters for slice of the global news market

A Montreal-based online broadcaster - which bills itself as the "CNN of the Internet" - is finalizing negotiations with 16 global syndication partners for a new technology that allows media companies to deliver video news from anywhere, anytime and on any Internet platform. But don't count on the company's participation in any upcoming CRTC review into whether such content should be regulated.Launched in 2006 as a competitor to sites like YouTube, MediaScrape has agreements with more than two dozen global news agencies to offer repackaged video news, searchable by region, broadcaster or through a Google Maps layer. The company's business model is based on a technology that allows advertisers to get more precise measurements and real-time statistics on their campaigns. It has agreements in place with such heavyweights as Google, CBC, BBC , Fox News and broadcasters in Europe, Asia and Africa.MediaScrape recently raised $3.16 million in second round venture financing, and hired a new president and chief technology officer, Chris Dingle, who was founding CTO of 24/7 Real Media (sold to British advertising giant, WPP, for $637 million).It now hopes to generate licensing revenue with a patent-pending technology called ‘Scrape 28'. This content management system allows media syndication partner websites using MediaScrape news video clips to couple their text news summaries with news videos featuring multilingual subtitles and geo-targeted, all executed within milliseconds.Scrape 28 is designed to automatically capture the first five seconds of worldwide news videos and creates a video montage of the day's top stories. Updated every hour, each five-second clip contains a brief text caption pertaining to the story, accompanied with a voice-over stating the country and city of origin."It's really an automated news summary," says MediaScrape founder and CEO, Tyler Cavell.Having invested approximately $1.1 million in development, he believes the product meets a key need in today's mass media, where online content is progressively taking viewers away from traditional news publishers. "It gives (news outlets) a step up on the competition and allows them to attract their readers with more powerful products."News content, he adds, "is the fastest moving consumer group; it's more perishable than milk ... and it's all about speed." Scrape 28, "allows us to increase the speed at which news summaries are created and it allows those publishers to reduce their total workforce in editorial.'Cavell told Canadian New Media that his company is in negotiations with 16 different news providers throughout the world to syndicate and commercialize the technology. At least half of these negotiations are currently moving towards a formal agreement.What's next from MediaScrapeAccording to Cavell, MediaScrape has an aggressive strategy to open a new revenue stream in the coming months and transform the company into a leading "destination site" with its own exclusive feature content. In the near future, he says, "you'll see us hiring the managing editor of one of Canada's leading newspapers and a chief columnist of Macleans."In addition to developing its own news, MediaScrape lays claim to being the first Internet network to get access to Reuters satellite broadcast footage from 5,000 journalists daily. The service also includes live press conference and red-carpet events. "We're going to broadcast that content live and package those clips," for viewers.Cavell says that MediaScrape's ability to deliver readers to advertisers has already been endorsed by heavyweights like Google, which has designated his company as one of 40 websites worldwide to beta test its new ‘AdSense' video advertising model.Click on any MediaScrape video, for example, and you'll see a Google ad integrated "inside the flesh" of that video. These ads, he claims, "have more than three times the value of static ads."No need for CRTC regulationAs a freewheeling Internet company, Cavell bristles when asked about the CRTC proceeding currently underway to potentially regulate new media broadcasting. He notes that the traditional broadcast and cable TV worlds are characterized by a scarcity of players and resources. "But that doesn't apply to the Internet, which is a world of abundance.""If you are in a market where Rupert Murdoch has two TV stations and two newspapers, there's no way you can enter that traditional market because he will undersell you and defeat you ... but if you want to put up a website tomorrow you can do it."The CRTC, he argues, is in the business of ensuring that monopolies do not exist. Where there is freedom and abundance, there can be no monopoly to regulate. "There is no monopoly and no possibility of monopoly and I can see no reason as to how or why the CRTC would seek to regulate this business."To clarify his company's status, he notes that MediaScrape is "very careful" to pay attention to copyright and that it only distributes the content of its news-provider partners. "We distribute content, so we are not a broadcast distributor."When asked whether his company would be participating in the CRTC's new media proceeding, Cavell - who has a background in policy and regulation - replied: "I've bought that t-shirt already."

MediaScrape takes on conventional broadcasters for slice of the global news market

News | 07/30/2008 2:13 pm EDT

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