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Not content just being the world’s largest video search engine, technology spin-off Blinkx has set its sights on launching its own online TV service. The London-based business, which is yet to declare a profit, hopes peer-to-peer streaming technology will enable Blinkx Broadband TV by March next year. By using content from its online partners, the service will tap into specialist areas such as a health to offer a channel of shows on the likes of fitness, yoga or healthy eating. A national paper reports that the system would allow for much more targeted advertising by focusing on such niche areas, an advantage bound to turn heads at Microsoft and Google. Unlike the search leader’s YouTube, the service is expected to offer a standard of broadcast content above amateur or user-generated, but below the top-end professional productions. “What we really like is the middle tier of content,” said Suranga Chadratillake, chief executive of Blinkx in an interview with the Financial Times yesterday. He expressed doubt about advertisers’ appetite signed up to Blinkx, including ABC, General Motors and Nokia, to appear alongside grainy amateur video. The company believes its technology, which analyses video and profiles customers on their searches, holds a distinct advantage for advertisers over search engines. “Keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface,” Blinkx has said, alluding to how ‘tagging’ via search engines can sometimes be misleading. Going forward, Blink Broadband TV will have more than enough content to select, given it now has 225 media groups indexed, including CBS, NBC, News Corp and Ministry of Sound. But the service will put Blinkx, which has seen daily searches leap 280%, in direct competition with mainstream TV broadcasters, as well as investor-backed start-ups like Joost. Analysts at Ovum say that to unlock continued growth in the sector which it competes, Blinkx must realise the master key lies in the phrase ‘content is king.’ “Eighteen and a half million hours of content is a 160% increase over the [five and half month] period,” said Mike Davies of Ovum. “But if the company is going to continue to grow it will need to keep the momentum on increasing content sources.” And it seems Blinks is listening: last week, the company partnered with GONG, the only Japanese anime TV network, which now has its sci-fi, horror, heroic fantasy and epic space opera indexed on Blinkx.com In an analysts’ note, Davies added: “The current daily average number of searches on blinkx.com was 4.2 million in September, not Google or Yahoo! levels but a near tripling of activity in less than six months is still respectable.” Last week, Blinkx posted a net loss of $1.4 million since its de-merger from Autonomy Corporation, but reported revenues 23% ahead of forecasts. The company added it now indexes over 18.5 m hours of content, making it the world’s largest video search engine. Nov 8, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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