Civolution Announces Next Generation Teletrax Global Broadcast Monitoring Detection Network
2010/09/01

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Sep 1st 2010 – Civolution, the leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that it has deployed a radical and comprehensive network upgrade for its Teletrax global broadcast monitoring service. The upgrade - Teletrax 4.0 - includes tracking of SD and HD video material as well as capabilities for combined watermarking and fingerprinting broadcast monitoring applications.

‘’This is an important milestone, a major achievement and great news for our clients’’ said Jaap Haitsma, Chief Technology Officer, at Civolution. ‘’Beyond the current broadcast verification capabilities on more than 1,550 channels around the world, the network update will enrich our existing monitoring proposition and prepares the company to deliver additional services’’.

This major network upgrade updates all Teletrax detection stations around the world and is part of an ongoing development effort to optimize and future-proof the Civolution broadcast monitoring platform in keeping up with ongoing changes in broadcast distribution. With this upgrade the broadcast network has improved HD and SD tracking capabilities, better watermarking survivability, enhanced network manageability and integrates watermarking and fingerprinting into the product line. Civolution’s Teletrax will now be able to track the broadcast of media assets using video fingerprinting and watermarking. This creates unique capabilities, providing clients with alternative technologies that compliment their production and distribution workflows as well as their broadcast intelligence requirements. Broadcast monitoring fingerprints can also be repurposed for online tracking and monetization.

‘’The broadcast environment is constantly and rapidly changing. As an industry leader, Civolution is committed to providing a best-of-breed monitoring and reporting service, deploying technically advanced monitoring solutions ’’ says Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer at Civolution. ‘’We will continue to innovate and stay ahead of the game.’’

Civolution today counts amongst its Teletrax clients some of the world’s top media companies including ABC Television Network, Associated Press, BBC Worldwide, CBS Television Network, CBS Television Distribution, Disney Domestic TV, European Commission, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, FOX Television, ITN Networks, Mercury Communications, NBC Agency, NBC-Universal Distribution, Thomson-Reuters, Sony Television, the United Nations and over 50 more media customers.

Civolution and Mikros Image Take Watermarking of HD Content to New Heights
2009/12/16

Civolution and Mikros Image unfold new standards for high definition watermarking in 4:4:4 Paris, France and Eindhoven, The Netherlands, December 16th 2009 – Mikros image, a major player in special effects creation and post-production services and Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced the availability of video watermarking of high definition signals in 4:4:4.

The Civolution technical team, assisted by Mikros, advanced its NexGuard watermarking algorithm and its implementation for the quality demands of the 4:4:4 HD format. Mikros image is now offering, as part of its professional service product line known as ‘Digital laboratories and deliverables’, the watermarking of content in 4:4:4. Mikros becomes the first laboratory in Europe to offer such a service to its clients.

“The close collaboration between Civolution and Mikros allowed us to reach a new quality standard for the 4:4:4 format,’’ said Xavier Brachet, Operations Manager at Mikros image.

‘’We are pleased to have extended the usage of our NexGuard solutions to perform robustly in the most demanding situations,” added Jean-Michel Masson, SVP Watermarking Operations for Civolution.

In today’s ‘anytime, anywhere’ delivery and consumption of content, watermarking is becoming an intrinsic part of the content lifecycle. Disseminated throughout the content, the watermark is an efficient deterrent against illicit re-distribution of media and allows the identification of the source of a potential leakage – an invaluable security solution for rights holders.

Based on the Civolution NexGuard product portfolio, the solution allows media content to be embedded with the robust and imperceptible watermark. The watermark or payload is inserted at the time of duplication and can be applied to any tape format up to HDCAM SR. The watermarked content becomes unique and therefore identifiable and traceable.

Civolution Internet Services Scores Double Industry Recognition for Innovation and Performance
2009/10/15

Civolution Internet services awarded with the TV INNOVATION AWARD for content protection and successfully completed the latest MovieLabs fingerprint tests

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, October 15th 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that the company’s Internet Services solution has been awarded with the TV Innovation Award for Content Protection. The award was presented last week at a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in conjunction with the TV 3.0 summit, held at the same venue.

Judged by an independent panel of industry experts, and administered by IMS Research, the TV Innovation Awards recognize the most forward thinking companies that are creating products and services that are driving a new TV paradigm.

IMS Vice President Ian Weightman stated: “As the TV industry evolves to a true on-demand experience, with users able to access extensive libraries of content to be viewed at a time and place and on the device of their choosing, many new challenges and opportunities are presented. The goal of the TV Innovation Awards is to recognize the most forward-thinking companies creating products and services that are driving this new TV paradigm, which is often referred to as TV 3.0. We received well over 100 entries for this year’s awards, which were judged by an independent panel of 14 industry experts. We were especially pleased to have received a large number of entries from Asia and Europe as well as from the US.”

Alongside the award recognition, the performance of the underlying fingerprinting technology was also recently revealed and highlighted in a new round of testing performed by the MPAA and MovieLabs, a research and development joint venture started by the six major motion picture studios.

The Content Recognition Study test, measured the ability for digital fingerprinting technology to recognize media content. It was performed on broad set of media content including movies, television, transformations, transcode, short-clips, mash-ups, musical clips, ingests, talking clips and more.

Alex Terpstra, Civolution’s CEO, commented: “We are proud that our Internet Services platform has been recognized as a major innovation in enabling content owners, internet distributors and publishers to work together to design and operate mutually beneficial content business models. Furthermore, the MPAA and MovieLabs tests provides additional reassurance to our customers that Civolution Internet Services is build on solid and proven fingerprinting technology. This is a great complement to our team who have designed and built the platform and a testament that we are gradually moving from content protection towards content monetization.''

IDMedia Signs Multi-Year Contract for Civolution Teletrax Broadcast Monitoring Service
2009/09/14

ID Media to benefit from Civolution’s digital network and HD upgrade for broadcast measurement of its direct response campaigns

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 14th 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, announced today that ID Media, the largest direct and digital media services company in the U.S. and a subsidiary of IPG (NYSE: IPG), is expanding its use of Civolution’s Teletrax broadcast verification service for tracking and reporting of its media campaigns.

“At ID Media, we have more Fortune 500 clients reaping the benefits of DRTV than ever before, and many are airing in HD. This makes it important for us to evolve our tracking capabilities as rapidly as technology is changing,” said Rob Bochicchio, SVP, Chief Broadcast Officer at ID Media. “Teletrax provides us with the timely and accurate reporting that is critical in today’s media environment.”

The Teletrax broadcast verification network now reaches the top 100 U.S. DMAs following the Digital Upgrade and offers the HD and detection capabilities that are critical for ID Media. Using Teletrax ID Media can obtain the intelligence to manage client budgets and impact ROI more effectively.

“ID Media is a leading direct response media services agency, with some of the world’s best companies as clients. We are very proud such a prominent agency transitioned to Civolution’s Teletrax broadcast monitoring,” said Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. “With our recently upgraded digital network, HD monitoring and the level of services and data we provide, we arm our clients with powerful media intelligence to better assess their campaign performance and accountability for their media investments.”

Teletrax Introduces Major Platform Upgrade, Maximizing Civolution's Rich Technology Base
2009/09/09

The world’s first global broadcast monitoring service combines watermarking and fingerprinting technologies into one comprehensive service

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 9th 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that its Teletrax broadcast monitoring service is now capable of providing broadcast intelligence using its watermarking and fingerprinting technologies.

The flexibility of using both technologies provides identification suitable for long form content such as movies and short form content such as advertisements as well as providing monitoring and encoding options that directly support client usage models and address content workflow preferences.

‘’This is an important strategic development for us and our clients,‘’ said Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra. ”Offering both watermarking and fingerprinting technologies in a combined service allows us to propose solutions even more closely tailored to our customers’ needs and content. As the enhancements are deployed, clients will have the choice to watermark or fingerprint their content to obtain the broadcast intelligence that’s most relevant to their business. They will also have an opportunity to re-purpose the fingerprints for Internet monitoring services, or vice versa, to use fingerprints intended for internet monitoring to be used as identifiers for broadcast monitoring. This switching or ‘all-purposing’ is increasingly important in a converged media environment.’’

Civolution’s Teletrax broadcast verification service is now reaping the benefits of being part of a rich technology company including both fingerprinting and watermarking technologies. The Teletrax watermarks work by adding a payload to every second of content. This is particularly useful for short-form content and clients needing fine reporting granularity such as advertising, being able to distinguish between distribution channels, and confirmation of specific versions or edits.

Fingerprinting, works by extracting the specific features of the video, storing them in a reference database. The network of detectors performs a constant matching of content aired against the reference database, upon identification details are sent to the Teletrax database for analysis and reporting. Fingerprinting will primarily be used for long-form content such as movies or television programming because it is more cost efficient for customers to deploy on large catalogues and also allows the identification of legacy content which has been previously released. Once fingerprinted, the reference fingerprints can also be re-purposed for online tracking and monetization including content filtering, re-directing and ad-linking.

‘’Our talented teams across the world have worked very hard to achieve this major milestone,’’ says Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer at Civolution. ‘’We are already in advanced discussions with a number of clients who see that such services truly enhance return on investment for their video content. We are very proud to be at the forefront of such technological developments and a frontrunner in the broadcast intelligence and content protection industry. ’’

Eurovision Production Coordination awards Civolution contract for broadcast monitoring
2009/09/02

Eurovision Production Coordination to use Civolution’s Teletrax broadcast monitoring service to manage distribution and report results to its sponsors

Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Geneva, Switzerland, September 2nd 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content and Eurovision Production Coordination, a new European Broadcasting Union (EBU) production subsidiary, today announced that they have signed an agreement for Eurovision Production Coordination to use Civolution’s broadcast monitoring service Teletrax. The service will be used to track all video packages produced during the Venice International Film Festival (2-12 September, 2009) and distributed to Eurovision members for use in TV news and arts programming.

“We are delighted EBU chose to extend its relationship with Civolution,’’ says Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra. “The broadcast intelligence provided by Civolution’s Teletrax service offers accountability and transparency for all Venice International Film Festival media stakeholders to measure their return-on-investment, which is critical, particularly in today’s economic climate.’’

Eurovision Special Events and the EBU production subsidiary, Eurovision Production Coordination, (EPC) with the support of Italian National broadcaster RAI, are offering a new concept in host-broadcasting providing more content with increased efficiency to television channels and internet websites worldwide, increasing on-air and online time dedicated to the event. EPC has set up full production services to cover the daily festival events including the press conferences, photo calls, interviews, red carpet, special side stories and the opening ceremony. Using Civolution’s Teletrax broadcast monitoring service, EPC will obtain precise information about the reach of its production packages. With the intelligence gathered, EPC will report back to the sponsors on the performance and impact of their campaigns. In time, EPC will be able to analyse the critical data to refine and enhance its offering to increase airtime, improving ultimately a sponsors’ return-on-investment.

“We are very pleased to benefit from Civolution’s Teletrax service to monitor our worldwide distribution during the coming Venice Film Festival,” says EPC Managing Director Franck Choquard. “Being able to control video package usage and reporting it to the Festival’s sponsors is a key element of the communication solution we are promoting during this international event. Without Civolution’s Teletrax service, it would be impossible to know the air-time usage of our packages and to report it to our sponsors.”

ADB Integrates Civolution Watermarking Technology
2009/08/24

August 24th 2009 - Geneva, Switzerland: Advanced Digital Broadcast, a leading supplier of technology to the global digital television industry, announced recently it was adding watermarking capabilities to its TV convergence solutions portfolio. ADB has integrated Civolution's VTrack watermarking technology into its digital TV set-top boxes, thus providing operators with further means of protecting content.

“The integration of VTrack into ADB's set-top boxes shows VTrack's flexibility in integrating with different platforms ranging from cable, satellite, terrestrial to IPTV. VTrack is a robust and easy to integrate solution,” said Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. “Now with the increased availability of high-definition and early release content, the (camera) capture and distribution of high quality content copies is a new threat requiring fast, efficient and cost-effective solutions.”

Using Civolution's VTrack solution, ADB's set-top boxes can embed a unique watermark into video material each time an on-demand program is distributed, enabling content owners to identify the source of any potential copies. The VTrack watermark will survive camcorder-capture and subsequent degradation of the content through Internet usage.

“ADB is proud to be one of the first set-top box companies to integrate such a solution onto its products,” comments Francois Pogodalla, CEO of ADB.

“Considering the development of home networking, which enables content to flow freely between multiple consumer devices, ADB believes that the industry will welcome our efforts to offer an extra layer of content protection, in addition to today's conditional access solutions.”

Civolution Showcases Extended Product Range at IBC 2009
2009/08/17

Civolution demonstrates integrated product range with new solutions following the company’s recent acquisition of Thomson STS

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, August, 19th 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that following its acquisition of Thomson Software and Technology Solutions (STS), IBC 2009 will be the first public outing for its newly extended and re-branded product ranges.

“IBC 2009 sees the launch of our ‘one-stop shop’ for content identification, management and monetization solutions following the integration of watermarking technologies from Thomson STS with the pre-existing Civolution range of watermarking and fingerprinting products and services,” says Civolution CEO, Alex Terpstra. “With the combination of such outstanding talents and technologies, Civolution offers a powerful proposition with content security and monetization applications for all types of digital content and distribution methods throughout the cycle of content release windows.”

Based on valuable customer feedback, Civolution redefined its product branding policy post-acquisition and adopted the NexGuard product brand for all of its forensic watermarking products.

New forensic watermarking products and enhanced functionality launched at IBC will include:

Other products and services exhibited at IBC 2009 include:

Quinta Industries Provides StudioCanal With Secure Film Preview Service for International Sales
2009/07/30

Quinta Industries builds on Civolution's NexGuard(TM) Content Protection

Paris, France – 30 July, 2009 - Quinta Industries, a leading European provider of content postproduction and distribution services, and STUDIOCANAL a wholly-owned subsidiary of CANAL+ and a leader in film coproduction, acquisition and distribution, announced today the launch of a system for secure transfer of film files using NexGuard Content Protection a solution introduced by Thomson STS now part of Civolution. The launch follows a successful introduction of the system at Cannes’ 2009 Film Market.

Until now, STUDIOCANAL relied on DVDs to distribute its films to rights buyers at film markets. These “screeners” usually come with highly visible copyright displays and logos within the video. While not efficiently dissuading piracy, such displays severely impact the viewing experience according to film buyers.

Engaged in a piracy deterrence policy, STUDIOCANAL reached out to Quinta Industries in order to provide previews of its films to foreign rights buyers in a secure fashion with uncompromised visual quality.

A pilot scheme took place for seven STUDIOCANAL films during the 2009 edition of the Cannes Film Market. The films were made available to buyers on USB memory sticks containing their NexGuard-protected integral version. The files can be viewed on PC or Mac using a security token and PIN code. The security token is handed over in person or shipped to the buyer, while the PIN code is sent separately via email. Security token and PIN code are inoperable without one another.

« The scheme was welcomed by film buyers and STUDIOCANAL sales teams » expressed STUDIOCANAL. The success of the Cannes experiment convinced STUDIOCANAL to generalize the use of the NexGuard system. Therefore, Quinta Industries will go ahead with the service, based on NexGuard Content Protection from Civolution.

While never compromising on sound and picture quality for all the content it processes, Quinta Industries continues to innovate and propose solutions against piracy. ''As we introduce all-digital workflows, it is more crucial than ever to protect our clients’ content'' explained Jean-Robert Gibard, President, Quinta Industries. ''Thanks to NexGuard Content Protection from Civolution, we offer them peace of mind on top of the most complete set of postproduction and distribution tools available on the market''.

''We are very pleased to be working with Quinta and STUDIOCANAL. Piracy in the early stage of the content lifecycle can be a major revenue risk'' said Alex Terpstra, CEO at Civolution. ''Applying a combination of encryption and imperceptible watermarks is a unique way to reduce such risks without interfering with the viewing experience.''

Civolution acquires Thomson STS watermarking business to create best-of-breed resource for media ind
2009/07/21

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July, 21 2009 – Civolution, a leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that it has acquired the Software & Technology Solutions (STS) watermarking business from Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS).

With this acquisition Civolution will be able to offer a broader and richer portfolio of content identification and tracking technologies to enhance its current technologies, products and services. The combination of the two businesses will generate a unique technology and service solutions provider that will benefit media content owners and distributors in the fast growing market for audio and video content tracking, management and monetization. As a result of this amalgamation, Thomson will become a shareholder in Civolution.

“As an independent company following the acquisition of Teletrax and Civolution’s successful spin-out from Philips Royal Electronics last year, this latest acquisition is a natural next step in the execution of our strategy,” says Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra. “In these volatile economic times, we aim to become the most secure and trusted player in the industry offering our customers unrivalled technical excellence and support. The combination of the Thomson STS team, with its rich heritage as an innovative developer of technologies, and the ground-breaking expertise of the Civolution team, creates a uniquely talented group.”

Thomson continues to be committed to the content identification market and has agreed to enter into a technology collaboration with Civolution to develop new solutions for monetizing content.

Civolution’s lead investor since its spin-off from Philips, Prime Technology Ventures (PTV), has committed to provide the necessary funding, endorsing the company’s strategy to build further on its position as a leader in content identification technology and services in the media industry. “We are delighted to support Civolution with this next strategic step to industry leadership, in line with PTV’s investment strategy,” says Sake Bosch, founder and managing partner at PTV.

The integrated Civolution business will be exhibiting at the upcoming IBC 2009 conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (September 11-15), booth 5.B18.

Televisa Selects Civolution's Teletrax For Advertising Verification
2009/06/23

TELEVISA, THE WORLD’S LEADING SPANISH LANGUAGE MEDIA CORPORATION, SELECTS CIVOLUTION’S TELETRAX FOR ADVERTISING VERIFICATION

Eindhoven, Netherlands, June 23rd, 2009 - Civolution, the leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that Mexican broadcaster Televisa, working in tandem with leading Spanish systems integrator Tedial, has selected its Teletrax offering to provide broadcast advertising verification services.

‘’As the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, it is essential for Televisa to protect its content but equally to control usage and manage media inventory. We found in Civolution the ideal partner to provide Televisa with the right tools to manage their video advertising assets,’’ said Emilio Lopez Zapata, CTO of Tedial. ‘’Watermarking is an exciting technology in today’s media world and it will play a crucial role in the media lifecycle, helping safeguard content value and revenues.’’

Tedial, which provides the technology for management of all Televisa’s media content, has integrated Civolution’s watermarking technology into its broadcast process management system known as Ficus. As part of the production process, Ficus automatically watermarks advertising content ensuring that all selected media assets are protected, before sending the video to the content management system for distribution and broadcast. Ficus logs the location and duration of each watermark and also generates low-resolution copies of the content.

Tedial’s LegalCopy module, using data from the Teletrax broadcast monitoring reporting system, retrieves the broadcast as-run log from the playout automation system and compares the results with the Windows Media copy of each channel’s output. Teletrax detectors check for the watermarks and create a certified playout list and identify media that has been cut during playout or broadcast at the incorrect time.

‘’We are very proud that the Civolution watermarking technology and Teletrax broadcast monitoring system has been selected to help Televisa manage its media content,’’ said Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer at Civolution. “This is a fantastic demonstration of how an innovative and leading media corporation can take advantage of Civolution’s rich portfolio of solutions to identify, manage and monetize content usage.’’

Televisa/Tedial joins an impressive list of media organisations already working with Civolution including: Associated Press, Thomson-Reuters, ABC Television Network, CBS Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Eurovision, Fox Broadcasting Company, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, United Nations, ITN Networks, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, Agence-France-Presse and more.

Eurovision Signs Partnership Agreement With Civolution
2009/04/20

Eurovision to offer Teletrax broadcast monitoring solution with its World Feed Service

Eindhoven, Netherlands, April 20th, 2009 - Civolution, the leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Eurovision, for its Teletrax® broadcast monitoring service.

Eurovision will integrate the Teletrax video watermarking based monitoring service into its distribution services. Using Teletrax’s unique global television monitoring network of over 1,500 channels and its web-based reporting tool, Eurovision will report back to its clients with precise broadcast information about the reach and performance of their content.

‘’At Eurovision, we aim to be true partners to our customers, working with them and customizing our services to meet their needs,” said Director of Eurovision Operations Stefan Kuerten. “Teletrax provides excellent new capabilities for our clients on the Eurovision World Feed. Its expansive global monitoring network and near real-time reporting services will greatly enhance our offering. This is a crucial service, particularly in the current economic climate, when producers and rights owners need to precisely measure the impact of their projects.’’

‘’We are extremely pleased to partner with Eurovision, a leading player in the global news and sports markets. This partnership addresses the needs of Eurovision’s clients to understand precisely when, where and how their content is being aired.’’ said Andy Nobbs, Civolution Chief Commercial Officer. ‘’In today’s digital media landscape it is paramount that media owners take informed decisions based on reliable metrics. Teletrax is all about providing that data.’’

Teletrax, Civolution’s broadcast monitoring service, maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitors over 1,500 television channels worldwide. It is the only global digital broadcast verification and intelligence service. Teletrax allows video content owners to precisely track and monitor where, when and how their content is being aired. Airing information is delivered within minutes of broadcast via a web-based reporting interface. The intelligence provided helps media executives to evaluate the reach of their video assets, confirm and prove airing of content, offer proof of performance for sponsors/partnerships, identify the misappropriation of televised assets, develop new licensing models, control content inventory and improve return on investment.

NAB Launch of Civolution Internet Services Enables New Business Models for Online Media Distribution
2009/04/16

Civolution Internet Services enables media and website owners to collaborate to maximize revenues throughout a media asset’s lifecycle

“There is a global shift towards regulators looking to protect the rights of copyright holders when media content is distributed over the internet,” says, Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. “The launch of Civolution Internet Services, with its identification and monitoring of video available for internet distribution, provides the technology to underpin future legal frameworks that protect media distributed online.”

Civolution Internet Services is built on a rich portfolio of content identification technologies and services and provides a comprehensive suite of identification, measurement and management tools needed to effectively launch new revenue-earning services. Using Civolution internet services content owners can evaluate the reach and performance of video assets, confirm content up/download, manage rights and intellectual property, support sponsor revenue, control content inventory and help establish new business opportunities. By identifying and managing on-line media, Civolution is driving the monetization of video content distributed across the internet.

“Although video assets have played a big part in driving the growth of social networking and user generated content web-sites, the business models are not yet in place to monetize these assets,” says Hans van de Ven Civolution’s SVP of Business Development. “The NAB launch of the Civolution Internet Services portfolio provides a system which enables media owners and online publishers to devise profitable new business models based upon sharing revenues.”

Civolution’s Internet Services provide market intelligence gathering, contract compliance data, content filtering and helps enable pay-per-use, re-directing and ad-linking services. The integrated platform includes media registration, media identification and commercial project management functions. It uses fingerprinting-based content identification and enables web-crawling and automatic take-down. Content owner benefits include, global internet coverage allowing full insight in how/when/where media content is used, potential to set distribution parameters and prevent potential misuses, provide online reporting combining internet and television data. For the content distributor, these services enable the building of sustainable business models without the risk of litigation so that the distributor can develop new partnerships based on trust and transparency. Additional important benefits include an easy-to-integrate fingerprint identification tool with no impact on performance and the deployment of re-directing/ad-linking functionality to generate additional revenues.

Civolution Debuts Technology and Services for Identifying, Managing and Monetizing Media Content
2009/04/15

First public outing for Philips spin-off combines Philips Content Identification with Teletrax to enable new revenue opportunities throughout the content lifecycle

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, April 15th, 2009 - Civolution, the leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, today announced that it will demonstrate its enhanced range of cutting edge technologies and services at NAB 2009 (Las Vegas, 18-23 April 2009). The event will be the first public presentation of the new company since its spin-off from Philips in October 2008. On its booth, #SU2512, Civolution is highlighting its range of products designed for the forensic tracking of media assets in pre-release, digital cinema, PayTV and online, together with its combined broadcast and internet media intelligence services and monetization solutions.

“We are proud to be debuting as Civolution at NAB at a time when the media and entertainment industry is undergoing a profound transformation. Media assets are being distributed electronically and freely to all parts of the world and to date, attempts to control them have proven difficult, expensive and resulted in alienating consumers, limiting access and destabilizing revenues,” says Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. “The industry now needs content identification technology and services, which have evolved from the ‘tool of protection’ to become the ‘enabler of monetization’. Civolution’s portfolio enables innovative new business models that allow all players in the content value chain to collaborate and maximise the value of their media assets.”

Civolution is already helping motion picture studios, music labels, news organizations, network and syndicated TV programmers, sports rights holders, advertisers and corporate communicators to better manage and generate new revenues from their assets. Its technology, product and service portfolio offers a new and comprehensive approach for content owners, producers and distributors, helping them to identify, manage and monetize media assets.

At the heart of Civolution’s portfolio of products and services are the technologies of watermarking and fingerprinting. Typically, watermarking and fingerprinting play complementary roles to suit a broad range of applications: forensic tracking, anti-piracy, copyright communication, broadcast monitoring, internet monitoring, asset management, content filtering, internet site re-directing, metadata linking, targeted advertisement, content monetization, interactive triggering and much more.

Visitors to Civolution’s NAB booth #SU2512 will be able to see the company’s range of products and services including:

Teletrax broadcast monitoring - Civolution’s broadcasting service, Teletrax, maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitors over 1,500 channels in more than 60 countries. Teletrax provides video content owners with services that enable them to precisely track and monitor where, when and how their content is being aired.

This data helps media executives to evaluate the reach of their video assets, confirm and prove airing of content, offer proof of performance for sponsors/partnerships, identify the misappropriation of televised assets, develop new licensing models, control content inventory and improve return on investment.

Internet Services – Launching at NAB, Civolution’s Internet Services provides a content monetization and internet tracking platform for market intelligence gathering, content filtering, pay-per-use, re-directing and ad-linking services.

Forensic Watermarking Solutions:

VTrack – a forensic tracking application which helps protect content within the PayTV and hospitality TV environment, VTrack has been designed for integration in consumer devices such as TVs and set-top boxes.

MediaMarker – a forensic tracking application which enables content owners and internet distributors to watermark high volumes of video or audio content, simultaneously, at high-speed in the online environment.

CineFence – especially developed, and widely deployed, for forensic tracking in the digital cinema environment, fully DCI-compliant, CineFence is able to link camcorder-captured movies back to the cinema where the camcorder copying occurred.

CompoTrack – a range of products and solutions for studios and post production companies to embed unique watermarks in order to make copies traceable. CompoTrack products are available as stand-alone products as well as SDKs integrated with many encoder suppliers.

Digital Rapids Integrates Civolution's Teletrax Watermarking
2009/04/15

Support for Teletrax’s broadcast monitoring solution plug-in incorporated in Digital Rapids’ latest encoding and transcoding solutions

Eindhoven, Netherlands and Markham, Ontario, April 15th 2009 - Civolution, the leading provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing media content and Digital Rapids, the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences, announced today the availability of an integrated solution for multiple-format encoding and watermarking, making it simpler and more cost-effective for organisations to watermark and track their content. The integrated solution makes its global debut at NAB on the Digital Rapids (SL6213) and Civolution (SU2512) booths.

"Monitoring and tracking usage provides valuable data to help content owners maximize the value of their content and the effectiveness of their media strategies," said Brian Stevenson, Director of Product Management at Digital Rapids. "We're very pleased to extend our partnership with Civolution and to offer the power of Teletrax to our customers as part of seamless and efficient encoding, transcoding and watermarking workflows."

As part of the upcoming 3.0 software release for Digital Rapids’ award-winning StreamZ™ and StreamZHD™ media ingest and encoding servers, Civolution’s Teletrax® watermarking and broadcast monitoring solution will be available as an optional module. Teletrax will also be supported as an optional plug-in with the latest version of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager® software.

With the optional Teletrax plug-in, users of StreamZ, StreamZHD and Transcode Manager can watermark source content ‘on the fly’ as part of the encoding or transcoding process as new file formats are generated. Once watermarked, content will then be tracked across the Teletrax global monitoring network of over 1,500 television channels worldwide. Using a dedicated online web interface, subscribers of the Teletrax service will obtain precise details of content airings, only minutes after broadcast. The business intelligence provided enables content or rights owners to make informed decisions that will directly impact their bottom-line.

‘’This is a very exciting development and we are thrilled to strengthen our long-standing partnership with Digital Rapids,’’ said Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer at Civolution. ”By combining both Digital Rapids’ encoding and transcoding technology advances with Teletrax’s watermarking and broadcast monitoring solution, we are setting a new standard for efficiency and capability in today’s sophisticated media workflows.’’

StreamZ™ and StreamZHD™ offer simultaneous, top-quality encoding to multiple formats and devices from live, tape and file-based sources. The Transcode Manager enterprise-class media transcoding software provides automated, distributed file-to-file transcoding for high-volume, multi-format workflows, allowing increased production volume while reducing operational costs.

Civolution’s broadcasting service, Teletrax, maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitors over 1,500 television channels worldwide. It is the only global broadcast verification and intelligence service. Teletrax precisely tracks and monitors where, when and how video content is being aired around the world. Airing information is delivered within minutes of broadcast via a web-based reporting interface. The intelligence provided helps media executives to evaluate the reach of their video assets, confirm and prove airing of content, offer proof of performance for sponsors/partnerships, identify the misappropriation of televised assets, develop new licensing models, control content inventory and improve return on investment.

Philips Spin-out Civolution Highlights Growth and Future Service Extensions
2008/12/18

Media intelligence service Teletrax revenue up more than 40% year on year.

Eindhoven, Netherlands, December 18th 2008 – Civolution, the recent spin-out from Philips and a world-leading technology and services provider for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, announced today record revenue growth rate of its Teletrax service arm.

Teletrax, the media intelligence and broadcast verification service of Civolution, witnessed continued strong interest in its service during the second half of 2008. Media executives are under intense pressure to find ways to determine precisely the performance of their video assets. By measuring exactly and rapidly the impact of their assets or projects, they can make the necessary adjustments and ultimately optimize the value of their video.

Teletrax renewed and signed a number of new contracts with major industry media owners in the news, sports, entertainment, advertising and marketing communication industries. As an example, Teletrax is now entering the second year of its agreement with the European Commission to measure and report on the usage of its audio visual materials. Such client relationships helped Civolution increase its Teletrax revenue to deliver more than 40% year on year growth for 2008 against 2007.

‘’In such uncertain economic times, measurement is critical to ensure optimum return on investment’’, said Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer at Civolution. ’It is increasingly important for companies to ensure they are wisely allocating their resources and budget. Teletrax is all about helping its clients achieve and measure that success.’’

Further to the amalgamation of the two entities Philips Content Identification and Teletrax in August this year and its subsequent spin-out from Philips in October; Civolution continues to develop the synergies of the two entities. It is working on further enhancing its broadcast verification service for new business applications by integrating Mediahedge video fingerprinting to its global broadcast monitoring network. The service is also being enhanced with a sophisticated media tracking solution for the internet.

‘’We have been very impressed by the level of positive feedback we have received following the integration of Teletrax into Civolution’’ said Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. ‘’Our fantastic teams continue to work very hard, listening to our customers and prospects, to engineer content identification and measurement solutions that will help our clients obtain the information they need to make the right decisions.’’

The latest customers join an already impressive list of media organisations: Associated Press, Thomson-Reuters, ABC Television Network, CBS Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC News Channel, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, United Nations, ITN Networks, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, Agence-France-Presse, Major League Baseball, Volvo Event Management and more.

Prime Technology Ventures and Philips announces spin out of content identification services
2008/10/20

Prime Technology Ventures and Philips arrange for successful spin out of world leading content identification services: Civolution B.V.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands –The company formerly known as Philips Content Identification, a leader in content identification services and technologies based on digital audio and video fingerprinting and watermarking announced the completion of its spin-out from Philips Corporate Technologies. The company will operate under the new brand name Civolution. The spin-out includes Teletrax, the world’s first global broadcast intelligence company and former joint-venture of Philips and Medialink.

Prime Technology Ventures (PTV), a leading independent pan-European venture capital firm headquartered in The Netherlands, has provided funding for the new Civolution company through its PTV III fund. In addition to other limited partners, Philips also became limited partner in PTV, demonstrating its continued commitment to the growth of the Civolution business.

Civolution offers complete end-to-end solutions in content identification, managing and monetization services to content owners and distributors. As a new and independent company, Civolution is well positioned to anticipate and respond to the needs of the dynamic market of the digital content industry. The spin-out allows Civolution the flexibility to take new strategic directions beyond the current scope of Philips and to and to focus fully on meeting market demands as they evolve.

“We are delighted to announce the realization of this next major milestone in our strategic plan following the recent merger with Teletrax”, says Alex Terpstra Civolution CEO. “With our great team of dedicated professionals and with a wide range of experience in the field of content identification technology and services, we have the ambition to play a pivotal role and lead the way in the evolution of content identification, helping content owners and distributors identify, manage and monetize their content.”

“The spin-out of the Content Identification unit demonstrates Philips’ endorsement of nurturing emerging technology and successfully bringing this new technology to market,” commented Jelto Smits, SVP and CEO of Philips Technology Incubator. ”Philips is confident that the Content Identification unit will play the strategic role it has in mind and Philips will continue to support the venture through its partner position in PTV.”

Sake Bosch, founder and Managing Partner of PTV commented: “We welcome Civolution to our portfolio of high growth companies. Civolution matches our sector experience and expertise and we believe it has the potential to achieve international dominance.”

Philips Enhances Its Content Identification Business With Teletrax Content Monitoring Services
2008/09/02

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced that it has assumed full ownership of its former joint venture Teletrax, the world’s first global broadcast intelligence company. Philips plans to combine Teletrax with its Content Identification business thereby creating a new unit which offers best in class technology and proven service expertise. This new pairing will provide full end-to-end solutions for content owners and distributors, and positions it uniquely in the growing market for audio and video content tracking, recognition, monitoring and monetization services.

Teletrax was launched in 2002 as a joint venture between Philips and Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK). Based on Philips’ digital watermarking, and fingerprinting technologies Teletrax provides clients with services that enable them to precisely track and monitor where, when and how their content is being aired via cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting. In 2006, Teletrax partnered with Philips for its Mediahedge service, an end-to-end service platform for identifying, monitoring and monetizing media content on the Internet.

“By integrating Teletrax and Philips Content Identification, we have made a major step change. This move accelerates our position to a full end-to-end service and technology partner throughout the lifecycle of audio visual and technological services, for tracking, recognition, monitoring and monetization of content,” says Alex Terpstra CEO of Philips Content Identification. After many years of cooperation between our two great teams, our customers can now benefit from this strong combination going forward”, he adds.

As independent entities, the two businesses provided solutions in multiple markets but the new combination will more comprehensively provide a rich suite of services to content owners, producers and distributors in the entertainment, news, advertising, sports, Internet, and telephony sectors.

“The newly-created Philips Content Identification and Teletrax team will be able to rapidly anticipate new market developments and trends in order to provide customers with new innovative solutions and services to address the converging markets of broadcast, Internet and mobile,” says Andy Nobbs, president and managing director of Teletrax.

Teletrax will continue to deliver its high value services to customers from offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.

The new Philips Content Identification and Teletrax combination will be present at the upcoming IBC2008 conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (September 12-16). Booth 4.C44.

Teletrax Announces Multi-Year Contract Renewal With The NBC Agency
2008/05/05

Network Division Relies on Broadcast Intelligence to Manage Promotional Campaign Performance

HOLLYWOOD, May 5, 2008 – Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company, today announced a multi-year contract renewal with The NBC Agency, a division of NBC Universal, Inc. Teletrax is a majority-owned subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK).

The NBC Agency, the internal advertising agency for NBC Universal, supports the promotional and advertising needs of all NBC Universal-owned television entities including NBC network entertainment, news, sports and corporate divisions, as well as its cable, Internet, and syndicated properties. A long-term client of Teletrax, The NBC Agency uses the Teletrax® suite of broadcast intelligence services to electronically monitor and analyze affiliate stations' usage of its on-air television show promotions across all 210 U.S. television markets.

“The Teletrax service is an invaluable cornerstone of our business, and has set the industry standard for media measurement and intelligence gathering, and now being able to view all 210 domestic DMAs, it becomes a more powerful tool for us,” said Douglas Holloway, president of NBC Network Distribution Partnerships and Affiliate Marketing.

“Through Teletrax, we are able to gain a clear picture of how our promotional campaigns are performing which allows us to determine the effectiveness of our marketing efforts in a precise and immediate manner, providing an unmatched level of excellence in service,” added Scot Chastain, Senior Vice President, NBC Affiliate Marketing and Development.

“Teletrax is very proud of the partnership we have established with the NBC Agency, and we are pleased that it has committed to extend this valued relationship,” said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. “Being considered such an integral part of The NBC Agency further demonstrates the important role media intelligence plays in organizations’ need to understand how and when their video content is used.”

New Media Measurement Capabilities Gaining Traction Rapidly
2008/04/29

Myers/Teletrax Study Finds Digital Watermarking, Other Measurement Technologies Critical for Business Success

NEW YORK, April 29, 2008 – The advertising and media industries are rapidly embracing improved research and measurement technologies according to a new report released today by television and interactive media research authority, Myers Publishing, LLC, and underwritten by Teletrax®, the global broadcast intelligence company. Teletrax is a subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK).

Twenty senior executives from the media buying, advertising, measurement and product marketing communities were interviewed for the report, “Great Expectations: Research Industry Looks Toward a New Era in Media Measurement.” The report finds that the advent of technologies that enable enhanced accountability, such as digital watermarking, have led a traditionally resistant media industry to embrace new forms of measurement. Another important finding is the increased demand for business-to-business solutions for tracking and maintaining accountability for program and advertising video content across myriad distribution outlets.

“Generally, executives have always been driven to gather actionable data, but achieving that precision has caused an inherent struggle within an industry that lacked the proper tools to gather measurability,” said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. “The basis of Teletrax’s business allows the industry to move towards addressability by providing executives with more detailed intelligence required to determine return-on-investment.”

The rapid evolution of research from a currency for measuring audience estimates to a tool for forecasting and planning is a radical change that has a significant impact on the market, the survey says. The Myers/Teletrax report finds that increasing demands for accountability have caused most media executives to shift their business objectives to include forward-looking models and a strategic focus on valuing advertising exposure, tracking content distribution and gaining insights on audience engagement. Overall, the industry is focusing more on the impact their advertising and marketing initiatives have on their bottom line.

The full content of the white paper, “Great Expectations: Research Industry Looks Toward a New Era in Media Measurement” is available online here and www.myersreport.com.
Highlights of the white paper will be discussed at the JackMyers Future of Media Breakfast event, “Realities of Dealing With the Changing Media Marketplace” to be held on April 29, 2008, in New York. The event, lead sponsored by Teletrax, will include opening remarks by Teletrax chairman Laurence Moskowitz, a panel discussion moderated by Jack Myers and feature speakers: Sarah Fay, chief executive officer, Carat and Isobar U.S.; Dina Kaplan, chief operating officer blipTV; Jack Haber, vice president advertising and eBusiness, Colgate Palmolive Company; Ablie Hecht, chief executive officer Worldwide Biggies; and Shane Steele, consultant and former Coca-Cola head of interactive marketing.