New Service Offers Online Video Syndication

A company with roots in Web-based television news search and broadcast monitoring launched a beta service Thursday to give businesses a way to tap into syndicated

Critical Mention Inc. allows companies to syndicate video chips from ClipSyndicate.com through agreements with content partners, such as Clear Channel Television. The service provides search options for timely published media video reports on their Web site.

Subscribers that syndicate video clips receive a thumbnail, headline and summary directly through the ClipSyndicate platform. Members are provided a user name and password to access the site. Once logged in, they can search for relevant video content to post on their Web site, and then publish the video link and thumbnail picture to the Web site.

About 200 companies have begun to test the service, including SmartBrief, Cygnus Business Media Interactive, mediabistro.com’s TV Newser.com, and Technology Marketing Corp. (TMC).

TMC has been running internal trials for two days and plans to make the service publicly available on its Web site within the week, said Rich Tehrani, TMC president. Aside from expectations that the service will drive additional advertising revenue, "video is hot right now," Tehrani said.

Critical Mention founder and chief executive officer Sean Morgan said ClipSyndicate gives companies a method to reach targeted advertising markets not available with past offering. Morgan co-founded Screamingmedia, which was acquired by CBS MarketWatch for more than $100 million.

ClipSyndicate media player will give advertisers two options in which to place advertisements: a banner ad in the player window and in-line video ads that stream prior to the requested clip.

Internet video advertising in the United States will nearly triple in 2007 to $640 million, and advertisers will spend $1.5 billion for online video ads by the end of the decade, estimates eMarketer Inc.

Content owners that submit clips are processed through voice-to-text software, providing text files for every spoken word in clip. Critical Mention executives declined to identify the company that will provide the software for this feature, but IBM Corp. is known as a strong player in the space.

Critical Mention taps Linux and open source applications to build services. "We are fully based on the <a = "http: www.techweb.com encyclopedia defineterm.jhtml?term="lamp"">LAMP

stack, and when possible use Windows in respect to Windows Media players," said Alan Davison, chief financial officer.