Clearleap in Deal to Bring Break Media's Online Videos to Cable and IPTV VOD Systems

Submitted by tracyswedlow on December 21, 2009 - 4:22am

--VOD Round-Up: Karaoke Channel, Police Blotter, Comcast's 100th Day-and-Date Movie, Ofcom

Clearleap, an Atlanta-based company which offers a technology platform for bringing Internet-sourced video content to television sets, announced last week that it has signed a deal with Break Media, the company that operates Break.com, an entertainment Web site which targets a male demographic, to bring the latter's broadband video content to the TV screen. According to the companies, their partnership will enable Break.com to dynamically deliver a portion of its video library to Clearleap's Content Marketplace, where it will instantly be available for cable and IPTV operators to use as VOD programming.

The companies say that Break Media's online hub, which features viral videos and specially produced short-form video clips, will syndicate featured content that appears on the Break.com home page by delivering a simple MRSS feed to Clearleap's technology platform. Clearleap--which claims to have successfully deployed its technology platform into the infrastructure of 20 cable and IPTV systems in the course of 2009--says that it will automatically make the content TV-ready and deliver it to operators within minutes, thus "making the content workflow simple and seamless for both TV operators and Break."

The deal also calls for Clearleap to feature Break.com videos in the pre-packaged content bundles that it provides to cable and IPTV operators and that include such packages as Comedy, Pop Culture and Viral. In addition, the companies say, operators will have the option of creating a dedicated Break.com VOD channel, and will be able to use Clearleap's filtering technologies to offer programming by rating and topic. "Break Media believes in the importance of reaching its core demographic of males 18-34 wherever they are online and on TV," Huan Le, Break Media's VP of business development, said in a prepared statement. "Clearleap's experience in VOD made them a natural fit as an offline distribution channel that will increase Break Media's visibility and reach." Added Clearleap co-founder and CEO, Braxton Jarratt: "Break Media is a welcome addition to our growing portfolio of premium Web content providers. Cable and IPTV providers view cutting-edge Web video as a compelling way to engage and entertain their customers and Clearleap makes it incredibly easy to make it happen."

In other VOD news:

Avail-TVN--the company formed in July from the merger of VOD distribution services provider, TVN Entertainment, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content-aggregation services for smaller IPTV operators (see the article published on itvt.com, July 15th)--and Stingray Digital last week announced an upgrade to the video format of Stingray's The Karaoke Channel, and the launch of a new marketing toolkit designed to help operators market the channel. According to the companies, The Karaoke Channel's new videos will "display an original, genre-specific video montage behind the clearly displayed lyrics on the screen" and will "more closely resemble music videos." In order to help its operator affiliates market the channel, Avail-TVN says it is launching an awareness campaign that features a cross-channel ad that the affiliates can run on their systems and/or promote within their customized barker service. In addition, the company is making various marketing tools available on its affiliate Web site, including The Karaoke Channel logos, Web banners, artwork for bill inserts, tip sheets for call center agents, and articles on karaoke that can be used in customer newsletters. "The consumer response to The Karaoke Channel has been tremendous--consistently generating over 3 million views a month," Avail-TVN chief revenue officer, Jim Riley, said in a prepared statement. "The new video formats have been a win-win for our affiliates and their subscribers, and further enhance the unique value proposition of VOD. As we approach the Christmas season, during which karaoke performs especially well, the new videos will further immerse VOD customers in the music and improve an already-exciting experience." Avail-TVN is the exclusive licensor and distributor of The Karaoke Channel, which it says is currently available in over 34 million North American households. The service offers around 600 songs, with content refreshed monthly from a library of over 17,000 songs. According to Avail-TVN, 54% of subscribers with access to the service use it at least once a month.
Comcast announced last week that it has teamed with Washington, DC's Metropolitan Police Department to launch its Police Blotter On Demand service in the US capital and surrounding areas, including Montgomery County, Frederick County, and Prince George's County, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The service--which is an implementation of a service that Comcast originally launched with the Philadelphia Police Department back in 2006 (note: that year, it also teamed with the Maryland State Police to launch a similar service, called "Fugitive Files On Demand"), and which is located in its VOD platform's "Get Local" category--features regularly updated video profiles of individuals from Washington, DC's "Most Wanted" list, together with information on how viewers with knowledge about those individuals can contact the police anonymously. Comcast claims that Police Blotter On Demand, which it has now launched in 24 of its markets, has helped law enforcement officials capture around 90 fugitives to date.
Comcast says that "(500) Days of Summer," which is scheduled to be available on its VOD platform December 22nd, will be the 100th VOD movie that it has offered this year day-and-date with its DVD release. Other day-and-date VOD movies offered by the MSO this month include "Terminator Salvation" (12/01), "Julie & Julia" (12/08), "Taking Woodstock" (12/15), "All About Steve" (12/22), "Jennifer's Body" (12/29), "A Perfect Getaway" (12/29) and "9" (12/29).
UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has begun overseeing regulation of VOD services, in accordance with the European Union's new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which requires that "TV-like" VOD services should be regulated as of December 19th, 2009. More information is available here; and some background detail is available in the article published on itvt.com, September 14th.