Media Companies Maximize Under-Utilized Digital Audio and Video Content with Mediafly Internet Media Operating System
(CHICAGO, Illinois – May 13, 2009) – Mediafly,
the Internet Media Operating System company that enables the
personalized delivery of media to virtually any consumer electronics
device, today announced strategic partnerships with three leading
producers of digital audio and video content: CD Baby, NBC Chicago and
Sporting News.
CD Baby
noticed that downloads of its podcasts were growing, and after checking
into their distribution methods, discovered that, while iTunes remained
the driving force behind its traffic, a noticeable portion of its
podcast downloads were attributed to Mediafly. After realizing the
potential for adding exponential growth to its online content, CD Baby
partnered with Mediafly to help take distribution of its high quality
online content to the next level.
One of Mediafly's premier media partners, NBC Chicago,
was the very first major market TV station in the United States to
produce a regular podcast. NBC Chicago uses Mediafly technologies for
its podcasts, and all links for NBC5 podcasts go through Mediafly. As
part of the expanding partnership, NBC Chicago is pilot testing
Mediafly’s new VOIPublishing(TM) feature, which allows media
companies to seamlessly convert phone conversations into functional
digital assets tailor made for podcasts.
"Turning around a phone
interview into digital form used to take several steps,” said Marcus
Riley web development manager for NBC Chicago. “With Mediafly’s
VOIPublishing feature, it is easier and faster for our NBC web editors
to create new podcast episodes. From breaking news to remote on
location stories, all we need is a phone.”
Sporting News was
looking for a way to hit the ground running with digital media creation
and a way to dramatically improve the time it took to create podcasts.
It also required a turnkey solution for promoting its content across a
number of channels. As a result of its Mediafly partnership, Sporting
News podcasts were off the ground in less than 10 days on a flexible
platform that was easily promoted by Mediafly’s existing consumer
electronics and media company partnerships.
“The difference
between our podcast development process before and after Mediafly is
amazing,” said Shawn Schrager, director of programming and product
development for SportingNews.com. “It’s clear that the creation and
distribution potential for our digital audio and video content has
increased significantly, and we’re thrilled with the promotional tools
that are built right into Mediafly’s platform.”
The ubiquity of
online audio and video content is clear. All the major television
networks have availed their content online, and sites like Hulu have
gained tremendous popularity. But this model requires users to view
content at their computer, or must be purchased via iTunes and watched
on a limited set of devices. And the free downloads (podcasts) are too
“techie” for the mainstream and don’t include the most popular shows
because the networks don’t have as effective an advertising model as
they do for traditional TV and radio.
According to Kurt Scherf,
Parks Associates vice president and principal analyst, “Online media
today, available on services such as YouTube and Hulu, is only
scratching the surface of the opportunity and ad revenue that will be
seen in the coming years on the desktop and across a constantly growing
number of consumer electronics devices.”
As consumer pressure for
the ubiquitous availability of personalized media and a consistent user
experience across all of their devices continues to grow, the future of
media consumption points toward a solution that doesn’t require all of
the content, device and advertising companies to agree on a single
static format.
“We’re thrilled that the value of our platform
continues to be validated by big-name partners such as CD Baby, NBC
Chicago and Sporting News,” said Carson Conant, CEO and co-founder of Mediafly.
“With our solution in place, our partners can focus on creating
engaging content while we handle all the technical aspects in a
non-exclusive manner to maximize ad revenue and deliver device-agnostic
media to a rapidly expanding consumer base of mobile and home/office
internet-enabled device users.”
About Mediafly
Mediafly
is an Internet Media Operating System company that enables the
personalized delivery of media to virtually any consumer electronics
device. For media publishers, Mediafly’s open media platform helps turn
under-utilized digital audio and video content into profitable
distribution channels. For consumers, Mediafly makes it easy to find,
aggregate and organize personalized media across their preferred
Internet-connected devices. Mediafly is a privately held company based
in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, please visit
www.mediafly.com.
# # #
Contacts:
Carson Conant Michael Beno Nissy Atassi
Mediafly Ruder Finn Ruder Finn
312.281.5176 (office) 312.329.3970 (office) 312.329.3979 (office)
312.404.5870 (mobile) 312.961.6633 (mobile) 312.285.5434 (mobile)
carson@mediafly.com benom@ruderfinn.com atassin@ruderfinn.com
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