The theme of the inaugural Digital Marketplace Forum was “Connecting content to consumers: Catalysing media ICT innovations”. |
BayTSP, which provides global online copyright monitoring, enforcement, measurement and monetisation services, has announced the initial deployment of its online content identification system that allows content owners and advertisers to effectively engage audiences, manage video advertising and monetise content on user-generated content (UGC) sites.
The system, announced at the 2009 Asia Television Forum (ATF) in December, was developed with support from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), as an accelerator project under the agency’s Digital Marketplace Programme (DMP). It went from concept to production in less than six months, and is the first production system to integrate contextual analysis of audio and video with online advertising and promotion programmes. BayTSP is partnering MediaCorp in this initiative, with the latter providing the content and exploring advertising models
“The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore has taken the lead in promoting Singapore as a digital media distribution hub and their support for this project will put Singapore at the forefront of the global push to monetise digital content online.” said BayTSP Chief Executive Officer Mr Mark Ishikawa.
Mr Ishikawa was one of the speakers at the inaugural Digital Marketplace Forum organised by IDA. With the theme “Connecting content to consumers: Catalysing media ICT innovations”, the forum featured presentations on the latest technology trends and opportunities to bring content to fast-evolving digital consumer platforms, as well as innovative business models that were emerging to increase monetisation of content. IDA also shared with the 100 participants that the agency will actively forge collaboration with the industry and industry players are invited to come forward to share with IDA their ideas and proposals.
Mr Mark Ishikawa: IDA’s support for the online content identification project will put Singapore at the forefront of the global push to monetise digital content online. |
BayTSP’s system uses multiple digital fingerprinting and watermarking technologies to identify content posted on user-generated content sites. This gives content owners such as MediaCorp more options for partnering with UGC sites to deliver highly relevant advertising and promotions alongside user posted content.
Mr Mock Pak Lum, Managing Director, MediaCorp Technologies, noted that the collaboration with IDA and BayTSP in the accelerator project will enable MediaCorp to explore the potential of innovative content fingerprinting combined with digital advertising for further monetisation of MediaCorp's content, he added. “Through this collaboration, we hope to explore and develop a viable business model to combat content piracy."
Welcoming these developments, Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director, Industry Development Group of IDA said the collaboration was in line with IDA’s Digital Marketplace Programme to establish Singapore as Asia’s trusted hub for managing and distributing digital content and services. “Through this accelerator project, we hope to enable content owners, advertisers and media service providers to leverage on infocomm technologies to open up new growth opportunities to reach out to the growing number of digital media consumers in Asia,” he said.
The Digital Marketplace Programme
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is extending the reach and coverage of its Digital Marketplace Programme (DMP). Launched in June 2008, the DMP aims to establish Singapore as a hub for managing and distributing digital content, by leveraging the country’s reputation as a trusted hub with good intellectual property protection and strong international connectivity.
Moving forward, DMP will focus on anchoring business-to-business media service providers as well as business-to-consumer content owners and aggregators in Singapore, and encouraging them to develop their operations here; building value-added services and capabilities to strengthen the ecosystem; developing and advocating digital media best practices; and enhancing market reach by extending existing physical media content trading markets with online capabilities, and by building regional distribution alliances and access to consumer platforms.
“We want to encourage companies to use Singapore as a beachhead to reach out to the rest of the world,” said Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director, Industry Development Group of IDA.
In Singapore the ICT revenue in the digital media sector has grown from S$2.32 billion in 2007 to S$2.53 billion in 2008. Under the DMP, IDA hopes to grow a vibrant ecosystem of world-class companies in Singapore to offer innovative and competitive digital services across the digital media value chain to reach the fast growing digital consumers.
The deployment of the online content authentication identification system by BayTSP and Mediacorp is one of the latest projects to be announced under DMP. Another DMP-supported project is the Interactive On-Demand Screening Platform (branded i-Screener), which was first introduced as the first digital extension of Asia Television Forum (ATF) in 2008. For the first time in the region, buyers and sellers of broadcast and video programmes were able to view and procure materials digitally online. An enhanced i-Screener with improved features, such as search functionalities and real time viewership, was unveiled at ATF 2009.