BT Unveils Content Platform

LONDON -- BT today launched an integral part of its strategy to increase the value and potential of broadband for millions of customers.

BT Rich Media is a digital media platform provider to allow anyone from a large corporate to a small business to become an online content provider to the mass market. Looking forward, it is also intended that the services will be made available for consumers to provide their content to end users.

BT has partnered with Real Networks to provide easy-to-use management tools that make publishing and managing content so easy that absolutely anybody can become a content provider or distributor.

Aspiring content providers will also be able to take advantage of a simple route to market eliminating the need for the involvement of a third party. For already established content owners, BT Rich Media ensures another channel to optimise the value of their existing catalogue and archives, as well as future content.

This includes the ability to store, retrieve, manage, package, sell and deliver everything from digital music and video footage to live sport and special interest content.

Andy Brown, CEO, BT Rich Media said: "What is truly revolutionary about BT Rich Media is that it will allow us to encompass both the 'personal' market where families and friends share content, such as pictures and videos, and the 'small professional' market where we deliver a more sophisticated product set.

"What Rich Media provides is a platform to enable thousands of content providers to reach an audience of millions."

Customers who have already made use of the platform include Fremantle and In the Box Media.

BT has also partnered with digital content specialists TWI Interactive (TWIi) in order to provide a platform to enable TWIi to distribute its extensive content back catalogue as well as its future rights to global sporting events.

BT Rich Media is the UK's first and only platform of its type. With Digital Rights Management (DRM) software embedded in all content, the platform will legitimise file sharing for both providers and consumers alike.

Brown added: "BT Rich Media offers great possibilities to content owners, distributors and consumers alike. Thanks to the increasing availability and popularity of broadband, the consumer is in a better position than ever before to make the most of the internet.

"Our customers are among the first in the market to be able to spot the potential and are seizing this opportunity to bring quality content in a new medium to a new audience. With BT Rich Media acting as the one-stop enabler for the distribution of content, the sky's the limit in terms of the possibilities this offers.

"The digital rights element is in no way intended to restrict distribution - in fact, quite the opposite. The software is downloaded at no extra charge, and encourages users to share digital files with flexible billing options, including those linked to the end user's BT account," he added.

Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, Inc, said: "It's never been easier to get your content across to your chosen audience. Anything from music to special interest programmes will be potentially available to download and view in a secure, legitimate and cost-effective forum. Given the global medium of the internet, it really is about pushing the content from thousands to a worldwide audience of millions."

BT Group plc