Local Stations Sign On for Critical Media's Syndicaster Platform

Syndicaster Allows Transcription of Video Moments, Lets Subscribers Cut and Paste Segments with Video Attached

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/22/2008 5:13:00 PM

Critical Media Tuesday announced two station deals for its Syndicaster platform: Sunbelt Communications, which owns and operates 16 Fox and NBC stations in Western states including Utah, Nevada and Montana; and Bonneville International, which owns KSL-TV in Salt Lake City.

The Syndicaster platform grew out of Critical Media’s ClipSyndicate, which captures and digitizes video content, making it fully text-searchable.

Syndicaster allows transcription of video moments after they air, giving subscribers the ability to easily cut and paste segments, with video attached, for immediate dissemination to thousands of Web sites. The Syndicaster tool is user-friendly and could drastically cut down the time and manpower it takes to get content from stations to myriad Web sites.

The platform also gives broadcasters an opportunity to further monetize news content via embedded audience-relevant advertising.

ClipSyndicate's content providers, which include more than 300 local stations, all have access to the Syndicaster platform, and the company hopes that more of them will sign on for the service, which is available to them at no extra charge.

“Since we’re already monetizing our database services,” Critical Media founder Sean Morgan said, “we might as well empower broadcasters.”

Also, Critical Media signed former WorldNow executive Ion Puspurica to head the company’s newly created Broadcaster Services Group.