Blinkx signs up the Guardian and Five

by Ben Sillis, Media Week 09-Apr-08, 14:50

LONDON - Video search engine blinkx has expanded its content offering by striking partnerships with two leading UK media owners, the Guardian and Five.

Blinx users will be able to view video highlights from Five News and the Guardian. The agreement with Five also gives Blinkx users access to Sky News content. Sky News produces Five News on behalf of the RTL Group-owned broadcaster.

Blinkx will place adverts relevant to the search next to the footage, in place of its regular ad hoc advertising platform, and share revenue with the Guardian and Five.

Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx's founder and chief executive, said the addition of news content would boost the search engine's offering.

Last month, it struck a deal with the BBC to index content available via the corporation's iPlayer on-demand service.

Blinkx uses speech and video recognition, as well as text to accurately index videos, and has more than 10 million hours of searchable content.