BBC to track use of selected international sources of news material

The BBC has launched a six-month study to examine how it uses video news material from selected international news providers.

The study, part of a larger examination of the internal workings of the BBC, will give the news organization a better understanding of how it builds public value as a publicly funded broadcaster.

The BBC will rely on the services of Teletrax, a digital watermarking firm, to gather the data.

Launched more than two years ago as a service using patented technology developed by a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and Medialink, Teletrax's technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, transmitted broadcast or duplicated. The underlying technology is patent protected by Philips and Digimarc.

A global network of watermark detectors captures all occurrences of the embedded video being transmitted via satellite, cable or terrestrially, and generates tracking reports for the content owners. Reports of individual broadcast airings are delivered online in near real-time via data file transfers. Broadcast activity is updated dynamically, 24 hours a day.

For more information, visit www.teletrax.tv and www.medialink.com.

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