The controversy around digital-media piracy could become a thing of the past if a new partnership between MySpace, MTV Networks, and Auditude bears fruit.
Instead of filing lawsuits to stop piracy, the trio is looking to help copyright holders cash in on pirated content by embedding advertising into audience-uploaded videos across MySpace.
“Auditude is opening the floodgates for users to program video on MySpace and ensure copyright holders get paid,” said Jeff Berman, MySpace president of marketing and sales. “In one fell swoop, Auditude and its partners are empowering consumers and building a better business model. That’s a good deal all around.”
Identifying Relevant Ads
As Berman noted, MySpace is leveraging a patented technology developed by Auditude. The technology uses automatic identification to match virtually any professional video uploaded across the Internet with an ad platform that lets content owners serve targeted ads within that content.
Auditude has already indexed more than a billion minutes of professional content — including more than 250 million videos, and four years’ worth of 100 channels of television. It’s a concept that could open the door to an otherwise untapped revenue stream. That, the company said, is part of its mission.
“We embrace the fact that online video is fundamentally social and created the identification technology and advertising platform to include the power of audience syndication — fans uploading content to the Web — as a form of content distribution,” said Adam Cahan, CEO of Auditude. “We hope to grow the market for monetizing online video by simplifying ad targeting and providing scale through audience participation.”
Driving Additional Revenue
As part of the solution, Auditude announced the launch of the Attribution Overlay. The service’s latest feature automatically identifies content informing viewers about shows being viewed online.
The attribution also lets content owners integrate information about the video clip being watched…