blinkx Brings Best of Emerging and Independent Films to Users Online

blinkx Brings Best of Emerging and Independent Films to Users Online

blinkx Partners With Leading Short Film Providers to Make Thousands of Hours of Content Searchable and Available on the Web

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- blinkx, the smartest thing on the Web, today announced partnership agreements with a range of leading short film providers including BBC Film Network, LOVEFiLM, Tiscali and World Cinema Online. The agreements will make emerging and leading independent short films available and searchable on-demand for the first time at www.blinkx.tv

The boom in multi-media has meant that it is harder to navigate the Web to find useful content. blinkx's unique technology is able to index and understand rich media content, making it searchable right down to the individual spoken words. Combined with exciting content from both innovative and mainstream providers, users can find the short films that they are interested in with a simple click of a button.

Users can log on to www.blinkx.tv to search and watch a wide variety of short films from new filmmakers and award-winning producers. The new content includes comedy, drama, music and horror films, and also animated shorts. Many filmmakers start their careers making these movies, and may well end up making the leading feature films of the future. Not all shorts are made by people starting out; blinkx.tv also offers short films made by established directors, including Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis and Jean-Luc Godard.

"Shorts have a growing global following; all the major film festivals now incorporate a section devoted to showcasing them. With new short films being added to the Web everyday it is a challenge and lengthy process for users to locate and watch the films that they want to view. blinkx's automated approach to finding, transcribing and indexing content solves this and has enabled us to build and index the largest and most up-to-date archive of short films from around the world," said Suranga Chandratillake, CTO and Founder of blinkx.

"BBC Film Network screens three new short films every week as a way to bring exposure to new British talent and create a platform for some great films that are rarely seen elsewhere. As well as being a training ground for the feature filmmakers of tomorrow, many shorts are hugely entertaining in their own right but unfortunately are often overlooked. Any service that can help users find these films has got to be a good thing," explained Matt Walton, Senior Producer, BBC Film Network.

"As the biggest online DVD rental company in Europe, having introduced over 300,000 people to online DVD rental, we strive to offer our customers not just the biggest selection of films to rent, but terrific online film entertainment. This includes interviews, reviews, trailers, film festival coverage and films for download, exclusively selected short films as well as feature films. We have an ever growing range of top quality entertaining shorts that anyone can watch for free on our website. Our partnership with blinkx broadens the global reach of Lovefilm.com. We are happy to give film fans a quick and easy resource to locate and watch a whole range of exciting and intriguing film content," said Pamela Casey, Short Film Acquisitions Manager, LOVEFiLM.

"The UK is now the leading broadband market in Europe and users are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the content they want to access. Tiscali has been providing free short films through our site for three years and now you can access up to a dozen new shorts every month and blinkx will help to increase accessibility and reach a much wider audience," Richard Ayers, Portal Director www.tiscali.co.uk

Short Film Providers:
BBC Film Network www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/
LOVEFiLM www.lovefilm.com
Tiscali www.tiscali.co.uk/shortfilms
World Cinema Online www.worldcinemaonline.com

About blinkx

blinkx, the smartest thing on your computer and on the Web, is changing the way that people think about search. Only blinkx can harness the desktop, Web and TV -- unifying content with a one stop search tool. Available to users on the Web at www.blinkx.com and www.blinkx.tv, as well as free to download, blinkx automatically and intelligently links to content anywhere and in any format, on the Web, on the desktop and even on TV. blinkx's conceptual toolbar means users are no longer limited to keyword search; instead, blinkx assesses all the information that the user is actively viewing, and automatically recommends and retrieves relevant content, from local, Web and TV searches, based on context. In addition, www.blinkx.tv makes thousands of hours of TV content fully searchable and available on demand for the first time. blinkx is a privately-held company based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.

Press contact:
Jessica Helyer
Hotwire PR
0207-608-4621
Jessica.helyer@hotwirepr.com

Julia Blystone
OutCast Communications
415-392-8282
Julia@outcastpr.com

Source: blinkx

CONTACT: Jessica Helyer of Hotwire PR, +0207-608-4621, or
Jessica.helyer@hotwirepr.com, for blinkx; or Julia Blystone of OutCast
Communications, +1-415-392-8282, or Julia@outcastpr.com, for blinkx

Web site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork

Web site: http://www.lovefilm.com/

Web site: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/shortfilms

Web site: http://www.worldcinemaonline.com/

Web site: http://www.blinkx.tv/

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