Broadcasters Around the Globe Using Quova's Geolocation Data to Manage Territorial Viewing Rights for Online Sports Fans
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - August 12, 2008 - Quova, Inc., the leading provider of Internet geolocation data services, today announced that many of its worldwide broadcasting customers will be able to stream live online coverage of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad while complying with strict broadcast territory licensing requirements, by using Quova's geolocation data to determine Web site visitors' locations.
Any online broadcaster wishing to stream live or recorded coverage of the 2008 Beijing Games is required to deliver that content only to viewers within the borders of their designated nation. Several Quova broadcast customers have purchased the rights to deliver content within their respective countries, including Rai (Radiotelevisione Italiana), Italy's public service broadcaster and one of the largest public television companies in Europe, German public service broadcasters Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting - NDR), which is using the Quova geolocation service for its Olympic site http://peking.ard.de/, and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television - ZDF). These customers will be using Quova's data to determine Web site visitors' locations and allow or block content delivery based on geography. In addition Quova partner Brightcove, the leading Internet TV platform used by media publishers, is also integrating Quova's data into their delivery platforms for the Beijing Olympics.
"The integration of Quova's powerful geolocation service into the Brightcove platform has provided our customers with unparalleled choice and control over their online video distribution strategies," said Bob Mason, co-founder and chief technology officer of Brightcove. "When Japan's television broadcasters chose Brightcove for their exclusive online video portal for the Beijing Games, Quova proved to be an invaluable partner enabling our customers in Japan to meet very strict geographic requirements and launch a successful advertising-supported Web property."
With online viewing figures soaring and huge developments in online delivery technology since the Olympic Games were last held in 2006, organizers and broadcasters are experiencing millions of viewers using the Internet as one of their primary sources of catching up with all the news, highlights and live video streams from Beijing. However, as part of the licensing agreements set with official broadcaster partners, any viewer living outside the geographic rights area has to be blocked from accessing any form of video stream. Broadcasters are also requested to put in place an IP geolocation solution and that IP logs be made available for auditing purposes, if and when requested. Any broadcaster found in breach of these requirements could lose the current contract and see its opportunity for future rights severely reduced.
Broadcast rights are only granted to networks that can meet the extremely stringent requirements for geographic control of territory rights. RaiNet relied on Quova to provide the absolute accuracy and quality needed to deliver on-demand video coverage of the 2006 Winter Games. Gianluca Stazio, chief marketing officer of RaiNet commented, "Quova's professional expertise and consulting services were of tremendous value to both RaiNet and LabOne. Quova proved capable of delivering the absolute accuracy and quality we needed, and implemented the necessary technology in the few weeks we had available."
Furthermore, the European Broadcast Union (EBU), whose members reach an estimated 650 million viewers per week, stipulated 99% accuracy from broadcasters on a country level within the EU (set in contract as a guaranteed SLA) and that they must be able to either block or correct an IP within four hours if found to be incorrect. With such tight restrictions, broadcasters turned to Quova to provide the accuracy and speed of delivery. Compliance required many winning contracts to broadcast content based on their adoption of Quova data.
Quova continually updates its database of the physical location and network characteristics of more than 1.5 billion IP addresses. It can also provide extra network connection information for IP addresses including connection type, speed and routing type, giving customers greater opportunity to tailor their web content to each specific visitor.
"Broadcasting is one of the many industries that have become very tightly regulated as the Internet has blossomed over the last ten years," said Marie Alexander, CEO of Quova. "By using Quova data to significantly increase visibility of a customer's location, broadcasters open up an entirely new channel of delivery, but this can only be achieved while staying within the guidelines provided by content rights holders. As more of our customers enter rights management negotiations, we have seen an increase in requests for IP data that can meet the accuracy and availability that is being demanded of them. The Summer Games in Beijing represent a massive opportunity for our customers and we're proud to be an important part of their solution."
Quova's IP geolocation data is currently being used by many customers to comply with stringent copyright and license conditions. In Europe, they include the BBC, Sky Sports, Chanel 4 television and radio Telefis Eireann (RTE'). Customers in the United States include Major League Baseball Advanced Media, MovieLink, Sony Pictures Digital, Fox Interactive Media and CBS Interactive.
About Quova, Inc.
Quova, Inc. enables online businesses to instantly identify where a visitor to their Web site is geographically located. Major e-retailers, ad networks, banks and government agencies integrate Quova's data into their Web applications to geo-target their advertising and content, detect identify theft and card-not-present fraud, manage digital content distribution, comply with local laws and more. Quova delivers detailed demographic and network characteristic data about an IP address, down to a city area. The data is 99.9% accurate at the country level and 96% accurate at the US State level (independent research conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers). Quova, founded in 2000, is based in Mountain View, California and is privately owned. www.quova.com.
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