Gracenote And Philips Partner To Offer Most Advanced Audio And Video Fingerprinting Technology

Expansion of Existing Partnership Provides a Comprehensive Solution for Video and Audio Content Filtering and Monetization [The following is a release from Gracenote and Philips]

January 4, 2008

Gracenote® and Philips today announced they have deepened their existing relationship by combining their respective content fingerprinting technologies to provide extremely advanced solutions for video and audio content filtering and monetization. The technology partnership combines Philips' video fingerprinting and Gracenote's audio fingerprinting technologies, and results in a comprehensive and viable system for content owners and service providers looking to control the use of and monetize copyrighted content across multiple platforms. The industry's need for a best-of-breed approach to audio and video fingerprinting is tremendous. According to researchers, 36 percent of U.S. Internet users watched a TV show or other video streaming online at the end of 2006, up from 28 percent at the end of 2005, which shows online video is replacing music as the driver of digital media's growth. One of the side effects of this growth is the need to identify copyrighted content making its way across computers and mobile phones around the world. The expanded relationship between Gracenote and Philips deepens the ongoing partnership between the two companies started in 2004, whereby Philips audio fingerprinting technology was successfully joined with Gracenote's global database and network services to create today's largest and most comprehensive audio fingerprinting solutions deployed around the world. Examples currently in the market include Sony Ericsson's TrackID service for mobile consumers, Nielsen's Broadcast Data Service music monitoring solution, and Snocap's digital music licensing and copyright management platform. Now both Gracenote's and Philips' customers can benefit from the combined video and audio fingerprinting technologies to power digital media services and protect and monetize all forms of digital content. "It is no secret that fingerprinting technologies that characterize both the video image and the audio soundtrack, such as the Gracenote-Philips combination, are more effective and reliable," said Brad Hunt, former CTO of the MPAA and now a digital media industry consultant. "By combining the Philips' video fingerprinting system with Gracenote's market leading technology, network services capabilities and global customer base, we're developing a complete solution for video identification, enrichment, and discovery for consumer applications, along with tracking, filtering and monetization solutions for content owners," said Craig Palmer, CEO, Gracenote. "This comprehensive system and our database expertise in the market will be essential for any customer wanting to capitalize on the vast opportunities posed by digital video." "This announcement is a logical next step in our successful cooperation with Gracenote over the past years," said Alex Terpstra, CEO, Philips Content Identification. "Our media customers are now able to enjoy the world's first complete and reputable offering of audio and video, fingerprinting and watermarking technologies, four major corner stones under our MediaHedge content tracking, filtering and monetization service platform."

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