ScreamingMedia Sounds Off with a New Syndication Solution

ScreamingMedia Thursday launched a new service to syndicate content for
media giants.

Featuring The New York Times Syndicate as its first major client, the company’s
new Syndication!Connect gives companies the ability to integrate their
content into their licensees’ Web sites or databases for use in digital
platforms.

In the case of the Times, the media outlet will offer
clients targeted content. The Times can aggregate content from its
providers, and proceed to inject this content into the platforms of its
2,000 subscribers — from newspaper subscribers to digital consumers.

ScreamingMedia’s content engine will aggregate the Times’ feeds, and
then filter and categorize them.

ScreamingMedia’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Clark said his firm’s
solution eliminates the need for such large media outfits as the
Times to build or buy a “content delivery and syndication platform
from scratch.”

Syndication!Connect is the newest member of ScreamingMedia’s technology
service family, which includes Content!Connect to power the aggregation,
custom processing and integration of content for enterprises; Wireless
Solutions (formerly ScreamingWireless), to power wireless portal
applications and wireless markup language (WML) transformation; and Software
Solutions, including SiteWare, Editor’s Desk, Writer’s Desk and Digital
Press.

Syndication of content, along with the ability to control it, is attractive
to media outlets and presents a wealth of opportunities for the tech firms
that want to help them do it digitally. A few weeks ago, iBEAM launched its
Syndication Manager to help content owners grant or deny access to
content, track content usage for each affiliate and access detailed reports
for billing or audience analysis.

Streaming as a medium of delivery itself is on the rise, according to a
Nielsen//NetRatings study released Thursday. The research firm found that
the number of users going high-speed with broadband connections jumped 148
percent among home users in December 2000 as compared to the same period in
1999.

What is the reason for this? NetRatings said the desire for streaming media
is a major impetus.

“Streaming media is one of the chief incentives prompting users to switch to
high-speed Web access, which is fast becoming the must-have service in the
home,” said T.S. Kelly, director of Internet Media Strategies, NetRatings.
“That said, improvements in quality, ease-of-use, and accessibility must
continue if streaming consumption is to become as commonplace as broadcast
or cable television.”

And that is what the ScreamingMedia’s and iBEAM’s of the world are gunning
for.