News Distribution Network Raises Its Political I.Q. With Nexidia
As it receives content, NDN automatically associates each video with the issues being discussed. As video is encoded, Video Enrich retrieves and indexes the content, immediately analyzing the audio against a predefined set of candidate keywords and phrases. The results of this search are written to an XML file and imported into NDN’s video search engine as metadata tags, which are tied to and displayed on the video’s timeline. Using Nexidia’s rich media tagging as the basis, NDN has built a unified approach for automatically categorizing and hierarchically organizing keywords in videos by the issues they relate to. Leveraging this metadata and content categorization, NDN developed an Issues Matrix that enables users to quickly navigate to issues of particular interest, itemized by individual speaker.
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Powered by Video Enrich, Political I.Q. went live just prior to the 2008 Democratic National Convention with an archive of approximately 30,000 videos. It has been well-received, delivering breaking news content quickly and accessibly. Because Nexidia enriches a high volume of metadata with great speed, up-to-the-minute content can be discovered and distributed to a variety of sources via NDN’s embeddable player.
For example, Barack Obama appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Nov. 16, 2008. This 41-minute interview received a record number of viewers and set the blogosphere abuzz. CBS released the video after the West Coast broadcast of 60 Minutes concluded, per its policy. With Video Enrich, NDN made the video available within minutes of its release, and it received more than 5,000 views before the next afternoon.
Additionally, bloggers, political commentators, and news outlets are taking advantage of the access to source material. Content provided by NDN can be found and embedded on any website that incorporates news into its format, including online properties of print media, radio, television, special interest groups, blogs, and portals. The video tool was designed to be embedded on many popular news websites and blogs, and viewers can choose to share content among their social networks, including Facebook and MySpace. Using the NDN embeddable player, U.S. national political news authority Politico posted a video that was linked to from the Drudge Report. This video generated more than 200,000 views in an hour. By thoroughly tagging the exact locations at which relevant topics were discussed throughout the interview, Nexidia provided viewers quick and direct access to the questions and answers that mattered to them.
When the NDN video search tool is embedded on homepages and political verticals of print media sites and major news networks (as well as PoliticalIQ.com), advertisements are delivered with the content from major and relevant sources. Providers value NDN because it legally syndicates their content. Distribution partners value NDN because it delivers high-quality and timely video news sources in its search tool that facilitate syndication, and bloggers and other outlets are able to easily and quickly find just the right piece of content.
NDN plans to continue expanding and re-evaluating the content providers incorporated into Political I.Q. Presently, there are thousands of search terms employed for the site; leading up to the 2008 election, top trending terms included Obama, McCain, Palin, energy, and economy. As current events popularize new searches, emerging terms will continue to be added to the set of candidate tags.
Since its launch, Political I.Q. has delivered relevant, current content and the information associated with said content to its distribution network. The site has also grown to feature the largest collection of syndicated political videos available online. By partnering with Nexidia, NDN has successfully developed Political I.Q. into a one-of-a-kind content hub with nearly 40,000 videos.
"Nexidia has been an indispensable partner for us. The responsiveness and collaborative spirit of the Nexidia team has helped us to move quickly to meet our goal of becoming the de facto source for current event content on the web," says Greg Peters, CEO of NDN. "The success we’ve seen with Political I.Q. has set a strong precedent as we reach into new markets."Market feedback has identified the need for additional products in the sports, entertainment, travel, and special interest categories, and NDN expects to launch products in each of these verticals. For more information about NDN, visit www.newsinc.com. More information about Nexidia and Video Enrich is available at www.nexidia.com.