Beamups: A New Global Online Marketplace for the News Industry
By Prne, Gaea News NetworkWednesday, May 27, 2009
LONDON - Beamups, an online destination for buying and selling news content, launches in the UK today (Thursday 28 May). It heralds a revolution in the way news is bought and sold around the world.
By breaking down traditional barriers in news distribution, Beamups brings buyers and content providers together, in a single marketplace, to generate previously untapped revenue streams for both sides of the industry.
For the first time cash-constrained international, national and local television news broadcasters, internet and mobile outlets and production companies, can buy news items (video and stills) directly from content providers around the world.
Buyers can search online with no subscription fee, and immediately buy news footage from a vast international pool of professional providers. A range of news stories (including political, sports, celebrity) are available to buy per item, at a sliding scale of prices and rights, from exclusive to non-exclusive.
Similarly, buyers can boost their revenues by also selling archive and other content on Beamups.
Other international news content providers - including local reporters, freelance photographers and video journalists, news agencies, and production companies - can upload, package and price their content for free, ready to sell to news outlets worldwide.
Beamups enables these producers of factual content to keep their copyrights, and provides the opportunity to boost revenues through multiple transactions.
Beamups launched its Beta in April 2009 in the Middle East and registered all the major broadcasters and bureaus in the region, including BBC, Sky, Rtvi, Rtl 4, ABC News, Ramattan Palestinian News Agency, Israel’s Channel 2 News and Amnesty International. Content providers and buyers are registering daily with items sold to such organisations as the BBC’s Middle East Bureau and Australia’s SBS.
Beamups CEO is Dean Stewart, former Senior VP of News Corp Europe. Dean brings to Beamups over 14 years of international TV experience. Having overseen the launch of Fox Turkey, Dean is no stranger to leading international new media initiatives. He has a proven track record in launching News Corps’ television and video services and a particular interest in emerging markets, platforms and technologies.
Dean Stewart says: “In an era of aggressive cost-cutting and increased competition, Beamups is offering a dynamic solution, providing cash-constrained newsrooms with competitively priced news from professional journalists worldwide.”
“There is an increasing demand for news footage for broadcast, internet and mobile use. Beamups gives buyers a new resource to improve choice, reduce news gathering costs and monetize existing content. On the other side, professional providers get unprecedented access to newsrooms everywhere. By keeping copyrights they retain real ownership of their work. Beamups creates value for buyers and sellers within the news industry.”
Beamups is the brainchild of two highly regarded news/documentary cameramen, Boaz Eshtai and Yosi Romano, who have worked on high profile productions for BBC, APTN, NBC News, Discovery and National Geographic - without owning a single piece of footage between them.
Covering the world’s major conflicts, they saw their footage widely distributed but with little effect on their income. On the other hand, the fantastic - real - stories they saw, but were not commissioned to shoot, were lost through lack of distribution ability.
CCO Boaz Eshtai says: “It was often frustrating as a cameraman to film stories that were shown just once, or to see great stories and not have the ability to package and sell them ourselves. As freelance budgets and crew sizes are shrinking, we wanted to open up the news market to offer an international distribution model that gives professional journalists and cameramen precious access to newsrooms around the world.”
www.beamups.com
Notes to Editors:
News providers are encouraged to stock their own online ’stores’ with their footage which can be viewed and purchased by all buyers.
News buyers will be able to rate the quality of the footage they have acquired so that each news provider will have a rating (as on eBay).
Beamups colour-coding system indicates the content providers’ credibility and industry experience both within Beamups and externally. Each Content Provider is given a colour from White (new to Beamups) through Bronze, Silver and Gold to Platinum (broadcaster).
PR Contact: Lysette Cohen lysette@lysettecohenpr.com tel: +44-(0)7984895492
Source: Beamups
PR Contact: Lysette Cohen lysette at lysettecohenpr.com tel: +44-(0)7984895492
Tags: Abc news, Beamups, London, Nbc news, United Kingdom