Blackbird Now in 46 US TV News Stations Following Latest TownNews Expansion

LONDON, Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD), developer and seller of the market-leading cloud video editing platform Blackbird, has announced that TownNews has again expanded its deployment of Blackbird for the fast production of digital news content in the US. This is the fourth deployment of Blackbird by TownNews within the past 15 months.

TownNews has signed up a further six US TV stations that will use Blackbird to rapidly view, edit and publish their video news content to social and web platforms. When paired with TownNews' Field59 VMS, news stories can be delivered with unbeatable speed and control using Blackbird's browser-based cloud video editing platform.

The six additional US TV stations that will use Blackbird are based in Wisconsin, Missouri, Washington and Texas – bringing the total of TV stations using Blackbird to 46 across 27 states.

Over 350 local TV stations in the US produce around six hours of news content per day with the industry generating nearly $28 billion in revenues annually. With an estimated 43% of US adults now sourcing their news from websites and social media (source: Pew Research Centre), millions of viewers in the US consume content through the Blackbird and TownNews' Field59 VMS platform.  

Globally the trend towards mobile news consumption continues to rise - doubling in most countries over the past six years. According to the Digital News Report 2018, on average 62% of people weekly use their smartphones for news content.

Derek Gebler, Vice President of Broadcast and Video for TownNews, commented: "Blackbird is a great partner to TownNews with proven technology providing high-quality, frame-accurate cloud editing software for our broadcast customers. We consider their team to be part of our team and are true collaborators."

Ian McDonough, CEO of Blackbird, said: "We're delighted that Blackbird is recognised by so many TownNews' customers to be the best-in-market for rapid digital news production. To expand the adoption of the combined Blackbird and Field 59 solution from 3 to 46 US news stations in just 15 months is a fantastic and very encouraging endorsement. It's also a perfect example of how Blackbird can land and expand in large high-media markets.

"Blackbird is completely unique in its ability to enable media companies to create and deliver high quality video content very fast. Having been specifically built from the ground up for the cloud, Blackbird delivers very significant productivity and efficiency benefits which all enterprise companies working with video can take full advantage of."

About Blackbird plc

Blackbird operates in the fast-growing SaaS and cloud video market, and has created the world's most advanced suite of cloud-native computing applications for video, all underpinned by its lightning-fast codec. Blackbird's patented technology allows for frame accurate navigation, playback, viewing and editing in the cloud. Blackbird underpins multiple applications, which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, esports, live events and content owners, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

Since it is cloud-native, Blackbird removes the need for costly, high end workstations and can be used from almost anywhere on almost any device. It also allows full visibility on multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for social media distribution, and ultimately results in much more effective monetisation.

Blackbird® is a registered trademark of Blackbird plc.

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