CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – December 19, 2006 – PodZinger (www.podzinger.com), the world’s most powerful audio and video search engine and online advertising network, announced today that it is partnering with Thames Valley pod.tv to power search capabilities for its Web site http://www.thamesvalleypod.tv. The partnership is PodZinger’s first venture outside of the U.S.

Thames Valley pod.tv is the UK’s fastest growing video podcast webTV site that provides original content across a wide range of topics including art, music, culture, cooking, gardening, business, legal, illustrated audio stories, families and parenting, and documentaries. All of the shows are commercially sponsored, allowing companies to get their marketing messages in between the ears of, and in front of the eyes of, the “download generation.”

“This is the 21st Century TV guide for video on demand services,” said Roger Dyer, marketing director of Thames Valley pod.tv. “Instead of reading a paragraph of text describing the show, our audience can directly search the content of our shows to make their viewing selection. This makes it much easier to find shows that interest them and, in particular, parts of shows that might interest them the most.”

PodZinger uses speech-to-text technology to create a text index of the video sounds track, which enables users to find content anywhere within both audio and video podcasts and jump directly to the point where their keyword is spoken. For Thames Valley pod.tv and others, PodZinger makes audio and video content more accessible, thereby improving the user experience and generating more exposure for visitors looking for the most relevant content.

“PodZinger’s partnership with Thames Valley pod.tv exemplifies the growing trend of online video or video on demand for entertainment,” said Alex Laats, PodZinger CEO. “This particular partnership is unique in that it is PodZinger’s first outside of the U.S., but one of many to come.”

About Thames Valley pod.tv
Thames Valley pod.tv was founded by Neil Fairbrother. Neil Fairbrother created the 6th fastest growing brand(1) in the UK in 2002 (Langley-based Neos Networks) where he created Liquid Bandwidth business-to-business telecoms service. Neil left when Neos was sold in 2003 to Scottish & Southern Energy plc. Neil had the idea for Thames Valley pod.tv at the January 2006 planning meeting of Maidenhead Ecademy – a networking meeting of local businesses that meets monthly at Norden Farm. Thames Valley pod.tv secured first round of investment from Music System Ltd in the summer of 2006.

About PodZinger
PodZinger is the leading audio and video search engine and advertising network for brands, content providers and consumers.  With PodZinger, consumers are able to find the most relevant content, content creators can monetize their online audio and video assets and advertisers can more effectively deliver their brand messages.

PodZinger, based in Cambridge, Mass., was recognized as the Best Web 2.0 Application in 2006 by the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange. PodZinger can be found at www.podzinger.com and through its network of affiliates.

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This morning PodZinger announced its partnership with Thames Valley pod.tv to power search capabilities for its Web site . Thames Valley pod.tv is the UK’s fastest growing video podcast webTV site, providing original content across a wide range of topics including art, music, culture, cooking, gardening, business, legal, illustrated audio stories, families and parenting, and documentaries. This partnership is unique for PodZinger in that it’s our first venture outside of the U.S.

For more details, click here.

It’s digg’s second birthday and with that, it launched several new features, including a section dedicated solely to pocasts. The new feature allows you to digg either a particular podcast series or individual episodes of the podcast and also lists the most popular episodes according to the number of diggs.

Digg, a community driven site, started out two years ago with mostly breaking news content. With that success, digg is starting to branch out to more content-rich media like video and podcast. Community voting has been proven to be a highly successful model in creating buzz around breaking news and for digg to start branching out to video and podcasts is a sure sign that the online video industry will have a strong stand in the next stage of online media.

Om Malik of NewTeeVee writes,

“Digg is the latest social web filter to embrace video aggressively. A few days ago, StumbleUpon added video stumbling to its offering. As more and more video moves online, finding the good stuff is going to become harder and harder.”

Malik is right. There are ton of rich media online now that is waiting to be discovered. Digg has categorized the podcasts in different categories and the top “diggs” are already populated by already highly popular podcasts. Like some of the other smaller news item, you still need to do a lot of digging to find a less popular podcast with similarly “good stuff” as mentioned by Malik. We’ll just have to wait and see if the community will be able to turn that around and use digg as a platform to “dig out” other great content in the podcasting world.

David Hallerman, senior analyst from market research firm eMarketer, recently published a report on the Internet Video Audience. In the report, Hallerman covers the number of Internet video viewers, audience demographics and how people watch video online. For advertisers and content creators this information is invaluable, as consumers can now watch TV or other videos through YouTube or DVRs without the interruption of advertising.

In the beginning of the report Hallerman poses the question, “Can Internet video ads be as effective, or even more effective, than TV commercials?” It is obvious that here at PodZinger we think the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Some of PodZinger’s recent market research findings are cited in the report, including what video content consumers watched the most. To see all of PodZinger’s findings in detail, visit the November 20 posting, “Market Research on Online Advertising.”

If you’re interested in reading more of Hallerman’s Internet Video Audience report, you can buy it online at: http://www.emarketer.com/SiteSearch.aspx?arg=Internet+video+audience.

Twenty-three percent of Americans used the Internet as a source for news in 2000, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. In 2006, that number increased to 31 percent. Traditional media sources are taking note of this growing trend and making their Web sites more interactive by emphasizing video heavily. Major business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and BusinessWeek already incorporate video into their online editions on a regular basis. On Monday, CNBC.com announced its revamped Web site, putting great prominence on video. The new site offers video-on-demand and streaming video that surpass their typical broadcast footage.

While these accompaniments offer audiences a greater source of information, they are only as valuable as their air time. Online audio and video search engines can extend the shelf life of this content, allowing users unprecedented access to all archived material. With more than 15,000 archived videos and 75 new clips added each day as on CNBC.com, think of how much more valuable the content would be to audiences if they could search through all of the previously aired material.

PodZinger is already in discussions with companies looking into our audio and video search technology to breathe new life into their archived content. With the ability to now tie advertising to old and new content, making this material available is going to set media apart from one another.