As part of an effort to improve the live user-generated
content it can stream from breaking news events, The Associated Press has taken
a minority stake in Bambuser.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The deal builds on an existing three-year editorial
relationship with Bambuser, which has developed technology for users to
broadcast, watch and share live video through mobile phones and computers. Last
year, AP inked an agreement giving the news agency exclusive real-time video
syndication rights to content from participating Bambuser users.
As part of the deal to take a minority stake, AP's director
of global video news, Sandy MacIntyre, will take a seat on Bambuser's board as
a non-executive director.
"User-generated video content of live and breaking news
is the new frontier of news generation," MacIntyre said. "Bambuser is
the proven platform for eyewitnesses around the world to stream their video
content and has been invaluable to the AP over the past year, allowing us to
access footage of verifiable breaking news stories that would simply not have
been possible before. Moreover, we have always been deeply impressed by the
proven technology from the small but very talented team at Bambuser."
Hans Eriksson, executive chairman at Bambuser, added in a
statement that "working so closely with the AP over the last year has
proven the huge demand for user-generated video content. This equity investment
is an important milestone in Bambuser's journey as it not only brings our two
organizations closer, but enables us to share our expertise to an even greater
extent."
Eriksson also noted that Bambuser continues to
improve its platform and recently rolled out a new software development kit
(SDK) that enables customers to integrate and customize live video broadcasting
capabilities directly into their consumer apps for iOS and Android with just a
few lines of code.
