Bitcentral has introduced a variant of its Oasis product, which is typically used for archiving and sharing of stories within a station group, but this version is for sharing content with whoever would like to pay for it.
The Oasis Media Marketplace was launched at the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) 2009 Market and Conference in January. It aims to let stations bypass costly and time-consuming satellite deliveries of news by allowing video to be searched for, bought, and delivered over the Internet. The system ties into a local TV station’s news production processes and can be configured to gather content automatically. The marketplace is designed to enforce rights management rules, such as embargoes of exclusions to prevent content from being used by local competitors.
“Today, Oasis is used by TV stations for sharing within their group,” says Bitcentral CEO Fred Fourcher. “But what stations are missing is content they can’t get through their affiliated news services.”
For a limited time, Reuters is providing free content for the Oasis Marketplace trials, including extensive international coverage, much of which has not been available to domestic television stations.
In the marketplace model, rather than subscribing to a service such as Reuters that a station might only occasionally use, stations can buy access to stories or footage “by the drink,” Fourcher says. Those willing to make a volume purchase of credits toward downloading Oasis Marketplace stories will also be able to get a discount.
Pricing will vary according to market size, so that the same video might cost $20 to air in Montana but $100 in Manhattan, he adds.
