IBM signs MTV Europe for digital media

IBM is making tracks in the European media and entertainment business, signing on three new major partners, including MTV Networks, to use its digital asset management products. IBM on Friday at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam announced that Dutch Radio Broadcasters and Swedish TV will use its technology to process, manage and distribute their digital assets. IBM said that MTV Networks Europe is the first network to use a digital management system supported by IBM to reduce the time it takes to get content on the air by 30 percent, according to IBM vice president Steve Canepa. Dutch Public Radio Broadcasters are working with IBM to design and implement a digital media management system running on Linux for radio control rooms. Swedish TV partnered with IBM to build a first-of-its-kind fully digital multimedia TV production system to replace tape-based editing.

"We're seeing the emergence of digital infrastructures that allows broadcasters from the moment they acquire content to the moment it airs, to move it through their production process in digital form," Canepa said. "This let's them reduce costs and have better control of content."