Manchester-based Video News Agency (VNA) has developed an online platform for the PR and marketing communications sector which makes it quick, easy and inexpensive for businesses and organisations to distribute moving image and other digital content to the world’s media.
Now live at www.videonewsagency.com is designed for video news reports, corporate announcements, exclusive interviews, stills, press releases and other copyright-free and royalty-free content produced by businesses and organizations.
Already signed up to use the site are VisitBlackpool, The Co-operative Bank, Marketing Manchester and international aid agencies Mines Advisory Group and Medecin Sans Frontieres.
VNA is poised to take advantage of the massive growth in online video news in media and marketing.* It makes it affordable for the first time for almost any enterprise to get its news to the media, with a universal annual licence of £695 and bandwidth packages ranging from £95 (500MB) to £995 (30GB). Currently while in Beta, VNA is offering a free 20MB upload introductory trial.
Daniel Kennedy, VNA Operations Director, says: “The VNA platform has real benefits for those already making video communication for the media – we see travel and tourism and international NGOs in particular as key early markets.
“Costs of this type of platform have been prohibitive for most until now, as competitors offer a high-end premium product.
“While there is a sharp increase in the volume of high quality video news and feature footage being produced by both private and public sector organizations, it is complicated to distribute this footage to targeted and receptive media channels. Now VNA gives PRs an easy-to-use and hugely cost-effective tool to manage and distribute their digital content online.”
The site’s functions for registered businesses include analytics showing which media have embedded the video content on their own sites, with dates and numbers of views.
For the media, VNA is a free service for web editors, broadcasters and video journalists allowing them to access and download content uploaded by registered companies.
Uploaded video and other files such as B-Roll or EPK (Electronic Press Kit) material can be indexed and tagged by sector and location for easy searching by journalists. They can set up email alerts which inform them when a new film is uploaded matching their preferences. All content, whether downloaded or embedded, is free of any VNA watermark.
Webmasters also have the option to embed video files and stream them remotely via VNA’s servers, rather than downloading and hosting the content directly.
Adds Mr Kennedy: “Businesses and organisations put very specific videos on popular consumer sites, but they are often hard to find and browsing can be off-putting because of the blizzard of low quality content.
“There is a rapid proliferation of niche digital ‘narrowcasting’ platforms and an increasing demand for better quality content in general. Journalists are getting far more selective about the moving image content they want to receive and use.
“Video News Agency is for marketing and communications professionals who need to distribute high-quality video content to online and broadcast media in the exact format they require, just when they want it. Journalists can quickly access the latest, most relevant digital material without waiting for discs, ftp links or embed codes.”
The site was developed and designed by Zen Internet, based in Rochdale.
For further information please contact admin@videonewsagency.com, journalists wishing to register can do so by going to www.videonewsagency.com
-ENDS-
For media enquiries/screen shots call Richard Bond or Andrew Spinoza at SKV Communications on
+44 (0) 161 838 7770 email richard.bond@skvcommunications.co.uk
Editor’s Notes
- comScore, one of the world’s leading digital marketing intelligence providers, reports that in the US alone the consumption of online video news and information clips had doubled over the previous year. Their May 2010 reported there were 565m video views, a rise of 277m year on year. Figures as reported on beet TV digital blog – http://tiny.cc/pz41d
Follow Video News Agency at www.twitter.com/videonewsagency
