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25th February 2004
VTR plc subsidiary Clipstream launches EU grant-aided eTitle project
Clipstream, the subsidiary
heading VTR plc’s
Digital Media Services Division, has announced that it is to
develop a new software
product, eTitle.
eTitle, which will be partially
funded by an EU grant of €1.35
million, payable over the next two years, will address the requirement
for EU broadcasters to make subtitles available on an increasing
number of television programmes by 2008.
Currently the creation of subtitles for broadcast material is
a complex, labour intensive task, involving a number of time-consuming
manual processes. Accurate, synchronised transcription, with the
added complication of translation across multiple language versions,
is a significant cost to content owners and broadcasters.
eTitle will automate and simplify a number of the mundane, manual
processes involved in producing subtitles, enabling subtitlers
to work faster and more accurately and therefore significantly
more cost-effectively. Clipstream is AIMing to have a demonstration
product ready by the end of 2004.
Clipstream will be joined in the eTitle project by partners MTV,
TV3 in Barcelona and LS Productions in Prague, each selected for
their respective expertise in different subtitling sectors, including
live and archive subtitling and the DVD market. The University
of Barcelona has been appointed as linguistic partner to advise
on the translation capabilities of eTitle across European languages.
Neil Lane, M.D. of Clipstream
commented, “Subtitling, on
which the European market currently spends £500 million,
has long been a costly bottleneck in the content production market.
We now have partners in Government, the academic world and the
broadcast industries, together with the financial input, to help
realise our vision of bringing automation and greater efficiency
to the subtitling process.”
John Banks, VTR plc Group
M.D. says, “Today’s announcement
demonstrates the importance of VTR’s Digital Media Services
Division in providing new sources of income. I am excited about
the prospects for eTitle and expect it to make a positive contribution
to the group.”
ENDS
For further details please contact:
Ryszard Bublik T: 0207 072 2300 E: rbublik@mantra-pr.com
John Sorrels T: 0207 072 2300 E: jsorrels@mantra-pr.com
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