RhythmOne plc, a subsidiary of Nexxen,[2][3] is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.
Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2007, and began trading as RhythmOne in 2017.[3] The company is headquartered in San Francisco and London, England. RhythmOne acquired All Media Network and its portfolio of web properties in April 2015. In April 2019, RhythmOne merged with Taptica International (renamed Tremor International in June 2019), an advertising technology company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.[4]
History
Blinkx was named after blinkx.com,[5] an Internet Media platform which connects online video viewers with publishers and distributors, using advertising to monetize those interactions. Blinkx has an index of over 35 million hours of video and 800 media partnerships, as well as 111 patents related to the site's search engine technology, which is known as CORE.[6]
In 2004, Suranga Chandratillake, former US chief technology officer of Autonomy Corporation, founded Blinkx as a toolbar for web search, specializing in video.[7] In December 2004, Blinkx launched an audio and video search engine.[8] In July 2005, Blinkx launched SmartFeed, an RSSweb feed for video links.[9] In October 2006, Microsoft Corp. agreed to use Blinkx technology to power the video search on some parts of its MSN service and Live.com.[10] In June 2007, Blinkx launched a contextual video advertising platform named AdHoc.[11]
In March 2008, Blinkx released the Blinkx Beat video screensaver[12] and in April of the same year, the company launched its broadband TV application.[13] In May 2008, Blinkx introduced the Advanced Media Platform (AMP), a proprietary video content management solution;[14] in August 2008 the company launched Blinkx Remote, a directory of full-length TV shows online for the US and UK.[15] In December 2008, Blinkx introduced the Un-roll Unit, a new ad unit for online video.[16]
In April 2009, Blinkx acquired some of the assets of the bankrupt Zango company under its Pinball Corporation subsidiary.[17] In April 2010, the company launched behavioral targeting through Blinkx AdHoc.[18] In May 2010, Blinkx launched a mobile video search site;[19] in July Blinkx announced the launch of a new mobile API (Application Programming Interface).[20] In October 2010, Blinkx launched Blinkx Beat for Google TV[21] and Cheep, a social shopping service.[22] In November 2010, the company achieved profitability and positive operating cash flow, doubling revenue year on year.[23] In February 2011, Blinkx introduced TV API (Application Programming Interface).[24] In February 2011, Blinkx announced a partnership with woomi, the connected TV destination from Miniweb Interactive, the cloud-based video distribution platform.[25]
In April 2011, Blinkx announced the acquisition of Burst Media, an online media and technology company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. This acquisition brought 35 million hours of online video and TV to Burst Media's audience of over 130 million unique users.[26] In May 2011, the company announced the Blinkx app would be available on Roku.[27] In November 2011, Blinkx announced a partnership with Orb Networks to bring 35 million hours of TV, video, and audio to Orb TV and Orb BR Users.[28] In November 2011, the company acquired Prime Visibility Media Group (PVMG).[29]
In January 2012, Blinkx received a U.S. Patent for Moving Thumbnails technology.[30] In September 2012, an open beta of the next-generation Blinkx site launched.[31] In January 2013, the company's next-generation video search and discovery site went live.[32] In Dec 2013, Blinkx acquired Rhythm NewMedia Inc., a Mobile Video Advertising Platform.[33]
In April 2015, Blinkx acquired All Media Network for an undisclosed amount, including website properties Sidereel.com, Allmusic.com, and Allmovie.com;[34] the company unified its brands under the name RhythmOne.[35] In June 2016, Blinkx plc changed its name to RhythmOne plc and began trading as RhythmOne plc on the London Stock Exchange.[36][3] In December 2016, RhythmOne acquired Perk.com, a mobile rewards company with headquarters in Austin, Texas.[37] In June 2017, RhythmOne acquired assets and 200 employees from RadiumOne.[1] In September 2017, RhythmOne acquired YuMe Inc. for $185 million.[38] In April 2019, RhythmOne was acquired by Taptica International.[4][39]
All Media Network (AMN), formerly known as All Media Guide (AMG) and AllRovi, was an American company that owned and maintained AllMusic, AllMovie, AllGame (until its closure in 2014), SideReel and Celebified.
All Media Network was founded in Big Rapids, Michigan in 1990 by Michael Erlewine. With the All Music Guide the aim was to "[compile] discographic information on every artist who's made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost", which launched in 1991.[45]
All Music Guide (now AllMusic) was launched in 1991. In 1994, the All Movie Guide (now AllMovie) was launched and in 1998 the All Game Guide (later AllGame—defunct in 2014).[46]
They expanded with the All Movie Guide (now AllMovie) in 1994, and then the All Game Guide (now AllGame) in 1998. They moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1999 to take advantage of the "rich talent pool".[46] AMG was a business unit within Alliance Entertainment from 1996 until early 2005.[47][48] In 2006, AEC One Stop Group, Inc., was its parent company.[49]
Alliance was acquired in 1999 by Yucaipa Companies, a multibillion-dollar fund based in California.
Macrovision (now TiVo) announced on November 6, 2007 that it had agreed to purchase All Media Guide for a reported $102 million; $72 million in cash was paid up front, and $30 million in contingent payments were made one year later.[50][51] For a time, all of the guides were controlled by Rovi's nameservers and combined access to the All Music and All Movie Guides was provided via AllRovi.com from 2011 until 2013. In 2013, Rovi sold consumer access of the content to the newly established All Media Network, LLC, but retained control of licensing the content to other businesses. The overall website is allmedianetwork.com (previously allmediaguide.com and allrovi.com).
Rovi sold the consumer access to them to newly established All Media Network, LLC in 2013, while retaining ownership and maintenance of the content itself.[52][53]
The AllGame section of the site was shut down on December 12, 2014.[54]
On April 16, 2015 Blinkx Plc acquired All Media Network and rebranded the website under the new unified RhythmOne Group banner.[55][56] In 2019 the company was acquired for $174M by Taptica, which in 2023 rebranded as Nexxen.[2]
AllMusic is an online database which provides access to information about songs, albums, musicians, bands, and musical styles alongside staff-authored news, reviews, biographies, ratings and recommendations. Initially published in book form in 1991 as the All Music Guide, the content is now freely available to the public for online reference and information as well as available via licensing for point-of-sale systems, media players, and online music stores.[46][57][58]
Guide series
RhythmOne also produces the AllMusic guide series that includes the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series.
AllMovie, launched in 1994 as the All Movie Guide, provides access to information about actors, films, and filmmakers with staff-authored news, reviews, ratings, and recommendations. It offers limited information about Television productions, focused mainly on those released on DVD. Like AllMusic, the content is also available via licensing to point-of-sale systems, media players, and online stores.[46][59][60]
AllGame
AllGame logo
AllGame, active between 1998 and 2014 as the All Game Guide, offered information and reviews about many console, handheld, arcade, and PC games released in the US.[43][46][61] The site started in February 1998 with the goal of becoming the most comprehensive game database available.[62] In a farewell message on their site, the staff noted that they "didn't all know exactly what we were doing in those early days but it was an exciting time to be helping build an online game database before the Internet exploded with numerous websites dedicated to video games."[62]
SideReel,[63] launched in 2007, is a TV community site which provides information about TV shows and episodes.[43]
Celebified
Celebified offers celebrity news and interviews and started in 2012.[43] As of December 2023, all prior existing URLs now return a 404 error. The homepage of Celebified.com now only exists as a feed of posts from other network websites.
Operations
Business model
The AllMusic database is also used by several generations of Windows Media Player and Musicmatch Jukebox to identify and organize music collections. Windows Media Player 11 and the integrated MTV Urge music store have expanded the use of AllMusic data to include related artists, biographies, reviews, playlists and other data.[46]
All Media Network licenses large databases of metadata about movies, video games, audio books, and music releases from Rovi Corporation and publishes them online for consumer use. This includes credits, and staff-written biographies, reviews, ratings, and recommendations as well as categories such as theme or mood.[53] Rovi also makes this content available for point of sale systems in stores globally, for CD and DVD recognition in software media players such as Windows Media Player and Musicmatch Jukebox, and for providing content for a variety of websites including iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify.[64][65]
Formerly, All Media Guide sold print compilations of its information.[45] RhythmOne's database was initially set up by Vladimir Bogdanov.[46]
Information in the database is licensed and used in point-of-sale systems by some music retailers, includes the following:
A lengthy criticism of Blinkx by Harvard Business School Associate Professor[66] Ben Edelman, published in January 2014,[67] sought to prove that Blinkx continued the adware operations of two companies it acquired, Prime Visibility Media Group[68] and Zango,[69] and was defrauding advertisers. Blinkx responded point-by-point in March 2014, saying that it did not install adware without user consent and that they did not wholly acquire Zango or its assets.[70] An earlier, 2009 blog post by Ken Smith, Zango co-founder and former CTO, supported Edelman's assertion that Blinkx acquired all of Zango's assets.[71]
Forbes contributor Peter Cohan claimed that Edelman's post caused a massive drop in Blinkx's stock price,[72] and further noted that Blinkx's initial, now-deleted corporate response on 30 January 2014[73] was largely an attack on Edelman's methods, rather than on the content of his analysis. However, New York Times blogger Mark Scott theorized that Edelman's undisclosed client(s), who funded his research on Blinkx, may have been hedge funds who profited from shorting the drop in Blinkx's stock price.[74]
Edelman published further research in April 2014, claiming that Blinkx offered users deceptive software installers and used deceptive pop-up advertisements.[75] He continued to defend his claim that Blinkx purchased all of Zango's assets, including its physical headquarters, and argued that a Federal Trade Commission order against Zango in 2007[76] may still apply to Blinkx. A section of the post co-authored with digital fraud investigation consultant Wesley Brandi also defended and furthered his initial claims that Blinkx was defrauding its advertising affiliates.[77]
TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. Now operating as Xperi, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property within the consumer electronics industry, including digital rights management, electronic program guide software, and metadata. The company holds over 6,000 pending and registered patents. The company also provides analytics and recommendation platforms for the video industry.
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. Prior to 2013, the channel was officially known as MuchMusic, though "Much" has been the branding most commonly seen on-air since 1997. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was once called the MuchMusic World Headquarters.
AllMusic is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne.
Fuse is an American television channel owned by Fuse Media, LLC, that launched in 1994.
Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles, and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be attributed to a smaller number of breakout titles, as was typical of most large-scale successful blog networks of the mid-2000s. Popular blogs included Engadget, Autoblog, TUAW, Joystiq, Luxist, Slashfood, Cinematical, TV Squad, Download Squad, Blogging Baby, Gadling, AdJab, and Blogging Stocks.
Zango,, formerly ePIPO, 180solutions and Hotbar, was a software company that provided users access to its partners' videos, games, tools and utilities in exchange for viewing targeted advertising placed on their computers. Zango software is listed as adware by Symantec, and is also labeled as a potentially unwanted program by McAfee. Zango was co-founded by two brothers: Keith Smith, who served as the CEO; and Ken Smith, who served as the CTO.
CinemaNow was an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of on-demand, Internet streaming media available to viewers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1999 and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. CinemaNow changed hands several times over the years and was eventually shut down on August 1, 2017.
Complex Networks is an American media and entertainment company for youth culture, based in New York City. It was founded as a bi-monthly magazine, Complex, by fashion designer Marc (Ecko) Milecofsky. Complex Networks reports on popular and emerging trends in style, sneakers, food, music, sports and pop culture. Complex Networks reached over 90 million unique users per month in 2013 across its owned and operated and partner sites, socials and YouTube channels. The print magazine ceased publication with the December 2016/January 2017 issue. Complex currently has 6.02 million subscribers and 1.8 billion total views on YouTube. As of 2019, the company's yearly revenue was estimated to be US$200 million, 15% of which came from commerce.
The company Yahoo! ran several similar video services. Yahoo! Video, a video hosting service, was established in 2006. Later, the ability to upload videos was removed, changing it to a more pure video on demand service; the website became a portal for curated video content hosted by Yahoo's properties. In 2011, the service was re-launched as Yahoo! Screen, placing a larger focus on original content and web series. Created for the service were the series Burning Love, Electric City, Ghost Ghirls, Losing It with John Stamos, Sin City Saints, and Other Space. Yahoo! Screen also acquired the sitcom Community for an additional season, following its cancellation after the fifth season on NBC. In January 2016, following a $42 million write-down on the poor performance of its original content, Yahoo! Screen was shut down. In August 2016, Yahoo! announced a partnership with the subscription video-on-demand service Hulu to move its free video library to a de facto successor known as Yahoo! View. Yahoo! View streamed recent episodes of television series from the ABC, NBC, and Fox networks in the United States, as well as a moderate selection of archived programs from various distributors, the "skinny bundle" model. Yahoo! View was decommissioned on June 30, 2019.
Gemstar–TV Guide International, Inc. was a media company that licensed interactive program guide technology to multichannel video programming distributors such as cable and satellite television providers, and consumer electronics manufacturers; video recorder scheduling codes under brands such as VCR Plus; as well as serving as publishers of TV Guide magazine as well as operators of tvguide.com, owners of TV Guide Network and TVG Network, and provided various related services. On May 2, 2008, Gemstar–TV Guide International, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Macrovision Solutions Corporation, which later changed its name to Rovi Corporation on July 16, 2009.
SideReel is a television show tracking website. The site, while not a production or publishing entity, gives users access to various discussions, reviews, and news articles related to shows; it acts as a medium for users to access content centered around shows of their liking.
RealNetworks LLC is an American technology company and provider of Internet streaming media delivery software and services based in Seattle, Washington. The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile entertainment and messaging services.
Xperi Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that develops software for consumer electronics and connected cars, as well as media platforms for video service over broadband. The company is organized into four business units: Pay-TV, Consumer Electronics, Connected Car, and Media Platform. Xperi's brands include DTS, HD Radio, and TiVo.
AllMovie is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. As of 2015, AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
The Verge is an American technology news website headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
Fullscreen, LLC was an American entertainment company which offered tools, services, and consultation to social media content creators and brands, multi-channel network. It was owned by Otter Media, which is now a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Cineverse Corp. is an American entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Cineverse’s businesses encompass digital cinema, streaming channels, content marketing, and distribution.
Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global.
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