Syndication Heats Up in Europe

Content syndication technologies are a relatively new thing to Europe. New companies are appearing on the scene, but the industry, at this early stage, is still trying to work out sensible — and profitable — e-business models for syndication at large.

"The industry is still pretty much in startup mode," said Jan vanOttele, chief executive officer of Yournews.net, a pan-European syndicator based in the Netherlands that recently opened offices in the United Kingdom. "Content creators, especially larger publishers, are just starting to open up to the idea of online content syndication."

Distributors hoping to syndicate will need to address the particular complexities of the European market. For instance, Ottele is convinced that every content provider with a pan-European mission needs to have content in at least six or seven languages. "I don't believe a lot of translation work should be done by syndicators. Most of the content should be distributed in its original language with a local frame of reference," he said.

Still, syndication — within or across borders — requires a good measure of infrastructure, the development of which has yet to kick into high gear in Europe. Several U.S companies, however, have been building syndication technologies and strategies for some time. Lineup Technologies, for example, focuses exclusively on the management and syndication of broadband and streaming content. With its "end-to-end" streaming content syndication solution, it claims a unique position in the market.

Jeff Stern, Lineup founder and chief executive officer, believes that a technology capable of managing the entire spectrum of syndication activities can offer substantial efficiency, translating to optimal revenue streams. The Lineup business model centers on giving companies the tools to control and economically distribute their content efficiently.

"The market for digital content services is difficult to navigate due in part to conflicting messages, market fragmentation, and large variations in pricing for individual services," Stern said. "By bundling its services, as an end-to-end broadband content solutions provider, a solution simplifies the process for customers."

For Stern, "end to end" implies a strong emphasis on the bottom line. This, he says, involves "control of content — knowing who is using it, how they are using it, and how to protect it. And fiscal responsibility — the idea that the cost of one's content has some relation to the revenues it is expected to generate; the various costs of content fulfillment need to be included in this analysis."

Despite being at a different level of maturity, Europe is very clearly a target for Lineup, according to Stern. As evidence of this, Lineup is scheduled to exhibit at Milia, a large content exhibition being held in Cannes, France, February 10 through 14.

"While European markets are major consumers of American content,syndication must also be able to provide localized material," Stern said. "And it must be sold in a manner consistent with the economic and business practices of each unique region."

Lineup's strategy and targets in Europe are very similar to those in the United States. "The key is to recognize the similarities and differences; Europe has very different local configurations, and we will initially focus on the English language markets as they are the most valuable and active segment of the Internet to date," Stern said.

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"I think that we will see the birth of mobile-only syndication startups in 2001."

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But not everyone will require a solutions provider to help them spread content across markets and languages. Robert Freeman, network content director for BBC News Online in the United Kingdom, believes that "end-to-end" solutions may be ideal for content providers who do not have, and who do not intend to set up, a content distribution infrastructure. But for the BBC, it makes sense to keep such operations in-house.

"The BBC is atypical, in comparison to the majority of other players, because it is an unusually large content provider with a great infrastructure and distributed presence around the continent," Freeman said. "We are hoping to syndicate material in over 40 languages, starting with Spanish. Our large organization handles in-house, both the physical syndication and the copyright administration; the costs are already absorbed by our usual overheads."

But that doesn't mean the BBC is going it alone. "We have been testing multimedia content syndication for over a year, and have agreements in place with Chello in the Netherlands, @Home in Belgium and with BT Openworld in the UK," Freeman said.

Regardless of the method or infrastructure used, it is becoming clear that syndication strategies will play a key role in online content distribution across Europe. "From the distributor side, we will see a trend from syndication to the Web only, toward syndication to all digital media, with some big forces pointing toward the whole mobile arena," said Yournews.net's Ottele. "I think that we will see the birth of mobile-only syndication startups in 2001."