Mission Possible Charity Receives Funds from Around the World With Click of A Mouse

VANCOUVER, May 1, 2012 – BroadbandTV, the largest online video aggregator in Canada, today announced the launch of a social video fundraiser that will solicit global support for a local cause. VISO, BroadbandTV’s consumer channel, has put a call out to its network of 5,000 video creators from around the world to tell the story of Mission Possible, a local charity that helps residents in one of Canada’s poorest postal codes find jobs.

The winning entry will be featured on VISO Give (www.youtube.com/give), BroadbandTV’s non-profit channel, which uses a unique “Watch and Give” model to donate 100 percent of its collected ad revenues from cause-based videos back to its partnered charities. This means the more views the video gets, the more money Mission Possible will receive, even after the contest is over.

“It used to be if you felt passionate about a cause you would reach out to your family, friends and immediate community for support,” said Shahrzad Rafati, founder and CEO of BroadbandTV, parent company of the VISO network. “Now, we have the tools to summon the entire world not only to care about your cause, but to transform compassion into monetary donations simply by watching videos online.”

VISO paid millions of dollars to its network of video creators last year. Rafati said VISO partnered with Mission Possible for its first social fundraiser because the charity’s mandate to create meaningful employment aligns with VISO’s own.

“Poverty and homelessness aren’t isolated to one zip code,” said Jenn Dagg, director of Communications and Development for Mission Possible. “We’re very excited for this opportunity to have our story shared with a global audience and to communicate the importance of restoring dignity through meaningful job creation across the world.”

For more information visit www.facebook.com/VISOGive or www.mission-possible.ca. Join the conversation on Twitter: @VISOGive or @MPEastVan. Use the hashtag #MP4Change.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Maloney, Sip Publicity
Tel: 604-726-4506
Email: jennifer@sippublicity.com

About Mission Possible

Mission Possible is a humanitarian agency that transforms lives by helping those challenged by homelessness and poverty achieve a renewed sense of dignity and purpose through meaningful work. Founded more than 20 years ago by Rev. Liz Wall, her vision focused on meeting basic street-level needs with a loving and compassionate heart. Throughout the years, Mission Possible has walked with people who found hope in the midst of the challenging streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. For more information visit: www.mission-possible.ca.

VANCOUVER, April 3, 2012 /CNW/ – BroadbandTV has been named Top Innovator in British Columbia, heading the list of the 20 most innovative companies in 2012 by BC Business Magazine. The company was recognized for “radically changing” the online media and technology industry while “boosting bottom lines.”

“We’re excited to be recognized as a leader in the category of Innovation,” said Shahrzad Rafati, CEO of BroadbandTV. “The idea behind BroadbandTV was to create a company that serviced a growing need that wasn’t being fulfilled. We continue to grow our business based on this ideology. Without innovation there would be no success.”

Since launching its first online video asset four years ago, BroadbandTV has grown to manage hundreds of thousands of videos online for more than 3,000 companies. Clients such as the National Basketball Association and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. turn to BroadbandTV to unlock the monetization value behind their online video content. The company does this by leveraging proprietary systems, tools, technologies and an innovative community-centric approach.

“It is great to see BC businesses like BroadbandTV solve difficult problems with true innovation, not just with technology, but also with innovative business models,” said Brent Holliday of Capital West Partners, an Innovator’s panelist. “BBTV’s success in assisting content providers in leveraging the power of social video is expanding globally at an astonishing rate.”

BroadbandTV has received numerous awards and distinctions including being recognized by Marketing Magazine as one of Canada’s Digital Media Companies to Watch. Since January 2011, BroadbandTV has massed close to 300 million impressions monthly. This represents more than 645% growth in revenues on a year over year basis.  The next leap for the Vancouver-based company is to extend their business model to mobile devices.

About BroadbandTV
BroadbandTV is a media and technology company that brings together content owners, network operators and advertisers to create economically sustainable Video over IP business models. BroadbandTV specializes in the aggregation, optimization, distribution and monetization of video content via Internet Protocol (IP) and Wireless Networks. More information about BroadbandTV is available at http://broadbandtvcorp.com

For further information:

Media Contact:
Jennifer Maloney
Sip Publicity
E: Jennifer@sippublicity.com
P: 604-727-4506

http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/12-local-leaders-professional-bucket-lists

Read more:

http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/Why_Your_Future_Lies_in_Youtube_and_Online_Advertising

To see the full article on BroadbandTV in Marketing Magazine’s list of ‘Canada’s Digital Media Companies To Watch’ click here.

The NEXT Power Elite – 20 women destined to shake up corporate Canada

VANCOUVER, Aug. 16, 2011 – Vancouver tech entrepreneur Shahrzad Rafati, founder of BroadbandTV, will grace the cover of Canadian Business Magazine’s August issue and appear in the magazine’s list of Canada’s top 20 powerful, young women business leaders.

BroadbandTV helps video publishers like National Basketball Association (NBA) and Warner Bros control and monetize content across popular consumer engagement platforms, such as YouTube.

In 3 short years, Rafati’s company, BroadbandTV, has amassed more than 1 million subscribers, curated 150,000 videos and driven 1.6 billion impressions. A significant portion of BroadbandTV’s impressions and all of its subscribers have been generated via its VISO brand of content channels.

The VISO Network consists of channels that span across all the top content verticals including VISO Games, VISO Trailers and VISO Sports. BroadbandTV’s latest channel, VISO Sports, features content showcasing all of the top leagues around the globe, including  professional soccer, basketball, tennis, golf and racing as well as other niche sports.

To put BroadbandTV’s 1 million subscribers in perspective, their channels outrank some the biggest entertainment brands on YouTube. CBS boasts 363,229 subscribers; ESPN claims 103,626 subscribers; and EA contends 184,514.

The next big step for the company is a mobile app that will suggest video content, often from BroadbandTV’s catalogue, for users based on their interests and personal preferences.

Shahrzad Rafati immigrated to Canada in 2000, studied Computer Science at The University of British Columbia and upon graduation founded BroadbandTV. Her efforts with BroadbandTV have resulted in content owners being more successful online and earning millions of dollars of advertising that may not have been otherwise created.

The cover and article in Canadian Business Magazine is available at:
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/issue/39442–issue-august-16-september-12-2011

About BroadbandTV

BroadbandTV is a media and technology company that brings together content owners, network operators and advertisers to create economically sustainable Video over IP business models. BroadbandTV specializes in the aggregation, optimization, distribution and monetization of video content via Internet Protocol (IP) and Wireless Networks. More information about BroadbandTV is available at http://broadbandtvcorp.com

Image with caption: “Vancouver tech entrepreneur Shahrzad Rafati has been named one of Canada’s top 20 upcoming female leaders by by Canadian Business Magazine (CNW Group/BroadbandTV Corp.)”. Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20110816_C4002_PHOTO_EN_2191.jpg

Contacts

Media Contact:
Shahrzad Rafati
CEO
Broadband TV Corp
C: 604.779.4915
srafati@broadbandtvcorp.com

Greg Johnson
T: 604 646 3572
gjohnson@pacegroup.com

BroadbandTV is proud to announce their front page feature in the Vancouver Sun today (31 May 2011).

VANCOUVER — You can fight them, or you can work with them.

By taking the latter approach with some of the Internet’s more benign “pirates,” a British Columbia-based Internet business is carving out a potentially formidable space for itself on the world wide web.

BroadbandTV, brainchild of Shahrzad Rafati, is already a profitable venture that boasts business relationships including YouTube, the National Basketball Association, Electronic Arts, United Way, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Warner Brothers.

Rafati started the company in 2005, a year before she graduated from the University of B.C. in computer sciences.

The company began by offering foreign language television entertainment over the Internet, and still does.

But it was Rafati’s innovations that have piqued wider interest; this month, Fast Company listed her as one of the world’s top 100 creative business thinkers.

She has developed computer programs — search algorithms — that comb the web for certain kinds of content.

(The creators of Google on a much larger scale developed computer programs as the foundation of its prodigious search engine).

In the case of the NBA, for example, BroadbandTV looks for fan- or “user”-generated videos — such as a LeBron James slam dunk compilation that a Miami Heat fan might post on YouTube or another basketball site or web page.

The NBA has a copyright for all images involving its teams and players so, technically, a fan who is posting game highlights is violating the copyright — in effect, pirating the NBA’s proprietary video content, even if it’s just intended as a tribute.

But instead of antagonizing fans with lawsuits, the NBA has a contract with BroadbandTV to rebrand their clips as official content.

Rafati’s algorithms scan the web for unauthorized video clips. When they find one, BroadbandTV staff screen — or “curate” — it for potential objectionable content and remove it, and then attach advertisements. A pirate clip posted on YouTube is rebranded into a revenue-generating league asset.

The ensuing ad revenue is shared among partners in the venture, including the NBA and BroadbandTV.

“I consume a lot of videos online myself. I watch a lot of content on YouTube and other sites,” Rafati said in an interview at BroadbandTV’s new offices in downtown Vancouver.

“When first YouTube came around, and a lot of other video portals that might not even be around now, the majority of the content on these platforms was uploaded by users. The majority of the uploaded content was not videos of cats and dogs. It was an NBA clip, an American Idol clip.

“I thought — the guys that are uploading are not really thinking of themselves as pirates. These are fans that are going out there, they are uploading the videos, they are sharing them with their friends and they’re very enthusiastic. They’re posting it on their Facebook wall.

“We thought, how can we come up with a solution to a problem that the content partners are facing where we give them control?”

A deal to clean up user generated content was the first step. The next one was persuading the clients to let BroadbandTV create unique, legitimized Internet video channels where fans could upload their clips — and attach advertisements that would drive revenue.

The company created a “consumer brand,” VISO, that operates on YouTube and offers a series of channels dedicated to content from video games, other sports, music, television and movie trailers.

As with the NBA channel, BroadbandTV is using the new promotional channels to curate fan-driven content, attach advertisements, and drive revenue growth.

There’s a VISO Gamer channel for video gamers to post video clips from their in-game adventures — Electronic Arts is a partner on that one.

VISO Trailers shows movie trailer and other film fan content, VISO Games shows video game trailers, and VISO Music features concert clips and other music videos.

“At the end of the day you are giving the end user what they are looking for, not looking at them as pirates but as fans, enthusiastic fans that are going out there sharing, uploading content, sharing it with their friends and educating them,” Rafati said.

Getting the attention of a large, internationally regarded corporate entity such as the NBA or EA or Sony was not easy for a tiny Vancouver company with a CEO barely out of university.

“For us, when we were approaching the content partners it was very difficult at the beginning. It was months and months of negotiation with different content partners but, at the end of the day, we provided them with stats, data, on user activity associated with their video assets.

“They had two options. Either they had no control or they have control — and there was a business model behind it, a real business model. There are real revenues associated with user activity around the user uploaded content,” Rafati said.

“Because there was no risk on their end and we were doing all the work and bringing them a revenue stream, we were able to get them on board.”

Those stations are in addition to others that offer more traditional TV content, such as an online BroadbandTV channel for watching Venezuelan soap operas, or old movies in the public domain, or other content that can’t find its way onto a local network or specialty television station.

Even here, BroadbandTV is offering to help curate content and monetize it for its owners.

Rafati’s favourite new channel is VISO Give, which enables charitable enterprises to post their own content and generate revenue from it.

They don’t need to plead for donations. Instead, charities on VISO Give need only to have people watch their videos to generate revenue from the advertisements that are attached to them.

For the public, a 90-second video of yelping puppies at an animal shelter means advertising revenue for the shelter that costs nothing more than the 90 seconds it took to watch the video.

The more people you can attract to your video, the more revenue you can generate.

“You see a lot of technology companies that just create technology for the sake of creating something really cool and hoping that someone is going to acquire the company. For us it’s solving a real problem that exists out there,” Rafati said.

“It’s something I’m personally passionate about because it’s doing something good within the community and truly helping the non-profits. We are hoping to get more and more non-profits on board to really create a kick-ass, aggregated hub destination for the non-profits.”

Meanwhile, Rafati is talking with potential investors about a first, significant round of venture capital funding — a Series A venture that would put the company, and Canada, on the digital map.

“We’ve been fortunate,” she said.

“The business is cash-flow positive. We have a proven model. As a result of that, we want to grow rapidly and we think it’s best to go out there and raise some money and truly scale the business.”

ssimpson@vancouversun.com

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/little+creativity+turned+pirate+into+profit/4864457/story.html#ixzz1Nx6JpD89

Vancouver, British Columbia – May 2, 2011 – On the heels of a very big year of growth in both VISO Games’ channel views and subscriptions, BroadbandTV is introducing VISO Gamer, an exciting new community channel, to allow users to submit and have their videos displayed on VISO Gamer (http://www.youtube.com/visogamer).

VISO Gamer tool is a completely new, and free-to-use video submission tool that allows gamers to upload and submit videos directly to the VISO Gamer channel. Users who like to capture ingame videos, make walk-throughs and replays or create their own machinima will now have a successful outlet to distribute their videos. Even those who have never captured or uploaded their videos before are encouraged to use the VISO Gamer tool located at http://visopartners.com/gamer/ to start building their own presence on VISO Gamer.

The uploader tool features a comprehensive guide for new users to help them start creating videos of the games they like to play on whatever console they choose.

VISO Gamer is also looking for experienced and qualified gamers to participate in the ‘Executive Director’ program. It will require those users to consistently upload a monthly quota of videos that also meet our high standard of quality. As Executive Directors you will not only be promoted by the channel but also eligible to participate in a revenue sharing program on all of their uploaded videos on VISO Gamer and VISO Games. For more info please contact info@visogames.com

VISO Gamer will also be frequently featuring contests and challenges to the community in an effort to stoke creativity and broaden the content base within VISO Gamer and VISO Games.

ABOUT VISO:

VISO is BroadbandTV’s consumer brand and is one of the most popular entertainment brands online, reaching millions of views every day. BroadbandTV harnesses these views and drives them across multiple channels including movies, games, sports, comedy, entertainment, lifestyle and more.

ABOUT VISO Games:

VISO Games (www.youtube.com/games) is one of top games destinations online reaching millions of impressions monthly and growing.

VISO Give is the first video channel dedicated to featuring video content from non-profits around the world. Support World Cancer Day by watching YouTube. Essentially, every time you watch a video on VISO Give, you are directly causing a donation to be made to that charity. To help, there will be additional donation links posted with each video.In the lead-up to World Cancer Day, VISO Give will feature diverse and engaging video content from the organizations leading the way in the fight against cancer such as Livestrong, Coast to Coast Against Cancer and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

To join in and support this worthy cause all you have to do is visit VISO Give (youtube.com/give) and watch our partners’ videos.

“We’ve received tremendous global interest and support for the ‘watch and give’ program” said Shahrzad Rafati, Founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp., “We’re excited to leverage this program for the benefit of World Cancer Day. We want to create exposure and generate donations for important causes such as Cancer.”

About BroadbandTV
BroadbandTV is a media and technology company that brings together content owners, network operators and advertisers to create economically sustainable Video over IP business models. BroadbandTV specializes in the aggregation, optimization, distribution and monetization of video content via Internet Protocol (IP) and Wireless Networks. The Company’s clients include marquee companies such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Warner Bros.

About VISO Give
VISO Give operates “Watch and Give”, the world’s first Internet based on-demand video channel dedicated to featuring video content from non-profits around the world. Each time an ad-supported video is watched by a viewer, the cause represented by the video benefits. Aside from driving ad revenue share back to non-profits, Visitors to the channel will also be able to donate directly to any cause via the link posted next to each video asset. VISO Give is the ultimate tool to help non-profits grow as it helps drive increased exposure for the cause and helps drive donation revenues. VISO Give is part of the VISO brand of channels which reach more than 800M impressions per year.

For more information visit www.broadbandtvcorp.com
Lewis Ball – BroadbandTV Corp.
Tel: 604.647.2288
Email: pr@broadbandtvcorp.com

About World Cancer Day
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 without intervention. Each year on 4th February, the WHO supports the International Union Against Cancer to promote ways to ease the global burden of cancer. Preventing cancer and raising quality of life for cancer patients are the recurring themes that drive the need for World Cancer Day.

For more information visit www.who.int

###

Vancouver, British Columbia – January 26, 2011 – Broadbandtv Corp., a market leader in monetizing online video, has been recognized as one of the top twenty-five private companies that are best positioned to capitalize on growth in the information technology sector.

The annual list recognizes the hottest BC companies who have created innovative products and services that are capitalizing on important IT trends with substantial client lists.

“We identify companies that both information technology buyers and venture capitalists will value. Our analysis of market trends led to our selection of BroadbandTV Corp. as a Ready to Rocket ICT company.” said Dave Thomas, Senior Partner, Rocket Builders.

BroadbandTV has created a compelling suite of online video monetization services that benefit content owners in numerous ways.  Broadbandtv puts content owners back in control of their content by detecting, filtering and monetizing their content on popular video portals online.

“We are thrilled to be included in the 2011 ‘Ready to Rocket’ list,” said Shahrzad Rafati, CEO of BroadbandTV, “We are experiencing unprecedented growth and interest in our products, services and company.  We’ve shown major content providers that we can help protect, monetize and control their content on the Internet’s most dynamic platforms”.

About BroadbandTV

BBTV is a media and technology company that brings together content owners, network operators and advertisers to create economically sustainable Video over IP business models. BroadbandTV specializes in the aggregation, optimization, distribution and monetization of video content via Internet Protocol (IP) and Wireless Networks.  The Company’s clients include marquee companies such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Warner Bros.

For more information visit www.broadbandtvcorp.com
For Further information please contact:
Lewis Ball – Broadbandtv Corp.
Tel: 604.647.2288
Email: pr@broadbandtvcorp.com

About Ready to Rocket

Ready to Rocket is a unique business recognition list that profiles technology companies with the greatest potential for revenue growth. Each year, based on analysis of trends that will drive growth in the information technology sector, Rocket Builders identifies the top private companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the trends for growth. This selection methodology has been an accurate predictor of growth with “Ready to Rocket” companies exceeding the industry growth rate. Also, many of these companies raise investment capital and each year many of the profiled “Ready to Rocket’ companies are acquired.

For more information: http://www.readytorocket.com

“Ready to Rocket” is a trademark of Rocket Builders, a respected management consulting firm servicing the technology industry.

###