Open Media Network launches Public Beta
The Open Media Netowrk was launched today to give users worldwide access to public television and radio programming, movies, podcasts and video blogs, while fully protecting the producers’ copyrights.
Open Media Network (OMN) was founded by Internet pioneer and Netscape veteran Mike Homer and includes Marc Andreessen as an advisor and board member. The service offers users a broad selection of free public programs with a simple TV-style program guide and automatic background deliveries of favorite scheduled programming. Content producers can easily add their programming to the network, with unlimited free delivery of their shows and with digital rights protection. Through the service, consumers can view the content on multiple devices, including PCs and iPods today and televisions and cell phones by this summer.
“Widespread broadband adoption, mass market video creation tools and technologies such as RSS are transforming communication, entertainment and information,” said Mike Homer, founder of the Open Media Foundation which produces OMN. “Our goal with Open Media Network is to provide a valuable public service that gives consumers an easy way to get both traditional and grassroots media authorized for Internet distribution and help usher in a new era in mass publishing.”
Open Media Network is powered by grid delivery technology from Kontiki, which already provides secure delivery of content libraries for a range of companies such as Ernst & Young, Verizon, AOL and the BBC. Kontiki’s grid delivery technology speeds the distribution of video and music files by allowing participants to share unused bandwidth on their computers and servers. There are already over 20 million users of Kontiki’s technology today.
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