Metadata Done Quick – Watchwith Acquires ARRIS’ Media Analysis Framework

One of the great things about metadata is that it allows everything to be more contextual. By having context about the piece you’re consuming, the ads you see can be more relevant to what you’re watching at the moment, so you don’t get the same insurance ad for the umpteenth time. One of the great issues for metadata, though has always been the speed with which it could be tagged. Unless you were watching something controlled by Google, there was a human involved in getting that tag made. Watchwith hopes its latest acquisition can change that.This morning, Watchwith announced that it is purchasing Media Analysis Framework (MAF), a machine learning platform, from ARRIS. MAF allows for the automation of context identification, so that content owners can have a real-time automated identification feed within a piece of content. In short, all the metadata tagging that used to require many man-hours to assemble by hand is now handled by intelligent AI. According to CEO Zane Vella, neither machine learning or manual editorial are ideal solutions on their own, but this new combination of intelligently tagged content with human control allows for new advertising opportunities at scale.This sort of real-time tagging has existed for some time now within YouTube, but it did not extend beyond YouTube. To open it up to new areas that can be utilized by network’s proprietary video systems allows for an increase in inventory that can then be monetized accordingly. By removing the slowest piece in the process – humans tagging them, and combining it with the growth of distribution factors and internet speed, it’s a good time for metadata. By embedding artificial intelligence into the video advertising inventory creation process, Watchwith MAF gives TV networks and premium video publishers the power to create, manage and sell contextually relevant native video advertising at scale.As part of this announcement, Vella revealed that along with the acquisition of MAF from ARRIS, ARRIS is actually an investor in Watchwith. This investment occurred in the past 12 months, with ARRIS seeing Watchwith’s technology as complimentary to their business. Watchwith’s clients, which include companies like Fox, NBCUniversal, and Viacom have been testing MAF for some time now, though none are publically utilizing it. Yet.