IBM, Sony to archive CNN

Sony, with IBM, will help AOL Time Warner digitize its video archives

By Staff and wire reports

NEW YORK -- Sony and IBM will help AOL Time Warner's 24-hour news network CNN to create a digital video library.

IBM and Sony will work on the five-to-seven year $20 million project to put CNN's videotape archive online, setting up easier access to the network's footage and providing better protection for the video.

The new system, which will be launched in parts, will digitize, catalog, store, distribute, and retrieve more than 120,000 hours of archival material.

CNN users and later other users will have access to the digital video, audio, graphics and text files of the footage from their computers as the system comes online.

Reducing costs, lifting revenues

"For CNN, the resulting system will reduce operational costs and provide greater opportunities to increase revenue by leveraging our digital assets across multiple platforms," said Gordon Castle, CNN senior vice president of strategic digital systems research and development, in a statement.

Following the completion of America Online's $106.2 billion purchase of Time Warner in January, many of the company's media assets are moving forward more aggressively with digital and online efforts.

As high-speed Internet access becomes more prevalent, AOL Time Warner plans to benefit from services such as video-on-demand, interactive television and eventually things such as HBO subscriptions-on-demand.

It will draw on its base of more than 28 million AOL subscribers and array of media assets including Time and In Style magazine, CNN and TBS, and music and film assets.

Public users will be able to search the archive and all areas of production in a low-resolution format. This will be available for use or purchase.

CNN.com Asia is also a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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