(24 March 2008 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Ness Technologies, a global provider of information technology services and solutions, will unveil a new version of its proprietary media contract management solution, Ness Content Office, at the Nab exhibition, to be held from 14-17 April 2008 in Las Vegas.

Ness will also unveil its Media Business Framework, an array of flexible, globally available services and product solutions for media, broadcast and publishing organisations.

The Ness Content Office solution (previously known as iRights) is an advanced technology answer to the problems faced by media companies across television, publishing, film and music in managing rights, contracts and royalty payments. The new version (version 6) represents a significant extension to the product for the benefit of users who want to integrate and automate rights, contracts and royalty payment processing.

ITV, the largest commercial broadcaster in the UK, selected Ness Content Office for its Contracts and Artiste Payments System (CAPS) in 2007.

ITV head of production business systems Carolyn Pearson says, "Ness Content Office is the most viable solution in the marketplace for supporting end-to-end processing of contracts and payments management. In addition, the Ness team has been able to demonstrate exceptional industry knowledge and expertise enabling ITV to challenge and redevelop internal business processes."

The new version of Ness Content Office includes an advanced payment module, based on FremantleMedia's artiste payments system. This new module adds both production payroll and secondary residuals payment functionality. Ness Technologies signed an exclusive license deal with FremantleMedia, one of the largest global creators and producers of television programming, formats, DVDs and ancillary IP.

The combination of FremantleMedia's artiste payment system and the Ness Content Office solution will provide ITV with a proven, state-of-the-art and solution for the CAPS project.

Ness UK MD Peter Sutton says, "Media businesses operate within an increasingly competitive market. They run on tight margins and need innovative services and solutions just
to maintain cost effectiveness. The Media Business Framework demonstrates our commitment to deliver an advanced portfolio of services and solutions engineered to help media and broadcasting clients make the most efficient use of their IT infrastructure to meet and beat their current and future business objectives.