Veritone Forges a New Partnership with Sports Illustrated to Monetize the Brand’s Iconic Sports and Entertainment Content

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Veritone will serve as Sports Illustrated’s official video technology and licensing partner

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Veritone, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERI), the creator of the world’s first operating system for artificial intelligence, aiWARE™, today announced that it has partnered with Authentic Brands Group (ABG), a global brand owner, marketing and entertainment company, to serve as the official video technology and licensing partner for Sports Illustrated.

Since 1954, Sports Illustrated has amassed a tremendous amount of video content, including interviews and internal documentary footage of famous athletes, sports personalities, celebrities, political leaders and swimsuit models. Through the partnership, Veritone will leverage its AI technology and expertise to monetize the Sports Illustrated video archive, which contains 1.6 petabytes of data.

“Sports Illustrated is home to decades of iconic sports and entertainment footage. In our efforts to catalogue and curate our massive media archive, we sought a partner with deep expertise in both AI technology and content licensing,” said Michael Sherman, vice president, Media at ABG, owner of the Sports Illustrated brand. “Veritone also has a deep knowledge of the sports media landscape making it the perfect partner for Sports Illustrated as we reach into the archives and aim to expand the brand even further internationally, with a strategic focus on Europe.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with Sports Illustrated and ABG to discover, manage and license nearly seven decades of content that has inspired millions—all while bringing us together to create amazing memories,” said Ryan Steelberg, president of Veritone. “Our deep expertise in AI and licensing, combined with our years of experience in the sports media field, position Veritone as the perfect partner to serve as Sports Illustrated’s official video technology and licensing partner.”

Adding Sports Illustrated's premium video content to Veritone's proprietary licensing portal, Veritone Commerce, enables Veritone to monetize, and make accessible to users of Veritone Commerce, Sports Illustrated's impressive video catalogue among Veritone’s other premier content partners, including the NCAA®, CBS Sports, the United States Tennis Association and many more.

To automate, curate and activate its extensive video archive, Sports Illustrated will lean on Veritone Digital Media Hub, a cloud-native, AI-enabled management portal specifically designed for content owners to immediately access, search, manage, share and monetize media assets. Using aiWARE, Veritone Digital Media Hub will decrypt Sports Illustrated’s content and data, continuing to learn and improve on new and old assets, further enriching the files with metadata for faster and richer search results.

In addition, Sports Illustrated editors will have access to Veritone Digital Media Hub internally to more easily search, browse and identify the exact footage they are looking for, and leverage it on both SI.com and social media to offer even more compelling content to Sports Illustrated consumers.

For more information on Veritone Digital Media Hub, please visit: https://www.veritone.com/applications/digital-media-hub/. To learn more about Veritone Licensing, please visit: https://licensing.veritone.com/.

About Veritone

Veritone (NASDAQ: VERI) is a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and solutions. The company’s proprietary operating system, aiWARE™, powers a diverse set of AI applications and intelligent process automation solutions that are transforming both commercial and government organizations. aiWARE orchestrates an expanding ecosystem of machine learning models to transform audio, video and other data sources into actionable intelligence. The company’s AI developer tools enable its customers and partners to easily develop and deploy custom applications that leverage the power of AI to dramatically improve operational efficiency and unlock untapped opportunities. Veritone is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has offices in California and London. To learn more, visit Veritone.com.

About ABG

Sports Illustrated is an unparalleled and influential leader recognized for its role in shaping modern culture and uniting athletes, teams, and fans from all over the world. Powerful storytelling is brought to life through world-class live and virtual events, immersive experiences, and lifestyle products.

Its award-winning media enterprise captures moments and turns them into history through rich and thoughtful journalism, iconic and beloved photography, and across digital platforms ranging from Emmy-winning video to an ever-expanding social community. The Sports Illustrated cover is the most coveted real estate in sports media and one of the most recognizable honors in American culture. Brand extensions include the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and Sports Illustrated Kids franchises. Sports Illustrated shares its unique and authentic perspective year-round, through marquee events, activations, partnerships, star-studded celebrations, and VIP-access to athletes and A-list celebrities. Tentpoles include the annual Super Bowl celebration: “The Party,” Fashionable Fifty, and the Sports Illustrated Awards.

For more information, visit SI.com.
Follow Sports Illustrated on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding Veritone’s Digital Media Hub and the expected benefits of Digital Media Hub and Veritone’s other AI solutions to Sports Illustrated. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “estimate” or “continue” or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Assumptions relating to the foregoing involve judgments and risks with respect to various matters which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond the control of Veritone. Certain of such judgments and risks are discussed in Veritone’s SEC filings. Although Veritone believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in forward-looking statements will be realized. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking information included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Veritone or any other person that their objectives or plans will be achieved. Veritone undertakes no obligation to revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Veritone
Kristi Labrum
klabrum@veritone.com

Source: Veritone, Inc.

Released June 30, 2021