RUPTLY AND BABO PARTNER UP TO DEVELOP CUSTOM UGC PLATFORM

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 12, 2014 – RUPTLY, RT’s international video news agency, and Babo, a news-gathering platform developer, have announced a collaboration to adapt technology designed to source quality user-generated video content for RUPTLY’s global operations.

The Babo app connects smartphone users and newsrooms around the world. It allows eyewitnesses to submit video footage of interesting events and breaking stories as they unfold directly to news broadcasters – and provides monetary compensation for aired materials.

“Babo lets us connect with persons closest to the events as they are unfolding, obtain the materials, and appropriately compensate the sources. It is a mutually-beneficial application – it provides news desks with relevant content, and rewards the users for the videos that make it to broadcast,” commented Denis Trunov, managing editor of RUPTLY. “This is a unique platform, the next step in UGC experience, which has become highly useful to today’s news gathering process.”

LifeNews, Russia’s 24-hour news channel, has adapted the technology earlier this year. More than 500,000 downloads of the app have generated 1000+ on-air videos for the broadcaster. Babo platform has won the 2014 World Summit Award - Mobile.

Since its launch in 2013 Berlin-based RUPTLY has established itself as the go-to source for news video material from all the global hotspots. It delivers broadcast-quality footage, including live-streaming video, to a wide range of platforms, from online outlets to major international news networks.