Tokyo – January 27, 2020 – OPEN8 and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc. are pleased to announce the launch of NEWS BRAIN, a one-stop automatic news video creating solution from summarization to converting text-to-speech based on newspaper articles.

With the recent increase in speed and capacity of the communication environment, digital content that used to be conveyed through a combination of text and still images are being replaced by video content. In addition to the diversification of personal devices, the number of outdoor screens such as digital signage is increasing, and the distribution of content is also expanding. Moving forward, there is a need to provide content that is suited to the digital environment, and the use of video, in particular, has been recognized as an important initiative for both content provision and revenue growth in the advertising business.

NEWS BRAIN is an automatic news video creating solution that allows users to upload an article, create a summary and text-to-speech content, and match it with news photos and videos to create a video with a storyline using AI.  It is developed based on the combination of Hakuhodo DY Media Partners’ “ASSS,” an article summarization voice-over system developed jointly with Tokyo University of Science, and its knowledge in the media business, with OPEN8’s “Video BRAIN,” a video editing cloud that allows users to create expressive videos with AI support by simply uploading text, still images, and videos.

The created news videos can be distributed to a wide range of channels, including the newspaper’s digital edition, digital signage owned by the newspaper, and official social media. In addition to contributing to the expansion of points of contact with sei-katsu-sha (viewers) that were previously unreachable by paper, the system will enable faster news reporting by streamlining the video editing process. The Chugoku Shimbun is planning to introduce this system as the first step.

Open8 and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners will enter into a business alliance in November 2019 to continue providing technology-based solutions to support the digital transformation of newspapers and will work to maximize media value by providing support for the use of technology in newspapers.

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[Contacts about the release]
OPEN8 Inc.
PR/Marketing & Communications:                            Iwama/Kato         03-6861-5528

Hakuhodo DY Media Partners
PR/Marketing & Communications:             Yamazaki/Sekihara           03-6441-9347

[About Hakuhodo DY Media Partners]
Representative:             Hiroki Yajima, President, and Representative Director
Headquarters: Akasaka Biz Tower, 5-3-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Establishment:               December 1, 2003
Business activities: Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet, other advertising, sales promotion, etc.

OPEN8 Corporate Profile
OPEN8 is a content technology company developing AI technology focused on natural language processing and computer vision, as embodied in its proprietary “OPEN8 CORE TECHNOLOGY” algorithms and software modules. With the concept of being “a growth-driver for information distribution strategy through AI × SaaS”, OPEN8 supports companies’ distribution of their video content by utilizing video content creation/distribution know-how gained from the video advertising and media businesses, through Video BRAIN an in-house AI video editing cloud, Insight BRAIN a social media posting and analysis service, and providing other original APIs.
OPEN8 has been named a 2019 Red Herring Top 100 Asia Winner, awarded to innovative venture companies in Asia by the US-based Red Herring global media company.

OPEN8 Inc.
Representative: President and CEO, Yuko Takamatsu
Head Office: Shibuya Infos Tower 19F
Sakuragaoka-cho 20-1 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Established: April 10, 2015
Businesses: SaaS Business, API/MLaaS Business
https://open8.com/