Dear , 

Covatic is building the world’s first broadcast personalisation engine, based on world-leading IP from the University of Oxford in the field of semantic linked-data technology. It will enable broadcasters to deliver context aware, dynamic programming tailored to the unique requirements of each audience member.
The company was founded in early 2017 by a combination of world leading figures in semantics and ontology research, from the University of Oxford Computer Science Department, and experienced figures from the world of broadcasting.

The Market Opportunity
There is a dramatic shift ongoing in the viewing habits of audiences as the widespread adoption of video-on-demand (VOD) and TV Everywhere (TVE) services continues apace. This undermines the traditional ‘by appointment’ delivery of broadcast media and hence threatens the brand value of traditional broadcasters. The solution is to personalise the content that is delivered to, or is available to be viewed by, the audience.
In 2015 IABM valued the global media and broadcast technology market at $47,796m. The report is broken down into nine sections:

Covatic’s products cross over between the ‘content and communication infrastructure’, ‘playout and delivery’, ‘systems automation and control’ and ‘services’ sections. Giving a Total Addressable Market (TAM) of $36,953 million, of which the near market of Western Europe represents 24%.

The Technology
Covatic will utilise semantic technology and user-centric design to build a suite of tools that will enable broadcasters, such as the BBC and ITN, to deliver context aware, dynamic programming uniquely to each audience member. Representing an unparalleled personalised consumer experience.
This will involve creating a rich, semantic database layer to describe content; user domain frameworks to generate user profiles; and a cloud based service layer to perform content discovery and analytics between the two.
This takes personalisation to a level where smart devices, search and recommendation algorithms and distribution systems are all working together to deliver what the user needs, when they need it and to enable them to discover content they didn’t know existed.

IP
For problems in the semantic domain, graph databases out-perform rational databases. Among competing graph databases, those which are implemented as triple-stores using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) specification are ideally suited to semantic problems, as RDF stores are especially good at maintaining the connectedness of multiple entities.

Among RDF triple stores, the University of Oxford’s RDFox represents the state-of-the-art in performance and scalability.

The company has been granted a licence for the exclusive worldwide use of RDFox in the sectors of mass media and advertising for personalised services and associated infrastructure in telecommunications.

The Team
Nick Pinks, Chief Executive Officer, is a former technology transfer manager at the BBC who specialised in broadcast workflows. He subsequently worked at Imagine Communications, building solutions to the industry’s move to IP and dynamic content experiences.

Travis Baxter, Chairman, brings thirty-five years’ experience and expertise in content development, consumer change and business strategy. He is a successful international business leader with extensive operational and strategic board level experience from early stage companies, such as Covatic, to established businesses.

Stuart Timms, Chief Technology Officer, is a highly experienced broadcast engineer specialising in early product development. He has worked for the BBC, as a Technical and Solutions Architect on the Digital Production Partnership Initiative, and with Sky, Technicolor, Dolby, Cisco in a variety of roles.

Robert Dunbar, COO, has experience managing complex projects and delivering in a fast-paced environment. He is an all-rounder, having worked as a designer, developer, and project manager for the design industry as part of both communications and operational teams. He has worked with some of the biggest names in architecture, including Thomas Heatherwick and Norman Foster.

Professor Ian Horrocks, University Founder, is a Professor of Computer Science, a Senior Fellow of Oriel College and Head of the Information Systems Group at the University of Oxford. Ian played a central role in the development of the Web Ontology Language OWL and his work on tableau reasoning for very expressive description logics has formed the basis of most description logic reasoning systems today.

Professor Boris Motik, University Founder, is a Professor of Computer Science and Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College. Boris develops algorithms and techniques necessary for realising advanced applications in the Semantic Web. His novel reasoning algorithm, HermiT, can process ontologies that are too complex for other systems to handle.

Professor Bernardo Cuence Grau, University Founder, is a Professor of Computer Science and Supernumerary Fellow at Oriel College at the University of Oxford. He is also a Research Fellow at the Royal Society. He has been involved in the design of several tools for ontology management and reasoning, including LogMap, MORe, SemFacet and PAGOdA.

The Investment Case
Covatic has identified the broadcasting industry as a key area to commercialise its novel semantics driven personalisation software. It is in advanced discussions with several leading players in the field and anticipates signing its first contracts this year.
We are confident that the team has the product and the connections to capture significant share in the field and to prove the value of its software for potential use in other sectors.

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