NDR Now Offers its Podcasts via Non-Commercial Software, Miro

NDR (North Germany's Public Broadcaster) offers more than 70 audio- and video podcasts. Viewers can now install a single free application which has all NDR podcasts pre-installed. The software is a version, customized especially for NDR, of the popular free multimedia application, Miro. The open source application works similar to iTunes or Joost, but offers an open media environment. Miro can play most audio and video formats.

“As a public broadcaster, we have a high interest in offering our content on the internet as well via free, non-commercial platforms”, sayd Joachim Knuth (NDR Director Radio Programs). “We are as well happy that our fee payers can use this very easy to handle software in order to download our audio and video podcasts.”

The application automatically downloads the newest videos from the political comedy show "Extra Drei" or the last program of "Overseas Report" (NDR Info) onto the user’s computer, via RSS-technology. Miro is published by the non-profit organization, the "Participatory Culture Foundation". Based in the US, the Participatory Culture Foundation is partnering with public broadcasters around the world to make a more democratic system for producing and watching video. The Miro application has been downloaded over 3 million times in the past year alone.

"The ‘Participatory Culture Foundation’ is very enthusiastic that the NDR offers its content via Miro”, said Dean Jansen (Outreach Director Participatory Culture Foundation). “We're happy to give NDR viewers more choice in how they access NDR programming”, stated Jansen.

You can download the NDR Miro Co-Branded player at http://www.getmiro.com/co-branding/partners.php. More information about the cooperation between North German Broadcasting and Miro here.

4th of July, 2008