The National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) technology division NAB Labs has participated in a financing round for the start-up Antenna, which has launched an online engagement platform.
Antenna’s equity round of financing was led by IDEA Fund Partners.
Other investors in Antenna include Geoff Judge, iNovia Capital partner and co-founder of 24/7 Real Media; Horan MediaTech Advisors; IDEA Fund Partners, a North Carolina-based seed stage fund; and The Startup Factory, the companies said.
The startup’s platform offers tool for building online engagement and measures audience sentiment.
As part of that process, it measures reaction to news and entertainment content in a matter of seconds. That allows media companies and retailers to measure what content is working with audiences and to react with mobile and web content.
Currently, 55 publishers are using the free Antenna platform. Those include Perez Hilton, Dlisted and Okay Player.
The NAB Labs, which was created in 2012, is part of a larger NAB initiative to speed up the pace of innovation in the industry.
“We see a lot of promise in this early stage company,” said NAB CTO Sam Matheny in a statement. “Our members are vital parts of their respective communities and the Antenna platform is an elegant solution that enables mobile and web visitors to pick the exact text, image or video they want to react to and to offer real feedback – much more than just a `like’ or a `heart’ – without all of the management overhead that comes with cumbersome commenting systems. Antenna is quick and easy for the user and provides an excellent opportunity to grow engagement, build community and expand revenue options.”
