RhythmOne

RhythmOne
Company type	Public
Industry	Digital advertising technology
Founded	2004
Founder	Suranga Chandratillake
Headquarters	San Francisco and London, United States and United Kingdom
Area served	Global
Products	Online platforms including AllMusic, AllMovie, SideReel
Parent	Nexxen
Website	rhythmone.com

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article RhythmOne, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 2025

RhythmOne plc, operating under the ownership of Nexxen, is a U.S.-based digital advertising technology enterprise that manages various online platforms such as AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.

Initially established as Blinkx in 2004, the firm entered the public market via the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange in 2007, later adopting the RhythmOne name in 2017. With headquarters located in both San Francisco and London, RhythmOne broadened its holdings by acquiring All Media Network in April 2015. In April 2019, it combined with Taptica International (which subsequently became Tremor International), an advertising technology company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

History

Blinkx began as blinkx.com, an online media platform designed to connect viewers with video content providers and distributors, generating revenue through advertising. The platform indexed more than 35 million hours of video content, collaborated with around 800 media partners, and held 111 patents related to its CORE search engine technology.

Founded in 2004 by Suranga Chandratillake, previously CTO at Autonomy Corporation, Blinkx started as a toolbar focused on video search across the web. By December 2004, it launched an audio and video search engine and followed up in July 2005 with SmartFeed, an RSS feed tailored for video links. In 2006, Microsoft integrated Blinkx’s technology into its MSN and Live.com video search services. The company introduced AdHoc, a contextual video advertising platform, in 2007.

From 2008 to 2010, Blinkx enhanced its product offerings by releasing the Blinkx Beat video screensaver, broadband TV applications, the Advanced Media Platform (AMP) for managing video content, and the Blinkx Remote directory featuring full-length television shows. It also rolled out innovative ad formats like the Un-roll Unit and acquired assets from the bankrupt Zango through its subsidiary Pinball Corporation. In 2010, behavioral targeting was incorporated into the AdHoc platform alongside launching mobile video search capabilities and a mobile API. Additionally, Blinkx launched Blinkx Beat for Google TV and introduced Cheep, a social shopping platform.

By November 2010, Blinkx achieved profitability with positive operating cash flow and experienced a doubling of revenue compared to the previous year. Early in 2011, it unveiled a TV API and formed a partnership with Miniweb Interactive’s woomi connected TV platform. The acquisition of Burst Media in April 2011 expanded its online video inventory by 35 million hours and grew its unique user base to over 130 million. The Blinkx app was made available on Roku devices in May 2011. Later that year, Blinkx collaborated with Orb Networks for content distribution and acquired Prime Visibility Media Group (PVMG).

In January 2012, Blinkx was granted a U.S. patent for its Moving Thumbnails technology. The next-generation Blinkx website entered open beta testing in September 2012 and was fully launched worldwide by January 2013. December 2013 saw the acquisition of Rhythm NewMedia Inc., enhancing its mobile video advertising solutions.

Further expansion occurred with the April 2015 purchase of All Media Network—owner of Sidereel.com, Allmusic.com, and Allmovie.com—and consolidating these assets under the RhythmOne brand. The company officially adopted the RhythmOne plc name on the London Stock Exchange in June 2016. Additional acquisitions followed: Perk.com (a mobile rewards platform) in December 2016; RadiumOne’s assets and personnel in June 2017; and YuMe Inc., acquired for $185 million in September 2017.

In April 2019, RhythmOne was acquired by Taptica International, creating a major force within programmatic advertising.

All Media Network

All Media Network (AMN), previously known as All Media Guide (AMG) and AllRovi, was a privately held American company responsible for managing several digital entertainment databases such as AllMusic, AllMovie, AllGame (which ceased operations in 2014), SideReel, and Celebified.

Established in 1990 by noted popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine in Big Rapids, Michigan, AMN’s initial objective was to assemble an exhaustive discographic resource, leading to the launch of the All Music Guide in 1991. The company broadened its scope with the introduction of the All Movie Guide in 1994 and later the All Game Guide in 1998. To capitalize on regional expertise, AMN moved its headquarters to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1999. Between 1996 and early 2005, AMG functioned as a division within Alliance Entertainment, which itself was acquired by California-based multibillion-dollar investment firm Yucaipa Companies in 1999. By 2006, AEC One Stop Group, Inc. had become its parent organization.

In November 2007, Macrovision Corporation (now TiVo) purchased All Media Guide for about $102 million, including upfront and performance-based payments. Following this acquisition, Rovi managed the guides’ nameservers and provided unified access through AllRovi.com from 2011 until 2013. That year, Rovi transferred consumer access rights to a newly established entity called All Media Network, LLC, while retaining licensing control over the content. The company operated offices in San Francisco along with various other U.S. locations.

The AllGame database was officially shut down on December 12, 2014. On April 16, 2015, Blinkx Plc acquired All Media Network and subsequently rebranded it under the RhythmOne Group name. In 2019, RhythmOne was purchased for $174 million by Taptica, which later adopted the name Nexxen in 2023.

Official website: allmedianetwork.com

AllMusic

AllMusic serves as an online repository offering comprehensive details about songs, albums, artists, bands, and musical genres. It also features editorial content such as news articles, reviews, biographies, ratings, and curated recommendations authored by staff writers. Initially published as the All Music Guide book in 1991, its database is now freely accessible on the internet and licensed for integration into point-of-sale systems, media players, and digital music retailers.

Guide series

RhythmOne is also responsible for publishing the AllMusic guide series, which includes titles like the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues, with Vladimir Bogdanov acting as president of this series.

AllMovie

Introduced in 1994 under the name All Movie Guide, AllMovie delivers detailed information about actors, films, directors, and producers along with staff-written news coverage, reviews, ratings, and recommendations. Its television content is limited primarily to DVD releases. Similar to AllMusic, its data is licensed for use by point-of-sale systems, media players, and online retail platforms.

AllGame

Operating from 1998 until its closure in 2014 as the All Game Guide, AllGame provided information and critiques covering console, handheld, arcade, and PC games released within the United States. Created with the ambition of becoming the most extensive gaming database available at that time, it was a trailblazer in delivering early online video game information before ceasing operations in 2014.

SideReel

SideReel, introduced in 2007, serves as a television community platform that delivers comprehensive details about TV series and their individual episodes.

Celebified

Founded in 2012, Celebified specialized in celebrity news and interviews. By December 2023, its web addresses began returning 404 errors, with the main page now displaying aggregated content from other sites within the same network.

Business model

The AllMusic database underpins various editions of Windows Media Player and Musicmatch Jukebox, facilitating the identification and management of music collections. Both Windows Media Player 11 and the built-in MTV Urge music store utilize AllMusic's information to provide related artist recommendations, biographies, critiques, playlists, and additional features.

All Media Network licenses comprehensive metadata collections covering films, video games, audiobooks, and music from Rovi Corporation, making this data accessible online for consumers. This metadata encompasses credits, editorial biographies, reviews, ratings, suggestions, and classifications such as mood or theme. Rovi also supplies this data to worldwide point-of-sale systems, CD/DVD recognition tools like Windows Media Player and Musicmatch Jukebox, along with major platforms including iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify.

Historically, All Media Guide offered printed compilations derived from its data. The database originally developed by RhythmOne traces back to work by Vladimir Bogdanov.

The licensed metadata utilized by music retailers' point-of-sale solutions includes:

Fundamental information: titles, genres, credits, copyright details, product codes
Descriptive attributes: styles, moods, themes, nationalities
Relational data: comparable artists/albums, influences
Editorial materials: biographies, critiques, rankings

Adware controversy

In January 2014, Ben Edelman, an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, accused Blinkx of perpetuating adware operations inherited from its acquisitions Prime Visibility Media Group and Zango, thereby deceiving advertisers. Blinkx responded in March 2014 by denying the unauthorized installation of adware and disputing the full acquisition of Zango's assets. Nonetheless, a 2009 blog entry by Zango co-founder Ken Smith corroborated Edelman’s assertion that Blinkx obtained all of Zango’s assets.

Peter Cohan of Forbes observed that Edelman’s post caused a notable decline in Blinkx’s stock value and criticized the company’s initial reply for addressing Edelman’s approach rather than his conclusions. The New York Times speculated that hedge funds profiting from shorting Blinkx shares may have funded Edelman’s research.

In April 2014, Edelman released additional findings accusing Blinkx of using misleading software installers and pop-up advertisements. He affirmed that Blinkx had acquired all Zango assets including its headquarters and suggested that a 2007 Federal Trade Commission order against Zango could still be relevant to Blinkx. Co-authored with digital fraud expert Wesley Brandi, this report further supported allegations that Blinkx defrauded advertising affiliates.

Executives

Mark Bonney – Chief Executive Officer
Suranga Chandratillake – President and Chief Strategy Officer
Richard O'Connor – Chief Financial Officer
Frank Pao – Chief Business Officer
Dan Slivjanovski – Chief Marketing Officer
Richard Nunn – Chief Revenue Officer
Bhaskar Ballapragada – Senior Vice President, Product

External links