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Media monitoring company Streem launches with claim to offer better service than rivals

The lucrative world of media monitoring today sees the arrival of a new player with the launch of Streem.

Antoine Sabourin and Elgar Welch at the launch of Streem at MCA this week

According to 29-year-old Streem co-founder Elgar Welch’s LinkedIn profile, he spent a brief period in politics including as “Digital Adviser to Prime Minister’s Office” in 2013. Earlier in his career he worked at production house FSM.

The launch appears to be a reboot of an earlier offering launched by Welch in 2008 which was also called Streem. This offering was a subscription news service mainly carrying content from AAP. It shut down four months after launch. Welch was also behind a short-lived news service called Scopical which at the time billed itself as “one of Australia’s first independent online media portals”.

In Australia, the media monitoring landscape is dominated by the Isentia, which has been in the market for more than three decades, and as previously known as Media Monitors. Last financial year Isentia’s revenues were $156m.

Media monitoring was originally mainly based on news clippings, but now takes in all media, and is used by government and brands. Another established player globally which is making inroads into Australia is Meltwater.

Unlike the traditional media monitoring services, Streem is automated.

Streem’s board members include Alan Robertson, who spent more than 20 years at media giant Merchant & Partners and went on to chair Initiative Media.

Streem says additional advisers for its new offering include former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, and chair of data analytics firm Quantium, Tony Davis.

Streem’s technical lead is Antoine Sabourin.

The Streem media monitoring dashboard

Streem offers desktop and mobile monitoring across online, print, TV, radio and social media alongside a realtime offering which is says allows customers to evaluate audience engagement.

A Streem spokesperson told Mumbrella its charging model is “a flexible, flat-fee and competitively priced platform that delivers a tonne more value than the old-world providers”.

In the launch announcement Welch took aim at the existing players. He claimed: “We spent three years building and commercialising Streem and the more we spoke to our corporate and government customers, the more dissatisfaction we uncovered with the old-world providers. Customers want speed, flexibility to monitor and transparent pricing.

“We’ve been delivering Streem to customers for 18 months and have chosen to officially launch now with the backing of not only a great board, but some key clients including Australia’s biggest sports league, major government departments, household consumer brands and top 100 ASX corporates. We’re thrilled about the growth we’ve experienced and the organisations preparing to shift to Streem.”

In the same Davis said: “We are witnessing the emergence of another powerful data and technology-enabled disruptor in the Australian business landscape. With its fast and accurate platform, impossible to match with human processes alone, Streem will allow organisations to manage their media and audiences with far greater effect and resonance.”

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