'Golden Ticket' and 'Lounge' Win First London COMCAST NBCUNIVERSAL HACKATHON

NBCUniversal and Comcast today announced the results of their fourth hackathon - themed "The Future of Content Creation, Distribution and Monetisation in a Connected World" - which took place in London on June 6-7. The Grand Prize winner was "Golden Ticket," a social experience created to help users gift electronic content with personalized messages and custom animations.

More than 100 participants formed a total of 25 teams to compete for up to £10,000 in cash and prizes, as well as the opportunity to pitch their ideas to NBCUniversal Media Labs. Additional winners were selected in four categories. See below for a full list of winners and judges.

"Engaging and connecting with London's thriving technology ecosystem to help us innovate for our global partners has been a terrific experience," said Sanjay Macwan, Senior Vice President & CTO of NBCUniversal Media Labs. "The enthusiasm around leveraging our content in conjunction with partners such as Dailymotion and IBM Watson was outstanding and we look forward to incubating several of the concepts developed."

Comcast NBCUniversal Hackathon winners include:

· Grand Prize/"Gifting Digital Content" Challenge Winner: "Golden Ticket"

"Golden Ticket" encourages electronic gift purchases by allowing users to wrap digital content in a personalized message. Marcel Goga, Glen Cooper, Dean Bryan, Piotr Klarowski, and Peter Mechelsen developed the winning concept.

· NBCUniversal International Digital Distribution "Social Transactional & Impulse Purchase" Challenge Winner: "@suggest_movies"

"@suggest_movies" leverages Twitter to allow for frictionless social media recommendations and purchases.

· NBCUniversal International Digital Distribution "Driving Social Interaction Within A Subscription Service" Challenge Winner: "Lounge"

"Lounge" allows subscribers to interact, leveraging live event and social functions, while watching movies with friends.

· Universal Pictures "Next Generation Advertising" Challenge Winner: "DiscoVR"

"DiscoVR" leverages Oculus to allow users to consume content within a virtual marketplace.

The 24-hour event kicked off in London, where competitors worked on innovative cross-platform solutions using content, products, and technology from NBCUniversal International Distribution and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

In addition to Application Program Interfaces (API), hardware and software from partners, event Gold Sponsor Dailymotion, and NBCUniversal properties listed above, Comcast NBCUniversal Hackathon teams also had access to hardware and APIs from Leap Motion, WIREWAX, Spredfast, FindAnyFilm.com, and more.

Judging panel:

• · Rob Bell, EVP International New Media, NBCUniversal International
• · Brandon Di Massa, VP International EST Development, NBCUniversal International
• · Johnny Fewings, Strategic Development, NBCUniversal International
• · Andrew Jordan, SVP International Operations & Technology, NBCUniversal
• · Kathryn Parsons, CEO & Co-Founder, Decoded
• · Pedro Barros, Business Development Director, NBCUniversal International
• · Sanjay Macwan, SVP and Chief Technology Officer (CIO), NBCUniversal Media Labs
  

BeMyApp was tapped to invite developers to the Comcast NBCUniversal Hackathon. The company helped secure participants by engaging their network of developers, particularly those who have a track record of creating products for entertainment, digital media and/or television. Additional information on the hackathon can be found at http://nbcumedialabs.com/hackathon/.

This fourth Comcast NBCUniversal Hackathon comes on the heels of the media and technology company's competitions in Orlando, Los Angeles, and the inaugural competition in New York. The successful events resulted in the hiring of developers and product concept incubations in the NBCUniversal Media Labs organization.

Media Labs, an organization within NBCUniversal is dedicated to working with academic research groups, start-up companies, and the global venture capital community to accelerate technology innovations and to help develop new business models for the company's content delivery businesses. Media Labs is staffed with top technology professionals from the worlds of application strategy, mobile development, virtualization, video, and consumer-experience technologies.

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