Review of the 1st experimental season of an internal start-up booster

After a selection panel, the start-up Newsbridge was selected to follow this 4-month acceleration program that includes :

- Its "sponsorship" by an executive from the information department;

- The co-construction of a solution for indexing data using artificial intelligence and a semantic search engine;

- A phase of experimentation;

- The accompaniment of the start-up in its growth;

- Co-financing to reward its real commitment.

The product and the tests carried out with the collaborators of France tv

At the end of the 4 months of acceleration, as expected and thanks to the cooperation of the internal teams, Newsbridge has developed a real-time rush-indexing product whose image analysis makes it possible to recognize faces (and therefore detect known personalities), objects, logos, texts. In addition, this solution will soon make it possible to index content using "speech-to-text", i.e. the transcription of sound elements from video content.

Tests carried out in the final weeks of acceleration have shown :

- Growing interest from journalists, editors and documentalists in the experiment (55 participants, instead of the 40 initially planned);

- Real satisfaction with the tool developed to date (89.5% satisfaction rate) based on criteria such as image analysis quality, time savings, etc.

- A strong appetite for the deployment of the tool, deemed relevant to the activity (92%).

A video review of the first start-up accelerator

Conditions for success

This first experience of an internal gas pedal for start-ups within France Télévisions is a success in terms of :

- Open innovation and collaboration with start-ups, thanks to a system more in line with internal needs;

- Cross-functionality involving teams from the Digital, Information and IT Services departments;

- Acculturation of employees to digital and innovation issues.

The success of Season 1 is based on several elements:

- A clear promise: that of an acceleration for the startup, i.e. a support to develop and experiment new features with its end users, but also to help the start-up to grow;

- A well-defined need, in connection with business teams that allows the development of a solution that meets a real information manufacturing issue;

- A balanced partnership between France Télévisions and Newsbridge, in which each party was a winner, with Cap Digital's role as a trusted third party also being essential;

- The maturity of the start-up, of its product and especially of its teams (humility, educational listening skills, responsiveness and investment);

- An inclusive approach of co-creation of the tool which allowed the involvement of the Information Management teams and explains their high satisfaction with the performance of the solution;

- A financial co-investment, an element of motivation for the start-up and of empowerment for the internal teams;

- The incarnation of the project by the regular presence of the start-up on site, which makes the project concrete and above all encourages exchanges with a view to development that is best suited to the needs of the internal teams.

What's next ?

This experience validated the principle of acceleration, its relevance, usefulness, interest and ability to mobilize operational teams. For France Télévisions, the challenge now is to capitalize on this success to amplify the system, for example by welcoming more start-ups.

Work in progress : Newsbridge and the France tv team