New online video clearinghouse at CBC.ca

After years of featuring multimedia content throughout its site in various locations, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has launched a dedicated portal to showcase the wide range and depth of video it creates. "We produce a lot of video," says Bob Kerr, director of business development and digital programming for the CBC, explaining the rationale behind the new portal, which went live on April 19 with the cbc.ca homepage beginning to link to it the following day. "The truth is although it’s not apparent, there’s a lot of video on the CBC website….But, it’s here, there and everywhere, and not necessarily the best user experience." For now, the CBC is taking a "see what sticks" approach to finding the winning online content format: put a wide variety of material up on the site, from sub-minute comedy clips courtesy of This Hour Has 22 Minutes to full-length hour-long newscasts and documentaries. "All of the intelligence I’ve gathered so far in terms of video on platforms and whatnot seems to point to shorter bite-sized pieces, but that’s certainly not the case on platforms like iTunes where people are downloading ," Kerr says. "We’re going to monitor it, and obviously things that aren’t interesting or appealing aren’t going to stay up there, at least not in a permanent position, and things that are will probably get more play – it’s just common sense." Previously, older content was featured in the Digital Archives section of the public broadcaster’s site, while genre-specific material was generally found on individual programming pages in such sections as CBC News and CBC Kids. In contrast, the content on the new video portal is divided into five subsections: News, Comedy, Retro, Fashion, and Shorts. "The idea was to create a better user experience by centralizing it in some way," Kerr says. Much of the quirkier content comes courtesy of the now-defunct ZeD, CBC’s late-night independent arts program that broke new ground with its mix of user-created content and interactivity. It’s also the source of most of the third-party productions featured on the site, at least for the time being. "We do have the rights under some of the agreements we’ve done with independents to distribute their content , but for the most part we’re just getting going on that," Kerr says. Kerr says he’s also in talks with other production departments within the CBC, as well as external rightsholder organizations such as the National Hockey League, to get permission to offer some of the content it broadcasts over its television network on the video portal as well. "This is a work in progress for sure, but yeah, I’d love to get sports up there when the time is right," he says. "I’m looking at getting some kids’ content that we produce as well. Obviously, this is just the start – we’ll hopefully have quite a library there over time. It’s not meant to be a one-off static venture." Although some CBC properties still resist the lure of the almighty advertising dollar, banner ads for both CBC’s own productions and third parties such as Dell Inc. and eBay Inc. can be found throughout the cbc.ca site. However, areas such as the CBC Kids section are still off-limits to advertisers. The presence of advertising is a tacit admission of the need to make money from content in the current environment of budget cuts and constraints at the CBC. "It ain’t cheap putting up video, as you probably know," Kerr says. "The more popular gets, the more content you put up, the more people play it, the greater your expenses, and perhaps more need for solid sponsorship….There’s a cost associated with popularity for sure." But the CBC is also hoping the video portal will have a symbiotic relationship with its conventional programming, and help bridge the gap between daytime radio and nighttime television audiences. With VP of English language television Richard Stursberg announcing aggressive one-million-viewer targets for drama programming at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association annual conference in February, the CBC’s broadcast business can certainly use any additional viewership the website might send its way. "There’s the philosophy that if you’re not there, your competitor will be," Kerr says. "We obviously have to be cognizant and really strategic about whether our objective is, you know, branding or whether it’s commercial, as we deploy to various platforms. I think that maybe you’re going to reach an audience that if you didn’t offer it on these platforms, they just wouldn’t come to the broadcast." As Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC also plays a role in keeping Canadians living in other parts of the world in the loop when it comes to what’s happening at home, and being online has certainly helped strengthen that bond. The United States is the most common point of origin for hits from outside Canada, with countries such as the United Kingdom and Japan also making up a good part of the online audience. "Since the early days of streaming audio and then moving into some video, we’ve always found that it’s been a big attraction, especially in the news area and live streaming radio, for Canadian expats," Kerr says. "There’s nothing like seeing a fresh CBC newscast if you’re sitting on the other side of the world – we just make it a little easier to find." The new video portal can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/video/.

New online video clearinghouse at CBC.ca

Broadcast | May 15, 2006

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