New deal allows distribution of TVO programs on the Internet

As TVOntario continues on a digital path announced early this year, the Ontario public broadcaster has inked yet another deal that will see its premium content distributed through a channel on the popular Internet networking site YouTube.The deal, made public today, allows both parties to share revenues through advertising sold by YouTube on the TVO channel, says Lisa de Wilde, TVO’s CEO. Plans have been put in place for the channel to carry TVO programs such as the interactive education program Your Voice and the flagship current affairs program The Agenda, hosted by Steve Paikin.“Our main motivation is to increase the impact of our content and that means getting on to more and more platforms so that people can find us easily,” says de Wilde.Earlier this year, TVO embarked on an ambitious path to shift content to the Internet, mobile devices and other distribution platforms in order to tap into new revenue streams, which de Wilde says are critical to sustaining the public broadcaster and boosting the $30 million it receives from the Ontario government.TVO programs for adults are now available as Podcasts and can also be downloaded through iTunes. The Ontario public broadcaster has also signed revenue-sharing deals with QuickPlayMedia to have its TVOKids programs on mobile devices. In addition, it also signed a deal with Inuk Networks, a UK-based company that will see TVO’s content delivered to students at the University of Waterloo using Internet Protocol TV. In June, following a successful deal with Yahoo! Canada for the delivery of educational children’s programs, TVO reached a similar revenue-sharing agreement with Netherlands-based Joost, a company that provides Internet-based television.As to how much TVO expects to generate in revenues through the deal with YouTube, de Wilde says that’s still hard to determine.“It’s early days and what I say about the whole digital space is, if you don’t play you can’t learn and if you don’t learn you won’t build new revenue streams. Put positively, you have to play so that you have to learn, so that you can build the revenue streams,” she says.Not only is the Internet a source of revenue, but de Wilde says it offers another opportunity to spread and distribute TVO programs to a much wider audience and that the ubiquity of content allows convenience and customization to viewers.“It enhances our strategy of being available when people want us, where want us,” she says.

New deal allows distribution of TVO programs on the Internet

Broadcast | November 13, 2008

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