Philly.com Picks Brightcove Ahead of Online Fees

Written by Ryan Lawler

Monday, June 8. 2009 at 00:02 AM EDT Post a comment

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With the decision to use Brightcove as its video management platform, Philadelphia local news site Philly.com could increase the amount of video it serves ahead of an initiative to begin charging users that read its stories online.

Philly.com, which is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings and hosts Web content for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, will use Brightcove to manage video produced for the site.

Philly.com video programming includes breaking news content, as well as original Web series such as Philly Dish, Philadelphia Business Today, PhillyGossip, and Down the Shore.

The Brightcove announcement comes just a week after Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney told a local news station that the site would add a small fee for online viewers by the end of the year.

The decision to start charging for online access comes as more people turn to the Web for their local news. Tierney said that The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News sell about 1.5 million papers each day, but also see about 1 million unique visitors to the Philly.com Web property.

Adding more exclusive video to the Philly.com Website could be one way to give online viewers more value for online content, which they're not used to paying for. But the Brightcove deal will also give the site an increased revenue stream, through the Brightcove video player's integration with multiple video ad networks.

The announcement comes as Brightcove has been focusing more on news and magazine companies that are looking to add video to complement their text offerings. In the last six months, Brightcove also added Conde Nast and The New York Times as customers.