Video News Integration For Independent Publishers: The Reuters News Video Player

Reuters has made available this week a streaming news video player which can be integrated on any web site or blog.

The new Reuters news video player requires no maintenance, no uploading, no software configuration and it is completely free.

What the Reuters news video player does is to allow any online publisher to integrate breaking video news clips from Reuters on one or multiple places on their web site at absolutely no cost.

All of the hosting, licensing and bandwidth costs are on Reuters.

 

 

The Reuters video news technology is provided by Brightcove, one of the new internet video start-ups of which you will hear a lot about during 2006.

Video clips are all streamed after having been converted in Flash video, thus allowing easy and immediate streaming (for those connected via broadband), compatibility with most any browser out there, and relatively good video quality across multiple viewing conditions and computer setups.

The Reuters news video player has up to 20 of the latest breaking stories from around the world - and these are generally updated throughout the day so that the news video content is always fresh.

The Flash-based video player is both Windows and Macintosh compatible and the steps to integrate it in your web site or blog are really quite simple to execute.

Again, the key benefit for the online publisher is that your readers can watch full news video stories right in the context of the page they have landed in. For users also there are no pop-ups, downloads, dialog boxes to click on or software to install.

The Reuters news video player features fast forward, previous video, next video, and a nifty "play all" button among other standard functions.

According to Reuters this is to be considered a pilot period for testing this new video-based content distribution approach and technology. During it, the Reuters video news player is free of charge though it may contain advertising.

To become part of the Reuters Affiliate Network and obtain the code for the Reuters news video player this is where to go:
http://labs.reuters.com/video/application.aspx

Though this is truly mainstream news, re-packaged for blog and small site distribution, it is a step in the right direction.

It signals where video is directed and how it can be used to become a new cutting-edge driver of reader's attention while providing potential new monetization opportunities for all parties involved.

The real breakthrough will come as soon as providers such as Reuters, will let online publishers select, filter and schedule WHICH video news stories and topics to cover.