Heavy.com has teamed up with the CBC to launch a new branded channel featuring short-form CBC content on the site – and no, that won’t include Coronation Street.
As of today, the lifestyle website, with a target demo of 18- to 49-year-old males, will feature a CBC video channel with three sub-channels: The Hour, featuring short-form content from the show of the same name, CBC Movie Reviews featuring network personality Eli Glasner, and CBC RetroBites, which will feature archival content. All are three- to six-minute videos that have licenced to Heavy.com in a programming and distribution deal handled by Heavy.com sister co, Digital Percent. The videos are not unique to Heavy.com, as CBC has inked similar deals with other Canadian sites in order to increase its brand exposure, Bob Kerr, director, business and product development, CBC, tells MiC.
The CBC deal is one that David UK, managing director, Heavy.com and Digital Percent, says is part of a strategy to bring more high-quality branded content to the site since it stopped featuring user-generated video content several years ago. Over the last year, Heavy.com has added a comedy channel featuring short-form Fox content (that includes the rights for advertising in Canada, Australia and the US) and a UFC channel that the site will be augmented with a full MMA section in April 2010.
‘The world of content syndication has changed dramatically,’ he says of the new strategy. ‘We’re a video-centric site, with editorial, blogs and that kind of content, but this gives us the ability to have great TV-quality content in the short digestible way that is the norm for video consumption online.’
Advertising opportunities linked to the new channels will be in line with the kinds of advertising Heavy currently features, including site dominations, rich media content and customized sponsorship packages – all designed to create an environment in which advertisers are better able to niche-target audiences, and also to make the site more attractive to mainstream consumers, UK says.
‘The CBC just is fantastic as far as mainstream content is concerned, but at the same time, The Hour and George are still really irreverent. His style matches with the irreverence that Heavy has always maintained. We’re not abandoning our users – our users won’t feel like we’re going off track here.’
Heavy.com drew 1.39 million unique visitors in December 2009, according to ComScore. The new CBC channel will be promoted on the site via articles, reviews, the homepage and within the movie and TV sections on the site.
