Weather.com Revamps Online Video Player
'Blue Box' Features Forecasts, Lifestyle, News, Severe Weather Channels
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 8/5/2007 3:07:00 PM MT
The Weather Channel Interactive redesigned its Internet video player -- dubbed Blue Box -- with the aim of making video content easier to navigate and providing more advertising real estate.
Blue Box features five “channels”: Forecasts, Lifestyle, News/Breaking Weather, Severe Weather and On The Weather Channel. It provides both broadband-only content as well as programming from TWC, including clips from the series Epic Conditions and Forecast Earth.
“With all the video content Weather.com has to offer, we wanted to provide a superior video player that will make it easier for our users to access and view relevant content, especially during severe weather and hurricanes,” TWCi executive vice president and general manager Joe Fiveash said in a prepared statement.
The new player also provides three areas for advertising: video spots in the main window; banners below the playlist; and overlays on top of the playlist. Blue Box uses DoubleClick’s In-Stream video-ad serving system to schedule, target and forecast video ads.
Blue Box uses Brightcove’s video-publishing system, which TWC said will give it the ability in the future to syndicate content to partners and distribute via e-mail, blogs and social networks.
