CBC Launches New Video Portal
After months of hectic development the CBC launched a new video portal today. The portal will contain almost all CBC show videos in one place.
The portal is meant to capitalize on the growth of online video viewing and the steady integration of television and the internet. “This is definitely a significant step in our long-term vision,” Rob Fullerton, the product manager for online video, said today. He said he hopes the audience will come to see the new video portal as a “single destination” for shows, news, sports and live events. He said the new video page is “the best we’ve seen in the industry.”
South of the border, Fox and NBC, capitalized on the growth of online video with their aggregate video player, Hulu. This summer comScore reported that Hulu had become the third most popular video site on the internet, attracting 380 million views in one month. Unlike YouTube, Hulu has also attracted a considerable amount of interest from advertisers. Shortly after the site was launched all of their commercial inventory was sold out.
The CBC video portal is tailored for longer video viewing. The clips are high quality and often full episodes, unlike the shorter clips that you usually find on YouTube.
The content is also chaptered, with ads at the beginning and in the middle of the content, similar to what you would see on TV.
Fullerton said he’s looking for feedback. “It’s important to note we definitely do not see this as the final product,” he wrote Monday afternoon in an email. “One of the reasons we chose to launch at this time is to get feedback from our audience on what they like (and don’t like?) about this media player experience.”
So, what do you think of the new video portal?
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Quite seriously – you guys rock. The quality is amazing and the new portal is much easier than Googling “Full Episodes CBC” and wading through pages of chaff. The ads are of an appropriate frequency and length too.
Despite budget cuts, you’ve come through with the goods to remain a Canadian media force to be reckoned with.
Wasn’t the show “Wild Roses” on CBC online last year?
they just need to fix the aspect ratio when you go full screen… but still great.
Congrats Rob & guys.
Too bad most of the featured content is promos. Seriously. Who wants to watch that?
1 step forward, 1 step sideways.
No ability to embed. That’s unfortunate.
To HeyHey,
There’s probably so many promos since the fall season is about to start. When it’s in full swing, you’ll probably find more full eps.
To CBC,
Thank goodness! I was getting worried. Pretty much every other English network (not to mention your own Radio-Canada) had a dedicated video site. It’s missing a few things (embeddable video, maybe?), but I’m so glad that there will be a centralized place to get all the CBC video, now.
This site is fantastic. Good to see the format standardized. This is a huge step forward. Now we need to promote the heck out of it. Also get ris of all those Real Video and Quicktime videos on the local Toronto News site.
Tony
The new portal doesn’t work with the latest version of Adobe Flash Player for Linux.
The site is Javascrippled Flashulence.
When will the CBC learn to use proper standards? Provide links to a real video format such as MP4 or better, OGV (Ogg Theora — look it up).
Bob Jonkman >> I don’t think they really have bothered to follow proper standards at CBC.
Tony Smyth>> Just because you have a newer computer that can playback Flash Video full screen without stutter does not mean the majority of Canada has one.
You need to know that Flash video is very CPU intensive, just because all the CBC developers use the latest hardware and has no clue that my father and grandpa has a old PC and is not able to properly enjoy flash video, which is the majority of Canadian viewers of CBC content.
@Damien Maia. Which is why CBC should have adopted their MotherCorp, the BBC’s media player which is more universal.
CBC plans so many IT things to please a boss, not necessarily working.
You can’t run around with some relic computer from 1999 and expect the world to only develop content that works for you. Get a new computer and if you can’t afford one then use the ones at the library and if you are not close to the library move the trailer closer. Maybe you just have to realize that if you have an old computer you will not be able to do some things that new computers can do.
Of all the formats in the world the flash player has the biggest installed base. This means that few people need to download a player to enjoy.
I don’t know what it is like to drive a porche. I can’t afford one. I have accepted that fact. I don’t complain and ask car makers to only make old cheap cars.
The new portal doesn’t quite work with the latest version of flash on Ubuntu 9.04 running Mozilla Firefox 3.5. The video player loads fine, and I can see the control but no video ever appears.
All other flash video sites (Youtube, CTV, etc.) work fine on my computer. Where do I report this bug?