GlamTV Opens For Business

by Gavin O'Malley, May 30, 2008, 7:00 AM

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Fashion and shopping e-publisher and ad network Glam Media has launched a video distribution and advertising platform for its network of Web sites and blogs.

The GlamTV Platform is designed as a flagship service packaging Glam's content with ads for targeted audiences.

Media companies offering their content at the launch of GlamTV include E! Online's "E! News Now," Sony BMG's "Myplay.com," CelebTV, Lifetime Networks, TV Guide Broadband, and Turner Broadcasting New Products Group's TheFrisky.com.

"GlamTV was one of the early dreams of the Glam founding team," said Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media. "We continue to execute on our vision of extending our distributed vertical content network."

Agencies can create brand engagement using overlays, tightly packaged adjacent ad spots, co-roll, mid- or pre-roll, sponsorships, advertorials, and even full-page GlamTV Big Screen takeovers.

To ensure the service's targeting capability, Glam Media is launching its proprietary Glam Evolution for Video ad server, which offers agencies and brands services targeted by prime time, placement, audience, content, categories, behavior and brand engagement.

Publishers can create custom TV channels, video sections, and personal playlists, and embed video players--creating new brand display and video ad inventory that media partners and Glam can sell.

For media companies, GlamTV is attempting to increase its audience reach through Glam Media's vertical network of publishers, while controlling distribution based on their needs or distribution rights.

Through Glam Video's partnership with Ooyala, publishers will be able to leverage curated videos from the video platform company. In addition, Glam Media has partnered with Brightcove to enable customers of the Brightcove Internet TV platform to distribute video content through Glam's network.

Earlier this year, Glam raised another $84.6 million in financing, a portion of which it said was earmarked for acquisitions. The investments valued Glam at approximately $500 million, one source close to the deal said on the condition of anonymity--a hefty valuation for a company that has only been around since 2005.

Glam's network now reaches an estimated 35 million U.S. consumers a month, according to comScore, while the company has been criticized by rivals for driving revenue by selling ads for partner Web sites, rather than for its own page views. The critics also take issue with Glam calling itself a content site, rather than an ad network.

According to CEO Arora, Glam operates a unique business model--and a highly profitable one at that, as the company is targeting revenue of $100 million by the end of next year.

As a distributed media business, Glam endeavors to support its publisher partners, while remaining the best way to bring premium brand display advertisers to the Web. Actually owning some of those publishing outlets is obviously a growing priority for Glam.

Glam is also launching GlamTV Open API code in the third quarter on the Web site developer.glam.com, in addition to select applications that run on the GlamTV Platform such as Video Search, Filter Tools, Social Comments and Ratings for Publishers and their audiences.

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