• by March 5, 2007

Hearst is the latest media company to jump on the Internet TV bandwagon, announcing the launch of broadband video channels using Maven Networks' Internet TV Platform. Hearst's Internet video channel for TeenMag.com is live with a branded video player. Over the next 90 days, Hearst will launch 12 video sites, each with video players to support magazine titles that include Good Housekeeping, Esquire, and Cosmopolitan, according to Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager for Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

The video content will include behind-the-scenes footage from cover shoots, red carpet video, product reviews, recipes, hair-and-makeup "how tos," user-generated video, and more. Opportunities exist to run interstitial and pre-roll video ads near the player.

"We chose Maven because we like the flexibility of customizing their player from a look-and-feel perspective," Cordray said. "We may or may not avail ourselves of the syndication portion of the product." Hearst currently submits video directly to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN for syndication.

Maven's system enables media companies and content owners to syndicate their own video content without having to work through intermediaries--mainly large portals like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL where their brands are often marginalized and profit margins on revenue-sharing deals are getting slimmer.

Content owners are becoming more aggressive in creating networks of syndicated video content, according to Hilmi Ozguc, Maven's founder and CEO. "The big question [for media companies] is 'Do I take my content to MSN, Google, and Yahoo, or do I do it myself?'" Ozguc obviously would prefer they do it themselves. Under the Maven system, the video player and content can be syndicated separately, but the media brands retain control.

Maven plays in the same sandbox as Brightcove, Roo, and Narrowstep. Ozguc maintains that controlled syndicated networks run by content owners represent the biggest opportunity--although increasingly, it looks like Brightcove is trying to be a content aggregator with a consumer presence.

Maven says it also signed Univision Online to its platform. It counts CBS's College Sports Television, The Weather Channel, 20th Century Fox, A&E Television Networks, and TimeOut New York among its clients.