• May 6, 2008

Lycos has bulked up the features of its Lycos Cinema video community, including an upgraded media player and ad-supported video on demand (VOD) rentals.

The Waltham, Mass.-based portal released the latest version of its Flash-based Lycos Cinema player, which offers higher video quality for viewers and better content management, tracking and copyright protection options for media providers. New ad models are also available with the player--including video overlay ads--and each video module's chat server has been upgraded to support thousands of users simultaneously, as well as conversations from AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

Lycos Cinema users also have access to an expanded library of ad-supported and premium VOD content, including comedy and animation titles from National Lampoon's and SpinCycle, mixed martial arts video from ProElite, independent films from studios like Vanguard Cinema and TV shows from Lightyear Entertainment.

--Tameka Kee