• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 27, 2008

NYTimes.com late last week relaunched its video platform with a high-definition, wide-screen format, redesigned video library and individual playback pages for each video.

The Times' new video platform rests on Brightcove's online video technology platform, Brightcove 3--which is designed to help the Times reach new audiences through SEO, and syndication, and improve streaming experiences.

"In layman's terms, Brightcove's technology brings more stability and flexibility," said Nicholas Ascheim, vice president of product management at NYTimes.com. "What you want is for a user to able to click play and the video plays, which is harder than you think."

Brightcove's technology also introduces new advertising inventory and opportunities for brand marketing, according to Ascheim.

"That's another area where Brightcove brings flexibility," he said. "We really take our lead on (new ad executions) from our advertisers, and now we're better able to accommodate them."

In addition, Brightcove APIs allow Times Web producers to publish video metadata on Web pages to improve search engine indexing and to increase the discoverability of video content throughout the site by including "most recent" and "related video" recommendations.

"The site has seen an explosion in traffic from search engines, but video has not benefited," Ascheim said. "Video search has been challenging to everybody, but we think this is going to bring a lot more traffic through search."

The Times produces over 100 original videos per month--including news and analysis, as well as enterprise and investigative reporting by Times journalists.

NYTimes.com currently houses some 3,000 videos, as well as select videos from CNBC, MSNBC, Reuters and Bloggingheads.tv, along with over 15,000 movie trailers and clips.

According to Nielsen Online, NYTimes.com had 20.1 million unique visitors in September and continues to rank as the most popular newspaper Web site nationwide.