The publisher of the Sun and Times is to invest millions in boosting the amount of video it runs across its newspaper websites.
Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, which made the announcement at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, said that the multimillion-pound investment will see thousands of videos a year created for the Sun and Times websites.
The increased focus on original video content will include the creation of pre-recorded pieces for advertisers, as well as more than 100 live streams a month using Facebook Live.
News UK is aiming to tap into the surge of popularity in audio-visual content that has accompanied the shift to mobiles as the main way people access content.
“This is a significant moment in the UK news industry marking the point where video becomes one of our major output formats,” said Derek Brown, head of video at News UK.
News UK says that 80% of web traffic to the Sun website and 35% on The Times comes from mobile devices.
It intends to increase the amount of branded video work it does for advertisers, unveiling deals with Doritos, supermarket Morrisons and Call of Duty and Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard.
“This is a huge opportunity for brands to reach our engaged audiences in the context of fantastic, original video content,” said Dominic Carter, chief commercial officer at News UK.
News UK’s digital drive comes a week after the Financial Times announced that it would significantly increase its advertiser-funded digital and video output through the acquisition of content marketing firm Alpha Grid.
In 2013, the Sun unveiled a £3m studio as part of the brand’s drive to build its digital content strategy.
