STV.tv, the online arm of the recently rebranded Scottish Media Group, has launched its online video service after an impressively short development period of just eight weeks.
STV uses Brightcove (the video platform also used by the Guardian, among others) and the project has been set up by Alistair Brown, former general manager of Scotsman.com, with some substantial goals for both audience and advertising revenue.
STV has the regional distribution for ITV, so the service includes all the programmes from ITV.com's video service (with the same 30-day catch-up window) as well as local STV content including interviews and web-friendly short clips. But Brown said they want to expand the offering to include STV's 50 years of archive content and local material, plus there are plans to allow users to upload content in certain locally-specific areas. The core areas are still news, sport and entertainment.
Part of the objective with introducing locally relevant content is to target the local classified advertising markets. STV's traditional TV audience is around 4 million people, or 80% of the Scottish population. STV.tv currently reaches 30,000 daily users but is targeting growth to 200,000 by the end of 2010, equivalent to 5% of the population. Given competition from ITV.com, BBC iPlayer, 4OD... YouTube and the rest of the online video world. The difference is very much in the local content, but the strength of the brand is the factor that makes locally targeted advertising so powerful.
Brown estimates the site will make £1.5m in advertising revenues by 2010 - up to 2% of the total Scottish web ad market - through sponsorship of micro-sites, pre-roll ads, promotions and sponsorship of the Watch 2 Win format. Its local classifieds could account for 3% of the Scottish classified market by 2010, a share worth £3.8m.
STV also hasn't had the controversies around premium phone line services and projects like bingo and poker form a key part of its strategy; revenues could be as much as £7m by 2010.
Brown, who left Scotsman.com after six years for a job developing the entertainment site The List, is building up a new team of online video specialists, recruiting eight out of a total twelve planned roles. They include web developers David Low, Charles Law, former Wall Street Journal Online and Scotsman.com news web producer Will Springer and web producer Elin Stevensson, formerly of Cartoon Network. Web editor Robert Dawson Scott and Kevin Hall, head of product and web development, are also both ex-Scotsman.
Brown wouldn't say how much investment has been put into developing STV's web initiatives but said the project is a sign the broadcaster is preparing for the future. "Business are judged by how well they prepare, and this is a statement on what we want to achieve."
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