HGTV’s KitchenDesign broadband channel, which debuted in January, is launching two new video series that provide viewers with help planning kitchen designs.
The news series are significant because they represent the effort to create original content for the broadband channel. Currently, 80% of the video content on the site originally appeared on TV, according to Jim Sexton, senior VP/interactive brands for the Scripps Network. “The original content allows us to take popular topics on the site and go deeper with them,” he said.
The broadband series resemble TV in their use of onscreen hosts the company identifies as “celebrity designers” and the series format, which is “like a new TV series with 13 episodes, we pick a number of videos for each topic,” Sexton said. The new series feature eight and ten videos.
….The difference here is that all the episodes for the broadband series are available now. “It’s a different approach from linear tv where you dole it out carefully,” Sexton said. “We put up the whole series at once, so whatever they’re looking for, we’ll satisfy their need.”
The 2-1/2 to 3 minute videos have been produced with broadband video viewing habits in mind. “When people come to the site and commit to watching a video, it’s unlike other web browsing,” Sexton said. “With a video you have to sit back and watch it, so we don’t do long lead ins. We let them know what it’s about right away, so they don’t have to wait to figure it out.”
“You can’t do a lot of wide shots, it’s mediums to close ups because of the small screens,” said Siobahn Muprhy, a partner at Bungalow 3, the Los Angeles production company behind the Start Your Remodel! series.
An advantage to shooting for broadband is: “you get to use the whole screen,” Murphy said. “Online you have more of the screen to use for graphics, so you get a little more bang for the buck. You don’t have to worry about issues like title safe.”
“We shot it in one kitchen location, focused on the host and picked up the b-roll as needed,” Hunter said, with liberal use of footage from HGTV’s vast video library.
Advertising opportunities on the videos include 15 second pre-rolls before the videos begin and static fixed positions on the home page that reappear on other pages as the user travels through the site. No advertising had been sold for the new series a week before they launched, but the KitchenDesign channel is currently sold out, with advertising from major kitchen suppliers, including Moen, Silestone and Lowe’s, Sexton said.
The site had 2,787,483 page views and 774,833 video views in September, according to Omniture.
Look for SHOOT’s launch of iSPOT, the digital newspaper for Broadband Video Advertising. This new weekly HTML newspaper will be available in mid-November. Editorial Contact: iSPOT managing editor, Ken Liebeskind, kliebeskind@shootonline.com.
