Sports Illustrated Enters Video Arena
REVISED at 4 p.m. ET: Looking to build on the success of video related to its 2010 swimsuit issue — more than 66 million video streams served — Sports Illustrated added a video component to its Website, with veteran sports journalist Maggie Gray anchoring signature program SI Inside Report.
SI also added Ian Orefice, who was part of the launch team at CNNMoney.com, as executive producer of video.
Mercedes and Samsung are on board as launch advertisers, and the video fare will originate from Time Inc.’s New York headquarters. The clips will be about two minutes apiece, and will feature SI contributors discussing topics of the day on SI Inside Report, as well as clips from Dan Patrick’s syndicated radio show, which airs on DirecTV. All clips will be embeddable.
Managing editor Paul Fichtenbaum told paidContent video was the “last piece of content strategy that was missing. This was the one thing we wanted to add,” and he added in a prepared statement:
This video initiative will enable SI.com to showcase the brand’s respected journalists in another form. In addition, bringing game highlights to the site will further serve our audience.
Orefice added:
It is exciting to be part of the launch with a brand as powerful as Sports Illustrated. Our vision is to deliver SI‘s world-renowned story-telling heritage through video programming developed specifically for the Web user.
