Internet Broadcasting, which powers a large network of local TV websites, announced a partnership today with a company called CoreMedia that provides a cloud-based content management system (CMS). What’s interesting about the deal is IB, which has long offered its own CMS, is now bringing in some help.
“Internet Broadcasting is still very much in the CMS business,” said Roger Keating, the acting CEO of Internet Broadcasting and Sr. VP of Digital Media for Hearst Television, in an email exchange with Lost Remote. He said IB will build features on top of CoreMedia’s platform. “IB’s customers will benefit from the innovation and on-going development of both companies.”
Keating said one of the benefits of CoreMedia is social functionality. “The CoreMedia CMS that becomes the foundation for IB’s new publishing platform already has strong social media features built in that draw viewers into the dialogue and lets them invite their fans and friends into the discussion as well,” he said. “This makes it easier for the publisher to let the social activity occuring on their site influence what stories get surfaced, for example.”
With CoreMedia as a partner, Internet Broadcasting says it now plans to reach out to media companies beyond local television to expand its client base. “Newspapers, radio stations and magazine publishers have many of the same unmet needs that TV stations have historically had,” Keating says. “IB’s plans to expand more aggressively beyond its historical TV station focus is borne of the opportunity.”