10th March 2008 12:30 pm

ITV.com today unveiled a new and exciting partnership with Bebo by preparing to join the ‘Open Media’ platform, giving free and open access to premium ITV content to Bebo’s community of 40 million users worldwide.

Hailed as a new vision for social media and entertainment, ITV will have a member profile on Bebo, and the ITV profile will host numerous media channels, each promoting individual programmes.   Bebo users will be given the opportunity to become ‘Fans’ of programmes meaning they will be notified when new content is uploaded to the profiles.

The broadcaster’s first channel launch will be US acquisition Gossip Girl, ITV2, available at http://www.bebo.com/gossipgirl from Monday 10 March, with other channels planned for rollout later to include, amongst others, ITV2 Comedy shows.

Each channel will be branded with programme-specific ’skins’ designed by itv.com. Users may adopt or use the programme ’skins’ from ITV’s Bebo profiles on their own - potentially creating thousands of mini show posters in the online space. Users will also be able to integrate skins and video content into their own profiles potentially creating thousands of brand champions for ITV’s programmes and channels.

The programme channels will draw on itv.com’s Brightcove video player with video content to include teaser clips and interviews. Blogs, galleries, a wall for fans to post comments, polls, forums and links back to the “official” channel home (itv.com) may also accompany the profiles. Users are able to select clips and embed the ITV Brightcove video player into their profiles, helping to promote clips among their peer groups.

Annelies Van den Belt, MD, Broadband comments, “We are delighted to be working with ITV channels to join the Bebo ‘open media’ platform offering their audience access to some of our best and most relevant content.  This is a targeted move to promote specific ITV2 shows to the Bebo audience whilst ultimately driving traffic to itv.com to watch more and proves true 360 commissioning.” 

Zai Bennett, Controller, ITV2 said: “ITV2 and Bebo are quite simply a great fit. Launching this partnership with Gossip Girl, the new smash hit from the US, makes that fit even more perfect and I’m really excited about the opportunities this opens up for us.”

Launched at simultaneous events in London and New York, Bebo’s Open Media ushers in a new, legitimate way for people to explore and experience content on the Internet, and for media owners to promote, distribute and monetise their programming. Open Media allows users to store and curate within their personal profiles their favourite video content; and virally distribute that content throughout their ‘friend’s network’ and the wider Bebo community.

For media companies, Bebo’s flexible architecture gives them access to a growing community of 40 million members, many of whom fall into the elusive 13-24 year old target audience. Uniquely, partners will not be charged for access to the platform and are able to distribute their content using their own video players, which can carry their own advertising and allows them to retain 100 per cent of the related ad revenues.

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