Sunnyvale, California — Although Yahoo, still under chaos after the ouster of CEO Carol Bartz, the internet pioneer is jumping into the original content game, and is continuing to release digital products and trying to innovate. The company on Tuesday unveiled a new video site called Yahoo Screen, a revamped portal for all of its TV shows and premium video content, with a lineup of Web-based TV shows starring Niecy Nash, Morgan Spurlock, and others.
Barely a day after it endorsed a content alliance with ABC News, Yahoo rolled out a loads of new video series geared toward women, featuring talent such as “Niecy Nash, Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development)”.
As the original online video is heating up, web companies realize that the advertising possibilities of homemade, branded content. Yahoo Screen is meant to improve on Yahoo Video, the company’s existing video site. It will feature original programing, aggregated content, personalization technologies, and curation.
The eight new shows will be aired on Yahoo’s refurbished video site, Yahoo Screen, apart from several episodes that are already live now. They will be aimed especially at women, Yahoo said, including Judy Greer’s “Reluctantly Healthy,” which focuses on staying fit while managing a busy lifestyle, and Nash’s weekly relationship show, “Let’s Talk About Love.”
“All My Children” star Cameron Mathison, meanwhile, will host “Ultimate Proposal,” which will assist men organize memorable marriage proposals, while “Supersize Me” director Spurlock will present “The Failure Club,” a documentary series about overcoming the fear of failure. In addition, it will also feature its flagship show such as “Primetime in No Time,” “The Thread” and “The Daily Ticker” and include Yahoo’s vast library of video from such outside sources as Hulu, CBS, Howcast, Turner Sports and UFC.
“As the premier digital media company, we are at the forefront of online video programing and are continuing to build our leadership position,” said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president of Yahoo! Media Network. “This is next generation television, available anytime, anywhere, with something for everyone.”
The footage available now are brief; just a few minutes long. In a blog post, Yahoo said “many people already turn to the Internet to watch their favorite TV shows when and where it is convenient for them, so Yahoo Screen is giving its users more of what they want.”
However, Yahoo Screen’s design takes its cues from theater: It boasts a darker background focused around Yahoo’s video content. The company’s video editors sort through the site’s video content and feature the best TV shows, clips and Yahoo originals in Sports, Lifestyle, Comedy, News, Finance, TV Shows and Movies.
Yahoo has a huge library of video content, but it has been spread out across its many verticals. But now that it has been brought under one roof, the company hopes people will realize it is an online video destination on par with YouTube and Hulu. “Video should be on par with the rest of our verticals,” Rice says.
“There will be a blend of serendipity and personalization,” Rice said, so that viewers can still stumble across programs that might not mesh exactly with their interests. The personalization feature will roll out over the next three to six months, Rice added.
Yahoo is also indexing the programs on site, so users can quickly find, for example, all of its lifestyle shows in one place, and all of its finance videos in another.
The announcement comes as Yahoo places more stress on streaming video and original content. In August, it had all of the top 10-most-watched Web shows. Yahoo’s announcement came on the heels of Wall Street Journal report suggesting Google is pouring more than $100 million into funding original video content.
Nevertheless, these timely moves are all designed to make Yahoo relevant again. It needed an online video portal it could leverage to do it. Now it must find a way to convince its massive audience Screen should be their first stop on their search for premium video content.