Huffington Post Prepares for Video Network Launch

English: Arianna Huffington attending the premiere of The Union at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Huffington Post is revving up for the launch of its full-day online video network, HuffPost Live, set for August 13. The new network is hoping to take advantage of a fast-growing advertising market by allowing marketers to have their brand integrated into the broadcasts, in addition to traditional online ads.  According to The Wall Street Journal, the main studio of the network will be in NY and will run 12 hours every weekday, featuring highlights for after hours and weekends. Arianna Huffington, the news site’s editor in chief, has hired 100 people for the network, including veterans from ABC, CNN, and al-Jazeera English.

HuffPost Live said will it host up to five sponsors that will have their brand integrated into the HuffPost Life broadcast itself. To do this, advertisers will be able to do things like name elements of the program. Janet Balis, publisher of Huffington Post Media Group, told the WSJ that, “So if the brand is about speed and efficiency, they might be part of a speed debate round on HuffPost Live. There is no programming that we will create that we would not have had as part of the show without the advertiser.”

So far, Cadillac has signed up as a sponsor and hopes to introduce the launch of its new sports sedan with a marketing segment. HuffPost Live will also sell advertising for the networks main page, and pre-roll commercials will run with certain clips of the day’s programming.

Currently, video is the fastest growing category of online ad sales, expected to grow 54.7% this year alone. Demand for ad slots has out-weighed the supply in the last year, which has driven the price of ads up. The Huffington Post is one of many sites expanding into online video. HuffPost Live will not release the number spent on the launch.

Wall Street Journal