Behind the Scenes at the Television Academy

The Primetime Emmy Awards are the Television Academy’s largest event, drawing an average of 12.5 million viewers each year. The Television Academy’s web development team knew that video content archived from past awards – as well as current previews and clips of projected nominees – were a large draw for its online viewing audience. The Television Academy required a robust platform capable of maximizing internal time and resources to manage a CMS and multiple content properties, such as apps, social media and YouTube. They chose the Brightcove Video Cloud online video platform for its customizability, ease of use and robust content management capabilities.

After launching Emmys.com using Brightcove’s Video Cloud, the Television Academy continued to evolve its online video strategy from focusing on one event – the Primetime Emmys telecast – to featuring new video content year-round. The Television Academy became its own media outlet, generating new types of content, including special video promos, interviews with talent at events and on the red carpet streamed using Video Cloud.

“Video Cloud has been really helpful for us,” said Dave Andrews, president of Devious Media, and a member of the Digital Strategy Committee. “We were amazed at how easy it was for the Emmys.com staff to learn and manage. From that point on, our video content strategy evolved. We used the YouTube Sync capability, easily branched out to other partners and have kept Emmys.com consistently full of content.”

Today, the website has expanded to feature acceptance speeches, backstage interviews, red carpet videos and much more.

The Emmys.com website has had so much success with Video Cloud that the Television Academy has continued to expand its use of the platform across other channels, including its new private online video channel called “For Your Consideration,” where Television Academy members can log in and view content for nomination or review the selected nominees.

People in the entertainment industry who want their video content considered for nomination can upload their work directly to the For Your Consideration” website, where it’s transferred automatically into Video Cloud. From there, it becomes available for all Television Academy members to view. Video Cloud also allows them to view clips online, via mobile devices, tablets or computers.

“If they want to search a category like Best Editing, they can refine the search from a thousand down to ten,” Andrews said. “Video Cloud manages the entire video library, so at the end of the day, that’s what these nominees are viewed on, and it has to look beautiful. Video Cloud’s high-quality viewing experience has really impressed us. We’re very happy with feedback internally and externally from our viewers.”

Monitoring for Future Expansion Opportunities

As its video strategy continues to evolve, the Television Academy relies on Video Cloud’s extensive monitoring and analytics reporting to review and improve its online video content.

“Video Cloud allows us to look at our videos and track what’s performing well. Then, we’re easily able to refer back to those that performed well when we’re planning for upcoming content,” Andrews said. “Video Cloud gives us all the information that we need to keep improving the viewer experience.”

The Television Academy is also looking for new distribution methods for its content. Video Cloud is now being used to test future possibilities in the connected TV space and other interactive platforms.

“We look at companies that constantly evolve their product, that are engineering-focused and really ‘keep up with the Joneses’,” Andrews said. “If we want to deploy to other platforms like PS3, Roku or others, we can now build an app and have confidence that Video Cloud can power it all.”

Essay by Lindsey Frey Palmquist</em>