Fox Television Stations Inc. is signing up new affiliates for its news programs: bloggers.
The News Corp. group, which owns 35 TV stations across the country, struck a deal last week with Internet company Critical Mention Inc. to push video segments from its local news shows to blogs and other enthusiast websites.
When the service rolls out in the spring, a KTTV-TV Channel 11 story about fire safety, for example, might get plastered on fire department websites, with some ad revenue going to the sites' owners.
"Our challenge is to maintain our reach," said Ron Stitt, Fox Television Stations' vice president for digital media. "But in the future, the way we do that is looking more and more like a multiplicity of platforms. We have to be in a variety of different places."
Fox joins a growing field of television companies experimenting with online video syndication, which flips the industry's traditional approach on its head.
TV networks are increasingly trying to attract audiences to their websites to watch shows. But through online syndication, TV companies such as Fox are placing targeted videos on specialty sites where potential viewers are likely to be.
"The hallmarks of traditional media have been limited distribution and an emphasis on driving an audience to their own properties," said Will Richmond, president of Broadband Directions, an Internet media consultancy. "Online syndication takes advantage of what the Internet does best -- distribute traffic to millions of points. You're talking about an unlimited number of distributors."
Politicians have started using online syndication to take their messages directly to supporters. For example, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) last month recorded a video announcing his intention to run for president and used Brightcove Inc.'s service to let bloggers publish the video on their sites.
The online video syndication market is growing crowded with powerful contenders.
Search giant Google Inc. has launched test programs with Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group to put TV clips and music videos on other websites, then match the videos with targeted ads. For example, clips from MTV's "Laguna Beach" and VH1's "Celebreality" ran on blogs that included PopSugar, Egotastic and fan-sites.org.
"We can take the content out to where the users are," said David Eun, Google's vice president for content partnerships.
