AOL Canada is investing heavily in future video productions. The north-of-the-border division of the media giant announced plans to build an in-house video studio in the Huffington Post newsroom at AOL’s Toronto-based headquarters.
According to StreamDaily, AOL Canada Vice President of Content and Marketing Brad Cressman believes construction on the new studio space will be completed within a few months. The video studio will boast full editing and production capabilities, live streaming technology, and custom solutions for advertisers.
“This strategy leverages AOL’s strength of creation, distribution and monetization of video with the Huffington Post’s strength of great storytelling,” Cressman said. The AOL executive added that the Huffington Post Canada newsroom is now shifting its focus to video, “so we will rapidly be growing this effort over the next few months.”
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Beyond its new studio, AOL Canad also hopes to increase the number of publishing partners who use the media company’s video content exchange platform, Vidible.
AOL Canada General Manager Joe Strolz thinks the shift to video is a logical step for his company. “Our belief is the creation of made-in-Canada original video content pairs well with our programmatic services as it offers a complete solution to our partners, helping them unlock the creative potential of brand storytelling while connecting it to the efficiency and audience advantages of programmatic.”
Other companies have made similarly large investments in Canadian-based video. Last year, Vice teamed up with Rogers Communications to create a video studio and north-of-the-border TV channel. Additionally, Kin Community has taken on management of the YouTube channel for Corus Entertainment‘s Nelvana, another Toronto-based studio popular for animated children’s classics such as Babar and Berenstain Bears. AOL Canada’s studio will be the newest production house to contribute video content to a growing Canadian sector.
