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FAIRFAX, VA and BOSTON, MA -- December 12, 2006 -- Time Life, creator and marketer of unique book, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products, and Brightcove, an Internet TV pioneer, today announced an initiative that enables Time Life to use Brightcove in support of a wide variety of corporate objectives, starting with special online promotions this holiday season of Get Smart: The Complete Collection, a DVD boxed set including the entire Emmy-Award-winning 1960s "Get Smart" series and nearly 10 hours of bonus material in deluxe, collector's packaging.
Initially, Time Life will launch an Internet video channel on Brightcove.com, as well as use Brightcove viral distribution and managed syndication services to promote and drive sales of its Get Smart: The Complete Collection, a 25-DVD boxed set including all five seasons of the Mel Brooks-Buck Henry spy spoof that premiered on NBC in 1965 and ran until 1970. Fans can visit www.timelife.com, www.getsmartondvd.com, www.brightcove.com, and a variety of other fan and TV programming sites equipped with web-based Brightcove video players to view clips from the 128-episode series, licensed by Time Life from HBO.
With forthcoming releases, Time Life and Brightcove expect to offer consumers paid downloads of select programming from a wide range of Time Life's extensive video catalog.
"We wanted to give online video consumers an easy way to sample 'Get Smart' and other popular shows in Time Life's catalog of classic video series," said Dan Markim, business development, Time Life. "Partnering with Brightcove gives us the ability to reach consumers directly from an increasing number of digital platforms, while providing us with more control over our proprietary and licensed content."
For example, Brightcove enables Time Life to offer fan and affiliate sites, blogs and other web sites, the ability to include a "Get Smart" player on their page featuring hilarious "Get Smart" clips. Time Life will update these clips on their own timeline and the updated clips get automatically pushed to participating websites. Each clip enables viewers to click through the video to the Time Life site to purchase the DVD boxed set, effectively linking the informal sharing of content to increase Time Life web traffic and DVD sales.
"We're seeing an explosion in the popularity of television content with Internet audiences, and Time Life's video library is growing every day," said Adam Berrey, vice president of marketing and strategy, Brightcove. "Using Brightcove enables Time Life to bring video content directly to its fans with experiences that communicate its brand and integrate directly into online fan sites and social networks."
About Time Life
Headquartered in Fairfax VA, Time Life was founded in 1961 as a direct marketing company specializing in music and books. It has since grown to become one of the world's largest direct marketers of audio and video products, selling more than 13 million units each year throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Time Life set the standard in the direct response industry by pioneering direct marketing techniques and building one of the most trusted and recognized brands in commerce. The company now also sells their products through major traditional and non-traditional retailers around the world as well as via the Internet. Time Life is a registered trademark of Time Warner Inc. used under license by Direct Holdings Americas Inc., which is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc.
About Brightcove
Brightcove is an Internet TV service that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television. Founded by Internet pioneer Jeremy Allaire in 2004 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brightcove is a private company led by a management team that includes senior executives from Allaire, Macromedia, ATG, Comcast, MTV Networks, News Corp., Lycos, MediaVest, and Discovery Networks.
Contacts:
Laura Evenson for Brightcove
SutherlandGold Group
415-934-9600
levenson@sutherlandgold.com
Stacey Studebaker for Time Life
Foundry Communications
858-200-7554
sstudebaker@foundrycomm.com