Media

Search for “Lost,” or “the Office,” or “24” using any of the Internet’s most well-known search engines and you are likely to end up with millions of results—billions in the case of “24.” So how is a television aficionado—who instantly recognizes these as names of popular TV shows—to weed through this overwhelming response to find truly relevant, high-quality content about a favorite show? This challenge lay at the heart of the decision that TV Guide Online executives made in 2006 to develop a new Internet video guide that would focus exclusively on high-quality Internet content related to TV programming. TV Guide Online is a division of Gemstar-TV Guide, publisher of TV Guide Magazine, the TV Guide Web site, and interactive programming guides (IPGs) used by many subscription TV services. As a brand, TV Guide has a 53-year history of providing TV listings, information, and editorial guidance to TV users.

Its executives understand what TV viewers are looking for and saw that viewers’ needs were largely unmet by the existing technologies. In particular, TV Guide Online executives understood that TV viewers turning to the Internet to find information about their favorite shows and stars were not for the most part looking for spoofs on YouTube; fan sites; or brief, low-quality captures of old shows. These viewers want professional-quality programming—whether that be online versions of old episodes, previews of upcoming shows, or interviews with cast and crew members—and that content constitutes only a small fraction of the millions of hits that popular search engines routinely return.

“We realized that we could offer more than guidance on your set top box,” says Kirsten Rasanen, Director of Product Management for TV Guide Online. “After all, we have a fair amount of expertise in this area. We know TV. We know entertainment. We know movies. So, we decided to build an online video listings area—and deliver guidance to online video in much the same way we provide listings for TV and movies. It’s all designed for the TV viewer, and it helps them find videos on the Internet that really would be of interest to them.”

Standardized Portal Solution Increases Collaboration and Efficiency for Media Giant

As an entertainment company, MTV Networks must ensure the free flow of ideas and content. However, the company’s previous portal infrastructure wasn’t helping much, as end users could not publish their own content. MTV Networks standardized on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007, upon which the company deployed a new intranet portal, a Viacom corporate portal, and multiple Internet sites. Self-service content publishing enables groups across the company to communicate better, while rich collaboration and search features are helping global employees to easily find and share information. With Office SharePoint Server, MTV Networks is benefitting from a standardized portal platform that delivers new capabilities in a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective manner, and will serve the company well into the future.

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