AP dumps Microsoft

ASSOCIATED PRESS has told Vole to go forth and multiply and has handed over its online video network, to The Platform, a video system owned by cable operator Comcast.

AP is a not-for-profit cooperative and started the ad-supported online video network in late 2006. It provides news videos to more than 2,000 newspaper, broadcast and other media Web sites throughout the United States.

Until now AP used Microsoft's MSN media player to distribute videos. Vole flogged ads alongside the material, sharing the revenue with AP.

With the two-year contract between Microsoft and the AP expiring, the hack collective said it decided to "wind down" the technology relationship "in an effort to concentrate on expanding its video publishing business".

Jane Seagrave, the AP's senior vice president of global product development, said Vole was not headed in any direction AP could follow these days and was not going to be able to provide the AP with the technical support it needed for the network.

AP will now license The Platform, beginning in December and the outfit will also roll out an updated version of its video player at that time.

On the plus side, AP will have the ability to send out higher-quality videos, and give affiliates that post the videos on their sites more flexibility in how they use the content. Vole will still sell the ads that run with the videos. µ

L'Inq
AP