Minneapolis, MINN (PRWEB) September 20, 2006
Internet Broadcasting, the nation's largest publisher of TV station Web sites, today announced its 10-year anniversary. What began in the mid-1990s as a single TV station Web site has grown to become the #1 publisher of local news online with a national network of 79 TV station sites. Drawing 13 million monthly visitors, the Internet Broadcasting network is comprised of TV station sites representing America's premier broadcasters, including NBC, Cox Television, Hearst-Argyle, The McGraw Hill Companies, Post-Newsweek, Meredith Broadcasting, and Scripps Howard.
Internet Broadcasting's national reach includes sites in each of the nation's top 25 markets and 45 of the top 50. For brand name advertisers, the company offers a highly credible and trusted environment, allowing them to reach at-work consumers nationwide, on multiple mediums, with the convenience of a single ad-buy.
"Our partners are the best broadcasters in America," said Reid Johnson, founder, CEO, and president of Internet Broadcasting. "By handling all aspects of their Web sites, from editorial to sales to systems, we create sites that are both profitable and market leaders. Thirty-five of our sites rank #1 in their market. In many markets, such as Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlanta, we have more visitors than the other TV station sites combined."
"To a large degree, our success can be attributed to the foresight of our partners," Johnson added. "Ten years ago they embraced this new medium and empowered us to create the best online extension of their brands possible. With an incredibly dedicated team -- both in the newsrooms and in our headquarters in Minneapolis -- we leveraged this trust to create the best in TV station Web sites. I'd like thank the partners and our talented employees for our success as we look forward to continued growth in the next 10 years."
Internet Broadcasting was the brainchild of Johnson, a 20-year veteran of the TV news business. He began his TV career as young visionary. Johnson was news director at Minneapolis' WCCO-TV by the time he was 28, making him the country's youngest news director in a major market. Under his direction, Johnson helped the station dominate ratings and win major broadcast journalism awards.
As the Internet wave began to grow in the early 1990s, Johnson saw the information superhighway's potential as an important disseminator of news and relevant content. In 1995, he created a text-based news and weather service that updated content through an early form of the World Wide Web. By 1996, he launched Internet Broadcasting's first TV station Web site, Channel4000.com, for Minneapolis' WCCO-TV. His content creation model was formed with this earliest collaboration: Johnson's company employed dedicated on-site web editors in exchange for the station providing content and space for the Internet Broadcasting staff.
That first station Web site enjoyed tremendous success, selling out its advertising inventory before its launch. Internet Broadcasting next launched Channel2000.com for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and Channel6000.com for KOIN in Portland, OR.
Internet Broadcasting's online news coverage began winning accolades from respected organizations honoring excellence in journalism. When Sigma Delta Chi and the National Press Club created their first awards for online journalism, Internet Broadcasting won the inaugural awards for its coverage of the Red River Valley floods in the upper-Midwest.
By 2000, Internet Broadcasting's network grew dramatically, jumping from five to 50 stations within 12 months as the result of partnerships with Hearst-Argyle, Post-Newsweek, and The McGraw Hill Companies. In 2001, NBC and Cox Broadcasting joined the network, adding an additional 24 stations.
No longer a start-up, Internet Broadcasting pioneered a unique vision for creating compelling, reliable TV station Web sites. This embodied the creation of a proprietary content management system and partnership with an advanced distribution network -- both of which gave the company a way to handle large traffic spikes whenever a big news story broke. This guaranteed each site would be available to provide visitors with news and information when they needed it.
Internet Broadcasting's unique ability to stay up-and-running during high traffic events was tested to the limit in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. The company's network of sites provided uninterrupted, constantly updated coverage all day long, despite an overwhelming demand that crippled other online news outlets.
Later, in 2005, Internet Broadcasting was tested again in the form of Hurricane Katrina. Unlike many major national news sites, the company's local New Orleans station, WDSU.com, never went down despite a 20-times increase in traffic to nearly four million visits a day. The site handled this traffic and served over 500,000 live video streams with 99.97 percent site availability.
In acknowledgement of Internet Broadcasting's expertise in delivering broadcast news and information to the web, NBC selected the company to produce its official NBC Olympics Web site for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The result was the most successful Olympics site ever. This prompted NBC to tap Internet Broadcasting for the following Olympics, the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. During the Torino Games, NBCOlympics.com had an astounding 361 million page views, more than double the number of page views during the Salt Lake Winter Games (145 million) and 44 percent higher than the total number during the Athens Games (251.4 million). The site served 9.1 million video streams, equaling more than 125,000 hours of video watched on the Web site. All the top seven page view days in the 10-year history of NBCOlympics.com occurred during the Torino Games. 15.1 million unique users visited the Web site, with expanded "Rewind" video offerings allowing users to watch select events in their entirety.
Internet Broadcasting's content was again honored with the prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award for "Large Market Television Station Web sites" for its NBC10.com (Philadelphia). Seven other Internet Broadcasting stations won regional Murrow awards. By 2005 Internet Broadcasting Web sites ranked #1 in each of the top 10 U.S. markets.
Today, the company is the third largest publisher of news on the web behind CNN.com and MSNBC.com. Internet Broadcasting is by far the largest publisher of local news on the Internet, reaching 1 in 12 online Americans monthly, and is one of America's top 50 web properties as measured by Nielsen//NetRatings.
The future is bright for the innovative Internet Broadcasting with new multi-year agreements with its original partners, the addition of Meredith Broadcasting to the network, and the company establishing itself in the new world of wireless communications. "Our network is poised to grow into whatever area our partner TV stations require," stated Johnson. "We're committed to taking the next steps to continue to grow the network, provide excellence in news and information, and to serve the stations comprising the Internet Broadcasting network and their audiences."
Company Receives Industry Praise
"Through our relationship with Internet Broadcasting, we have been able to offer robust Web sites to our viewers and ad customers. Your company's resources have facilitated our substantial growth in users, and importantly you have been valuable in helping our advertisers achieve successful use of our sites. Now Internet Broadcasting is moving with us into the next important technology -- mobility."
"Our relationship with Internet Broadcasting is a success story from day one. TheBostonChannel.com has grown to Boston's #1 Web site among all television stations, and I honestly believe that we are #1 in revenue as well. The power of the Internet Broadcasting network, along with strong news content locally, has really worked to WCVB's advantage"
"I'm so glad that Hearst-Argyle and Internet Broadcasting jumped into the Internet thing so long ago. Even today there are many stations that are just starting to develop their sites while we are working to take it to the next level. It's amazing to think that it has been 10 years because it has gone so fast."
"Since the very beginning of Hearst-Argyle's relationship with Internet Broadcasting, we both realized our respective assets and opportunities to birth a formidable partnership. There continues to be a fallow field before us. Our ability to explore possibilities and innovate with impact contributes to the strength of our shared culture."
"Congratulations on 10 great years! We're proud of our Internet Broadcasting partnership, and look forward to the next decade of fantastic growth together."
About Internet Broadcasting
Internet Broadcasting is the nation's largest publisher of TV station Web sites. The company publishes 79 sites for America's premier broadcasters: NBC, Cox Television, Hearst-Argyle, The McGraw Hill Companies, Post-Newsweek, Meredith Broadcasting, Scripps Howard, and Capitol Broadcasting Company. Each month, one in every 12 online Americans visits an Internet Broadcasting site, making it one of the nation's largest online news publishers. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. For more information, visit http://www.ibsys.com.
Media Contacts:
Kevin Abramson, 651-365-4221
Anthony Giombetti, 612-605-8310
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