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The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, owner
and operator of several of the leading entertainment
publications for industry professionals and fans, has
consistently looked to innovate around video to build
and grow its audience across its portfolio of brands.
We sat down with the digital teams of two of
its leading properties, The Hollywood Reporter
and Billboard, to learn how they are enhancing
the performance of their video content via
recommendations and personalization, the value of
data in their programming strategy, and how they
plan to continue to innovate with video in the future.
How The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard are
Engaging Users by Turning Video Publishing
into a Science
CASE STUDY
The Hollywood Reporter and
Billboard are enhancing the
performance of their video
content via recommendations
and personalization.
NATHAN MCGOWAN
VP, Product,
The Hollywood Reporter
& Billboard
REED KAVNER
Senior Product Manager,
Billboard
RENA GROSS
Web Producer,
Billboard
REED HALLSTROM
Director of Product,
ANNIE HOWARD
Digital Content Editor,

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617 261 4830 fax
Q: In a digital ecosystem that is so fragmented,
how have you managed to increase viewership
and engage audiences on your properties?
Nathan McGowan: We wanted to
make sure that video was more
exposed on our sites and that
users really knew the extent of
our library and premium content.
We utilize Brightcove to power our video
experiences and reached out to their partner
IRIS.TV to help us provide a personalized
approach to presenting videos to our users.
IRIS.TV did this by powering our Brightcove
video players within our most popular content
categories in a way that engaged consumers to
watch more videos. Through increased video
entry points, users rapidly began to experience
the breadth and depth of our content.
Q: What was the result of increasing the entry
points to video and its impact on performance?
Reed Kavner (Billboard): The
ability to recommend the most
relevant video from our library
enables us to be more aggressive
with creating video entry points
while creating a more engaging experience
for our audience. Our data shows that when
a viewer is offered video recommendations
tailored to their tastes, they’re more likely to
stick around beyond the initial video, which
multiplies our opportunities for monetization.
Personalized video recommendations are a
win for us, our audience, and our advertisers.
Reed Hallstrom (THR): In addition,
we utilized the integration of the
new Brightcove Player with IRIS.
TV’s UpNext — dynamic preview
screens that help prime the user
for a continuous viewing experience. Adding
the element of user feedback controls such as
thumbs up/down further gives our audience
control without overwhelming them with choices
or interrupting the experience, and that feedback
is valuable on for both parties: the user is able
to optimize their recommendations, and we’re
able to see what videos are prompting reactions.
The majority of our video experiences are on
article pages, and we’ve found that viewers
start an experience with video related to the
article, but ultimately explore content from our
library that may be very different. This allows
us to more fully utilize our deep content library,
and helps our users become familiar with the
diversity of our content. Even personally, our
use of Iris has shown me plenty of hidden
gems I would never have seen otherwise.
Q: Digital video is often characterized by the
viral moment and volatility. What are you
doing to engage audiences on your owned and
operated sites when there is not a viral video?
Rena Gross (Billboard): As
Billboard and THR both
enjoy exclusive access to the
entertainment industry, Awards
Season brings big tent pole events,
such as The Grammys and The Billboard Music
Awards, where we see significant increases in
viewership. We have been looking at ways to

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617 674 6500 tel
617 261 4830 fax
maximize viewer engagement during those
events and carry that momentum into the
subsequent days and weeks. To that end,
we’ve optimized our metadata structuring and
tag management so that the IRIS.TV system
can better find and surface content to our
users. Consistency of keyword structure over
quantity has proved beneficial in allowing
us to maintain viewership for premium
content long after it was initially published.
Q: In what other ways has data played a
role in your video programming strategy?
Annie Howard (THR): Being able
to understand what videos our
users are most engaged with
under a variety of conditions
such as device and category has
helped inform our editorial strategy. In addition,
knowing what portions of our library are driving
the most views enables us to test or validate
assumptions regarding content creation or
content acquisition. The data insight also
enables us to a/b test and experiment with
different content formats and clip lengths.
With these tools, we have the ability to
leverage data in ways that allow us to focus
on creating the best content for our users.
Q: What can users expect to see from THR
and Billboard in 2016 and beyond?
Nathan McGowan: Definitely
an expanded slate of original
programming. A good example
is our new Billboard Charts
Center series — a 10-minute show
inspired by Billboard’s weekly music charts.
Also, live video experiences from some of
the biggest events in the entertainment
world. We’re uniquely positioned to do
this and give fans the access to major
entertainers that they clearly want.
Ultimately, creating more content across multiple
categories, while measuring the popularity
of it, will also allow us to make even better
recommendations to our audience with a
specific interest in entertainment related video.

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