Malayala Manorama Revamps its online news vertical with Brightcove

Malayala Manorama has appointed Brightcove Video Platform to power Manorama Online, the online news vertical of Malayala Manorama. The company serves news and entertainment content to local and Malayalee diaspora audiences worldwide.

Mariam Mammen Mathew, chief operating officer, Manorama Online, says in a press note, “Over the past few years Manorama Online has been hosting video content on third-party DSPs to monetise the videos. We soon realised that the prospects of monetisation on such platforms were limited. As news content consumption continues to shift towards video, we needed to revamp our video platform to a platform that would give us more control over our video inventory and help us to achieve sustainable ad funded revenue model.”

Manorama Online launched its video offering using Brightcove Video Platform in October 2017 with an exclusive video-on-demand streaming of a beauty pageant titled 'Miss Millennial'. Malayala Manorama is also using the Brightcove Video Platform to power the on-demand video content on five of its online properties comprising ManoramaOnline, Manorama News TV, Mazhavil Manorama TV, The Week, and Vanitha.

Mathew adds, "Any buying decision at Manorama is a complex process which involves many stages of testing and feasibility checks. After evaluating close to 12 different video platforms, we decided on Brightcove. When it came to features like quality of service, ease of ingestion, player performance, real-time reports and streamlined workflows, the Brightcove platform met all of our stringent requirements. Our decision was put to test during Manorama’s recent web streaming of ‘Miss Millennial'. Brightcove clocked half a million video plays and more than 2 million minutes of stream consumption for the Miss Millennial event over a week. It is interesting to note how a simple adjustment to our video experience can make a big difference to our viewership rate.”

Ben Morrell, general manager, Asia, Brightcove, says,“Publishers like Malayala Manorama are going all in on video and placing an imperative on monetising video as part of their revenue stream. Brightcove is right there to partner with them to help scale their business as they adapt to the shift in how news and entertainment content is being served and monetised.”

Established in 1888, Malayala Manorama Group has more than 40 publications in circulation. Manorama Online is the digital arm of Malayala Manorama seeing traffic from 200 countries and 16 million unique visitors per month.