AOL.com rejiggers site with video front and center
The foundation is AOL's network of video partnerships with the likes of ESPN and Vogue and its focus on becoming a video-ad powerhouse.
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AOL reformatted its Web site Tuesday to highlight video from owned properties like Huffington Post and a bench of content partners, the latest gambit by the online media company to become a video-advertising leader online.
The videos will be programmed around daily video habits and change throughout the day, drawing from content partners of the company's AOL On network -- including ESPN, the Wall Street Journal, and Vogue -- as well as AOL's own properties like Huffington Post and Engadget.
Video ads are the fastest-growing segment of advertising on the Web, and AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong intends for his company to be the Internet's undisputed leader in that area. Armstrong, previously Google's advertising head, last year bought video-ad technology company Adap.tv in AOL's biggest takover since Huffington Post hired Bob Lord, who led the digital-technologies wing of giant ad agency Publicis Groupe.
The push has shown some signs of success -- AOL overtook Google at the top of ComScore rankings of the Web's top video-ad properties last year after the Adap.tv deal. But as AOL's advertising momentum ticks moderately higher, its bottom line is still awaiting the same benefit of the growth.
AOL shares were inactive in premarket trading. They closed Monday at $41.61, down 11 cents, or less than one percentage point.
AOL trotted out viewership statistics to accompany the news, saying AOL.com users watched more than 158 million videos in March and noting 63% of all video viewing on AOL.com happens during the daytime.