Bleacher Report embraces HD, and new YouTube alliance

Nathan Pensky · November 8, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2143

Bleacher Report's YouTube partnership will figure in a focus on video sports coverage

Online sports publication Bleacher Report announced Tuesday that it would implement significant site enhancements, as well as a new partnership with YouTube. Bleacher Report is currently the Internet's 5th largest online sports publication, with 20 million unique monthly users, and 500 stories published daily.

Among these enhancments will be a focus on HD video on the site, as well as original programming in conjunction with YouTube. YouTube announced October 2011 that it had partnered with Bleacher Report, along with dozens of other content sources, to create a new channel on the video streaming site.

One of Bleacher Report's original programming ventures will be a mixed martial arts weekly news series called The Ultimate Show, to be hosted by Kenda Perez of SpikeTV's Best of Pride Fighting Championship. The Ultimate Show will run on Bleacher Report and not in affiliation with YouTube. Edge shave gel will serve as title sponser for The Ultimate Show.

"Bleacher Report in such a short period of time has revolutionized the way sports content is created and consumed," said Bleacher Report Co-Founder and VP Video Programming and Production Dave Nemetz, in a press release.

"With this new investment in video, Bleacher Report is building on its commitment in providing sports fans with the best overall experience with content that is both compelling and entertaining while giving our advertising partners a robust environment in reaching a highly coveted audience with tremendous purchasing power."

Bleacher Report has hinted that several new shows will roll out from now into 2012. Some video reporting will also feature team-specific and topical material, putting a focus on minute esoterica of the sports world in short-form video vignettes.

To date, Bleacher Report has received $40.5 million in investments, from Oak Investment Partners, Crosslink Capital, and Hillsven Capital, among others.

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Bleacher Report is where the sports bar meets the press box, the place where fan-journalists create and critique high-quality sports analysis.

Technology has leveled the sports media playing field, and now more than ever before, sports fans around the world have the ability and inclination to be sports pundits. It's Bleacher Report's mission to give them the skills and tools to do just that.

You won't find "unbiased" coverage at Bleacher Report—and that's the point. Every contribution bears the stamp of its writer's personal convictions.

Bleacher Report is all about community. No one goes it alone. Each submission is edited and rated by the Bleacher Report user-base, allowing individual writers to hone their skills and ensuring that the best analysis gets featured on the site.

Every Bleacher Report article is also a catalyst for discussion and debate. No opinion gets a free pass—and the exchange is as lively as it is free-ranging. At Bleacher Report, you can say whatever you want. The only catch is that you have to be able to back it up.

While Bleacher Report emphasizes inclusiveness, we know that quality matters. That's why our reputation system, Writer Rankings, aims to distinguish the best of the best, by recognizing Top Writers who...

1. Contribute great analysis by writing and publishing their own articles;
2. Improve the network by editing and rating the articles of their peers;
3. Build fanbases by engaging with and responding to the community.

Those who do make it to the higher levels of the Top Writer Rankings are rewarded with more visibility on the network, and greater odds of their work reaching the Front Page.

The net result is a vibrant sports media outlet suffused with a spirit of competitive camaraderie, where expert fans collaborate to produce passionate, polished sportswriting.
We call it the Open Source Sports Network.