Castfire - video publishing platform

In Castfire we've found a video partner who shares our commitment to quality and presentation. We believe our audience deserves the best and we're happy to be able to give it to them.

The Escapist, a publication of Themis Group, was launched in 2005 to cover gamer and digital culture in a progressive editorial style. A weekly publication with supplemental daily editorial and news updates, its magazine-style articles offer content for a mature audience of entertainment enthusiasts, gaming aficionados and industry insiders. Combining print-quality writing and magazine-style aesthetics with the accessibility and modernization of the web, The Escapist is available online at www.escapistmagazine.com. The Escapist is the 2008 winner of both the Webby Award and the People's Voice Award for best games-related web site.

The award-winning website is both graphic and content-intensive. It features a multitude of high-bandwidth content, including interactive blogs, videos, game reviews, and banner and video ad placements. Widely recognized as the voice of video game culture, millions tune in each month for The Escapist's smart, funny, no-holds-barred take on games, gaming and gamers.

Challenge

In early 2008, The Escapist was on the verge of unleashing four new video series, including a groundbreaking video game review series and other unique series featuring live-action and animated tales. With several series on an ambitious weekly new release schedule and page views growing at exponential rates, The Escapist required a robust solution for managing, monetizing and delivering their large library of multimedia content to millions of monthly viewers.

Solution

To manage their growing media library and upgrade video distribution quality, and in conjunction with the release of the four new video series, The Escapist enlisted the video publishing expertise of Castfire, developer of a robust and innovative video publishing platform.

Castfire's media Content Management System (mCMS) with robust APIs allows for the integration of video content directly into existing backend content management systems. The enterprise-class open platform was created to enable any user to seamlessly integrate Castfire services into all current video and audio, and into multiple formats. Castfire makes it easy for The Escapist to manage its media library over each video's lifetime, and monetize and publish all library content across multiple platforms and devices. Castfire's platform also enables The Escapist to manage all business rules around multiple syndication partners and ad placements. They can also leverage Castfire's existing syndication relationships to push content to popular media sites.

The Escapist is leveraging a best-in-class solution from Castfire to monetize and distribute their entire catalog of amazing content, said Robert Kohler, co-founder of Castfire. The robust and flexible platform we've delivered is perfect for forward-thinking publishers like The Escapist by enabling them to increase distribution and generate revenue.

We're extremely excited to be working with Castfire to expand on our video offerings, said Russ Pitts, director of video production for The Escapist. We're thrilled with the continued growth of our premiere video brands like Zero Punctuation, and our new series are living up to that pedigree, presenting our audience with a variety of new video content to fall in love with. In Castfire we've found a video partner who shares our commitment to quality and presentation. We believe our audience deserves the best and we're happy to be able to give it to them.