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News UK announces multi-million investment in original video for Times, Sunday Times and Sun

By Freddy Mayhew

News UK has announced that it is investing millions of pounds into original video content across its UK national newspaper titles, claiming the move will put it at the forefront of the industry.

The  publisher has said it will create thousands of videos each year across The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun websites. It has also said it will produce with more than 100 live videos a month, including on Facebook Live.

News UK said the investment had been driven by the rise in mobile usage across its websites with 80 per cent of traffic to The Sun and 35 per cent of The Times now coming from mobile devices.

Head of video Derek Brown said: “This is a significant moment in the UK news industry – marking the point where video becomes one of our major output formats.

“Video has become the most evocative way of telling stories and our titles have always excelled at storytelling – it’s the perfect match.”

The investment was announced at the Cannes Lions festival as the company increases its work with brands on video content, including deals with Doritos, Morrisons and Activision.

Dominic Carter, chief commercial officer, said: “This is a huge opportunity for brands to reach our engaged audiences in the context of fantastic, original video content.”

The latest website ABC figures showed The Sun has 2,367,137 average daily unique browsers. The website was behind a pay wall for just over two years before going back to a free-to-view model in November last year. The website was redesigned earlier this month.

Online content from The Times remains behind a pay wall.

Last month The Telegraph launched a dedicated online video hub producing original content for viewers.

Telegraph Video has been billed as a “brand new industry-leading portal” and produces more than 30 news videos daily as well as a range of series shows and short-form documentaries.

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