| Type | Privately Held |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Key people | Blaise Zerega, CEO and President |
| Slogan | The Conference Channel |
| Website | fora.tv |
| Type of site | Video on demand |
FORA.tv, Inc. runs a website that features more than 10,000 videos drawn from conferences, events, lectures, and debates. The site offers free, paid-membership, and fee-based video viewing to a smart, deeply-engaged audience.[1]
TechCrunch describes FORA.tv's services as "everything from filming a conference's content to writing headlines and speaker bios to cutting the film into watchable DVD chapters and three-minute teasers to writing transcripts."[2]
FORA.tv has been called "The Conference Channel" or "The YouTube for Thinkers", and is often compared to TED and Big Think.[3][4]
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Founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, FORA.tv is a digital forum ("fora" is the Latin plural of "forum") where people can watch and discuss videos on business, technology, science, politics, and culture, as well as participate in live events.[5] FORA.tv is funded by a group of investors including William R. Hearst III and Adobe Ventures.
The original slogan of the site was "The World is Thinking" and then alternated with such slogans as "Fuel the Enlightenment" and "Feed Your Inner Genius." The slogan changed to "The Conference Channel" in the Fall of 2011.
In November 2008, FORA.tv hired Blaise Zerega, a longtime Condé Nast editor as CEO and President.[6]
In November 2008, FORA.tv started writing and using headlines for the videos posted on the site. Once headlines were included, positive results were immediately visible, with an increase in consumption, engagement, and sharing.[7]
In August 2009, FORA.tv was selected for TIME.com's 50 Best Websites of 2009. The site was also featured in a related TIME.com video, "50 Best Websites: 5 You May Not Know," along with Omgpop, Yelp, PopUrls and Boing Boing.[8]
Also in 2009, FORA.tv was named one of The Telegraph's Best Education websites.[9]
In 2010, Fast Company called FORA.tv a "web-video destination for smart grown-ups."[10]
In July of 2011, it was announced that FORA.tv would be opening an office branch in Washington DC.[11]
In November and December of 2011, FORA.tv was featured in full page ads in The New York Times. These ads highlighted the partnership between The New York Times' TimesTalks series and FORA.tv.
FORA.tv videos are available from its own website, on dozens of syndication websites, as well as on the iPhone, iPad, smartphones, web-enabled televisions, and from such devices as Boxee. FORA.tv also allows users to embed videos on other websites.
FORA.tv offers videos via live streaming and via on-demand viewing. Each video is broken up into DVD-style chapters for easier searching, contains event information, brief biographies of the speakers featured, and full transcripts for indexing. Transcripts are synchronized to the videos enabling people to move forward or backward through the program by keyword searching within the transcript. Video programs can be saved to viewers' personal libraries for later viewing and are also available for download in both audio and video formats.
In March 2010, FORA.tv introduced a pay-per-view service for select conferences and events called FORA.tv Premium Events. Initial partners included the American Society of International Law's Annual Meeting: International Law in a Time of Change[12] and the Monitor Breakfast Series from The Christian Science Monitor.
In September 2010, FORA.tv introduced its FORA.tv Plus(+) membership option, which provides ad-free video watching, unlimited downloads, and HQ streaming, for a monthly or annual fee.[13]
FORA.tv Films was launched in March 2011, giving viewers access to acclaimed documentary films.[14]
In November 2011, FORA.tv introduced a free iPad app called Conference Channel. It is the only app dedicated to streaming pay-per-view conference and event video programming on the iPad. The app offers free previews and paid access to more than 1,000 full-length video programs curated from world-class events.[15]
FORA.tv helps hundreds of organizations expand their audiences for their events. Videos are divided into the six major categories of Business, Economics, Politics, Science, Technology, and Culture.
FORA.tv's content partners include:
Asia Society
The Atlantic
Aspen Institute
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
California Academy of Sciences
Chautauqua Institute
The Christian Science Monitor
Council on Foreign Relations
DEMO
The Economist
Fairchild Fashion Media
Georgetown University
The Hoover Institution
The Institute of Ideas
Intelligence Squared U.S
L2
The Long Now Foundation
Maker Faire
National Geographic Live
The New York Public Library
The New York Times ‘TimesTalks’
The New Yorker
Open Science Summit
The Paley Center for Media
The RSA
Sixth and I Historic Synagogue
swissnex San Francisco
Teen Vogue
Wired
92nd Street Y
FORA.tv syndicates its content to many other sites, allowing viewers to watch many FORA.tv videos elsewhere.
Some of FORA.tv's syndication partners include:
Amazon Instant Video
AOL - 5 Min
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
blinkx
Dailymotion
Google Currents
Huffington Post
Hulu
iTunes
iTunes U
YouTube.