Travel Channel has adopted Cisco Systems' Eos social-networking platform to deploy Web sites built around its portfolio of travel-related content and brands, the companies announced Wednesday.
The Travel Channel Academy site will publicly launch later this month as the network's first Eos-powered site. The site will take advantage of Eos's profile-building and user-contribution features, to foster a community around aspiring travel journalists and the content they produce.
Scripps Networks Interactive last month completed its acquisition of a 65% interest in the Travel Channel from Cox Communications for about $1 billion.
Cisco Eos is a hosted "software as a service" platform that lets media and entertainment companies more economically create, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences built around their portfolios of branded content, according to the company.
"As a content company, Travel Channel works with the right partners and platforms to engage its audiences wherever they are without having to invest in proprietary technology development," Adam Sutherland, Travel Channel's vice president of strategy and business development, said in a release. "We have been very successful fostering community on popular social networking platforms and are now excited about incorporating this functionality on our own Travel Channel Academy Web site. The Eos platform allows us to provide tools for our community to contribute, comment and rate content."
Cisco also announced All Access Today and The Eleven Seven Music Group/Tenth Street Entertainment as customers for Eos, joining Warner Music Group in using the Eos platform.
Cisco made the announcements at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Cisco also announced new "Eos 2.0" features, including Facebook Connect integration to facilitate audience acquisition; additional customization tools to enable rapid scaling of site launches; site migration tools to transition existing communities to Eos; and member group management capabilities to enhance engagement and monetization.
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