Online Video Specialist offers free video hosting to UK Charities.

UK (SANEPR.com) March 17, 2009 -- Non profit organisations and charities registered with the Charity Commission in the UK can now take advantage of a free video hosting service which has all the benefits of systems such as YouTube but without the downsides.

MagicLite is part of Streamcity’s Magic Publisher suite of web video solutions used by the likes of Cancer Research UK, The Prince’s Trust, WaterAid, The Saga Charitable Trust and Oxfam. Currently Magic Publisher delivers over two million minutes of video each month.

The initiative to make the service available free of charge is intended to enable third sector organisations who have video content but are not currently showing it on their website to improve their online offering without having to make a financial commitment.

Announcing the offer in London, Dave Greene-Taylor, CEO of Streamcity, said “Web video is a powerful tool for fundraising, campaigning and building awareness. We know many charities already have videos which they are not showing on their websites which could lead to more engagement and better communication with their donors, volunteers and service users. MagicLite is the perfect tool to get these resources seen by a wider audience.”

MagicLite allows users to encode, publish and manage up to twelve videos with capabilities similar to YouTube. As the number of videos grows, organisations can easily move to the main Magic Publisher System which allows full WebTV functionality.

Compared to other free video hosting offerings, MagicLite is designed to give control back to the content owner. There are no ads and viewers stay on the charity’s website at all times. There is no risk of those watching being presented with unsuitable content in the form of “related videos” which have nothing to do with the charity’s own message. “The traffic that YouTube generates is mostly one way - taking viewers away from your site,” says Mr Greene -Taylor “The last thing you want is for visitors to be tempted away from your message when they see these related videos from other producers. The benefit of MagicLite is that it keeps the viewer where you want them - interacting with your content.”

More details of free video hosting for charities and other video production and delivery services tailored for the third sector can be found on the StreamCity website: http://www.streamcity.co.uk/third_sector.asp