Broadband helps Web
Oklatravelnet.com will tell all to tourists
By Jim Stafford
Business Writer

Let's say that you want to spend a three-day weekend in southeastern Oklahoma, but aren't familiar with the area. Where to stay? What to see and what to do?
Beginning April 30, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department will offer fun seekers a new way to soak in all the possibilities available in southeastern Oklahoma or any part of the state.

It's a new, broadband-based Web page called Oklatravelnet.com.

Built in a partnership with a new subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Ackerman-McQueen advertising agency, the Oklatravelnet.com Web site will feature live travel-related broadcasts, virtual tours and an interactive map that will link viewers to videos about museums, restaurants, parks, special events and a myriad other areas of interest.

"It's an instant, TV-like experience,” said Kyle Millar, president of Branded News Inc., the Ackerman subsidiary that was created about a year ago.


Segments from TV program
Internet users with a high-speed connection will be offered segments from the past 12 years of the popular Discover Oklahoma television program.
When users seek a bed and breakfast inn or restaurant in, say, the Broken Bow area, video segments that feature those type of businesses will be offered.

There is more. Oklatravelnet.com also will offer live daily segments that will be broadcast from the Riverwind Casino in Norman. Riverwind is a "presenting sponsor” of the site.

Former local television sports anchor Brent Starky will host the 90-minute Oklatravelnet.com segments Mondays through Fridays. He will broadcast live from an open air studio that will allow casino visitors to watch the production in a manner similar to that of the Today Show, Millar said.

"We're the first state in the nation to offer something like this,” said Hardy Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma Travel and Recreation Department. "It really changes the way we're able to communicate with people. We have operated a successful Web site for many years.

"This gives us the ability to move into the broadband technologies very quickly.”

The site will offer what Watkins called "data rich” search capabilities that allow users to search for very broad topics, such as a whole region of the state, or for specific interests, such as campgrounds or cabins available in a certain area.

"This is what people expect to see,” Watkins said. "We're playing in a competitive arena and we need to be winning.”


Only travel news broadband
The Oklatravelnet.com site currently offers a preview of what's to come and stakes a claim as the world's first and only broadband channel devoted exclusively to travel news.
Branded News also operates a site for the National Rifle Association called NRAnews.com.

The site features all things NRA with an abundance of news clips dealing with gun ownership law and issues, as well as daily news broadcasts.

Oklahoma City native Millar was named president of the new Ackerman subsidiary last April when it began operations.

Millar, 33, previously worked for the MTV Networks in Los Angeles and New York, and for CBS and other networks before that.

Branded News is building its news gathering and packaging business on "very narrow, very specific categories” in partnership with brands that have an expertise in the category, he said. The NRA, for example.

"Branded News has built on the back of the really dynamic broadband explosion we have seen over the last 12 to 18 months,” Millar said.