Bloomberg’s new video hub aims to keep audiences – and subscribers – on its own turf

“We’ve got a massive team that’s working on video. We have a huge corpus of video,” said Marissa Zanetti-Crume, Bloomberg’s global head of product. “When we looked at our website and our app, we just weren’t doing it justice. [This project] was just a place where we felt like we could do more, and drive that engagement.”

That’s why Bloomberg is refocusing its efforts around using its video archive as an audience engagement and subscriber retention channel, rather than a traffic-driving one. While most of the videos are free to watch, some will be available only to paying Bloomberg subscribers, as the publisher tests video as an added value. (In an effort to drive subscriber engagement, Bloomberg moved most of its newsletters behind the paywall last year, Zanetti-Crume said.) 

Bloomberg has 707,000 paying subscribers, according to a recent internal memo on the publisher’s 2025 finances, written by Bloomberg Media CEO Karen Saltser and shared with Digiday. Bloomberg’s total hours watched grew 25 percent year-over-year in 2025, with an average monthly video audience of 55 million unique viewers, according to the publisher.

“We’re going to be experimenting with individual shows to understand, based on what subscribers are watching, the kind of content that best resonates with them,” Zanetti-Crume said. Paywalled content will include a mix of long-form and short-form videos (such as a business news show, or an interview with an influential figure), and weekly series (10-20 minute documentaries), she added, noting that Bloomberg subscribers over-index on their video consumption compared to non-subscribers.

Bloomberg will test what drives habitual engagement from subscribers, and how to best communicate with them when new content is added to the video hub, Zanetti-Crume said.

The video hub features a new media player that improves streaming quality and load times, and includes dynamically-inserted ads and playback speeds. Advertisers can buy contextually targeted video hub inventory. Bloomberg’s video ad revenue (which included linear, digital and streaming) grew 1 percent year over year in 2025, according to Saltser’s memo, though it didn’t specify from what base.

Zanetti-Crume said the aim was to centralize all its video content and use audience engagement to guide how it expands and invests in the formats that resonate most, and where to insert more product personalization. 

Some industry observers remain skeptical about the strategy. Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at consulting firm TVRev, said he is unsure publishers’ efforts to build video feeds would actually encourage audiences to spend more time onsite.

“It’s a tough bind — relying too much on TikTok gives TikTok too much power… but it’s also where their audiences are and it will be tough to move them off of it,” Wolk said.

Harry Browne, vp of TV, audio and display innovation at performance marketing agency Tinuiti, also isn’t convinced publishers can compete with social and streaming platforms for attention. “I understand the desire to consolidate offerings in a one-stop shop to keep viewers onsite for as long as possible. However, I am skeptical that viewers will stick to any platform or site for very long, especially if the content is behind a paywall, as a substantial fraction of the audience already feels they are over-subscribed,” Browne said.

That said, relying on platforms like YouTube and TikTok for audience reach means publishers are always subject to algorithm changes. Bloomberg wants to own its video experience from the ground up, even if the early gains are modest. 

Kristin Powers, Bloomberg’s deputy head of media editorial, sees the video hub as a good home for “microdocs” in the three-to-10-minute range, usually aimed at contextualizing news events and featuring Bloomberg reporters – as opposed to short-form clips or breaking news stories that can quickly be distributed on social or live TV, she said.

Powers is overseeing an expanded global video strategy, where she is introducing more editing processes and camera equipment in studios in places like Mumbai, Singapore, New York, London and Dubai to help reporters produce video content like microdocs faster.

“Having these flexible formats that can be building blocks – that can either be done in a very quick turn but then be the beginning of a longer process to build something more ambitious – has been really important,” Powers said.

Bloomberg plans to relaunch its connected TV streaming channels in Q3 this year, upgrading them with similar video design improvements made on Bloomberg’s site and app. A user will soon be able to watch a video on Bloomberg’s app while on the go, and pick up where they left off on the streaming channel at home, Zanetti-Crume said.