AP announces red carpet coverage for ’09 Oscars featuring live online video

The Associated Press has prepared a comprehensive multiplatform reporting effort for the 81st Annual Academy Awards on Sunday.

A centerpiece of AP Entertainment’s effort is an online Oscars interactive, which includes live video, photos, stories and blogger feeds. Look for access details on the home page of the corporate Internet site at www.ap.org. The interactive, which went live on Feb. 15, features seven days of pre-Oscars coverage, leading up to the festivities in Los Angeles on Feb. 22, when live video, photos and blogger coverage will originate from the red carpet.

“This is the biggest entertainment event of the year and we are very excited about the extensive coverage we are able to provide our members and customers,” said AP Global Director of Entertainment Products Michael Dutton. “We have bundled together our core video, photo and text coverage into an all-in-one interactive, which will enhance the way coverage is presented on Web sites and provide a new opportunity to attract local advertisers.”

The AP will offer a wide range of video clips to newspaper, broadcast and other media Web sites, including numerous “Road to the Oscars” reports, as well as a series of preview packages, with nominee interviews, critics’ predictions, red carpet setup updates and features on all major Oscar-related events.

A team of reporters will be mobilized to provide content for AP’s text, video, audio, photo, interactive, online and mobile platforms, including AP Editor-National Entertainment Video Alicia Quarles. On the night of the awards, Quarles will be on-camera reporting live from the red carpet from 6 to 8 p.m. ET. Video feeds will include celebrity arrivals, fashion wraps, show highlights and interviews. Coverage will also feature an inside look and red carpet interviews from the Elton John and Vanity Fair viewing and after-parties.

AP Radio Entertainment editor Michael Weinfeld and Hollywood correspondent Rosalie Fox will be backstage at the Kodak Theater, covering all the action. They will broadcast 60-second Live Special Reports once an hour, beginning at 8:40 p.m. ET and ending at 11:40 p.m. ET.

AP Radio will also have complete audio coverage of the night’s winners and losers on the regular entertainment closed-circuit feed, on Monday, Feb. 23, at 3:32 a.m. ET.

AP Images, a commercial division of The Associated Press with one of the world’s largest collections of historical and contemporary imagery, will distribute more than 2,000 images of the festivities and awards for on-air and online use.

AP’s Global Media Services, which provides on-site video coverage and production of breaking news and special events to broadcasters from around the world, will have exclusive live positions from what’s called the “press bridge” overlooking the red carpet.

The interactive runs through March 8. The streaming feature is set to begin at 6 p.m. ET on the day of the Oscars. Video highlights from the show will be posted immediately following the Academy Awards broadcast and available until March 2.