TMCnet News
Brightcove Previews New Do it Yourself IPTV Publishing ServiceTMCnet Associate Editor The race is on for IPTV (News - Alert) supremacy, and a small new upstart, Brightcove, appears to be poised to give major Internet companies such as Google (News - Alert), Yahoo! and Veoh Networks a major challenge in terms of delivering video content to the masses.
According to a press release, Brightcove is reportedly offering a free preview of its new “standard” Internet TV service, which gives anyone with video content - from independent producers to major media companies to marketing teams - the ability to affordably build broadband TV channels and distribute their video through the Internet. Major programmers including Discovery, National Lampoon, and Oxygen are already distributing broadband channels using Brightcove’s “premium” services, which have been commercially available since the beginning of 2006. The premium services are designed to meet the needs of large media companies and major brand marketers with complex broadband programming requirements. Now, Brightcove is targeting smaller media companies, independent producers, broadband start-ups and marketing teams with its Standard Services offering. The new service, which will be officially launched this summer, will give these smaller companies the same ability to deliver their content over the Internet and make profits from it. The company will be announcing a variety of service plans including options to pay for the service as well as plans that allow broadband programmers to use the Brightcove services at no cost, and generate revenue, by participating in an advertising network or offering videos for sale and rental. “Internet TV has tremendous momentum in the marketplace today, and we're seeing a wide range of content owners and creators quickly moving into broadband programming and distribution,” said Adam Berrey, vice president of marketing and strategy for Brightcove, in the press release. “By opening our commercial preview, we're giving anyone who wants to become a broadband programmer the ability to start using the services they need to publish and distribute their video on the Internet today.” Brightcove made news in March when it acquired Seattle-based Meta Stories, thus expanding the publishing capabilities it offers media companies through its premium and standard services. According to a press release, Meta Stories’ publishing solutions are used by media companies including Yahoo, MSN, USATODAY.com, Discovery Networks, National Geographic and Scripps Networks. These companies leverage Meta Stories tools to produce rich-media, video, and interactive content. Meta Stories’ flagship product, Story Maker, is a rich-media publishing tool for producing interactive Flash content. Brightcove plans to continue to develop, market and distribute Meta Stories Story Maker. The product will be available as a stand alone solution and offered as an integrated component of the Brightcove service. For more information, visit www.brightcove.com. ------ Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page. |