Brightcove Blog

Brightcove is proud to work with innovative institutions like the Ford School of Public Policy, Rhode Island School of Design, Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Northeastern University, and a host of others to help drive high quality online video initiatives that resonate with a variety of audiences and influencers. There is no doubt that interest in online video amongst the education industry will continue to grow, and we're confident the Brightcove platform is able to address the complex requirements of this market both now and in the future.

Comments (0), Tags:

We are very pleased to report that Brightcove was chosen as the best premium online video platform by the readers of Streaming Media magazine as part of the 2009 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards. The third annual Readers' Choice Awards were presented last night at Streaming Media West.

According to Streaming Media, this year's awards were the most popular to date, with more than 5,000 votes case for more than 200 products, companies and services.

Brightcove was up against two other organizations in the premium online video platform company, but came away with 31% of the votes.

We are extremely honored to be chosen for this award and to be recognized by the great readers of Streaming Media, as they are the ones who use our platform day in and day out to deliver the highest quality online video experiences possible.

Comments (0), Tags:

Yesterday, Brightcove chairman and CEO, Jeremy Allaire, delivered the keynote presentation at the first-ever Online Video Platform Summit at Streaming Media West in San Jose, CA. The focus of Jeremy's presentation was on setting the stage for 2010 and the future of online video, as well as showcasing the host of new features and innovations in the Brightcove 4 platform, which we announced earlier this week.

Comments (0), Tags:

We are very pleased to announce the general availability of Brightcove 4, a major new release of our industry-leading online video platform. Brightcove introduces a host of new features and enhancements that empower customers to maximize the quality, reach and business impact of online video across desktops and devices.

Brightcove 4 comes at a time when the online video industry and market are crystallizing as video goes mainstream. Brightcove's mission and vision to publish and distribute the world's professional digital media is starting to take shape and reflect the immediate market in front of us. Forrester Research recently issued theirfirst detailed industry study of the Online Video Platform market, and we were the decisive top performing company and leader. And this week, we launch Brightcove 4 in the context of the industry's first Online Video Platform Summit at Streaming Media West in San Jose. Online video platforms are truly going mainstream, and we continue to lead the pack.

New features in Brightcove 4 include support for native iPhone video application development, expanded live streaming capabilities, advanced analystics, and new resources for video distribution, monetization and custom online video applications. To see a full list of the new features in Brightcove 4, check out the full press release at http://www.brightcove.com/en/company/press/brightcove-4-online-video-platform-unveiled.

Today also marks the launch of Brightcove Express, which brings the power and flexibility of the Brightcove platform within reach for all website projects, no matter how large or small. Brightcove Express is priced starting at $99 per month with no annual contract. For more detail on Brightcove Express or to start a free trial, visit our website.

Commenting on the news, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer, Jeremy Allaire, said: "As video becomes more pervasive on the Web, publishers face increasingly complex and demanding requirements that often span multiple use-cases and devices. Brightcove 4 provides a powerful and extensible suite of new services that make it easy for customers to execute three-screen strategies and generate additional value from online video through new distribution and monetization opportunities. And with Brightcove Express, the Brightcove 4 platform is accessible for any size organization or projects of any scope."

This is an exciting time for the Brightcove team, and we encourage everyone to try out the Brightcove platform and see for yourself why more than 800 organizations in 34 countries around the world rely on Brightcove for their online video initiatives.

Comments (2), Tags:

Today at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference, Brightcove chairman and CEO, Jeremy Allaire, was interview by Robert Gray of Fox Business News. In the interview, Jeremy discusses the growth of the online video industry and why Brightcove remains well positioned to capitalize on that growth. Jeremy also talks about his background at Macromedia and Allaire Corporation, as well as gives advice for other companies just starting out.

Comments (0), Tags:

Taboola, the leading provider of video recommendation engines for major content publishers, recently became a premiere strategic partner to Brightcove as part of the Brightcove Alliance program, a global ecosystem of more than 200 technology, distribution and solutions providers integrating with and building on the Brightcove online video platform. The following is a guest post from Taboola’s Founder and CEO, Adam Singolda, who discusses the new partnership and the value that the enhanced video recommendation engine will provide to Brightcove’s customers.

Taboola’s video discovery products are being used to generate over a billion monthly recommendations to over 50 million unique users, across a global network of publishers, which includes CNN.com, NBA.com, Kiplinger, eHow, 5min, VideoJug, Howcast and many other leading publishers. As a member of the Brightcove Alliance, Taboola will provide its industry-leading personalized video recommendation and “related-ads” for such leading content providers as iMediaConnection.com, Kiplinger.com and other premium sites to provide better user experience and revenue ad lift.

The integration with Brightcove enables customers to instantly access Taboola’s EngageRank™ technology to generate more video views that can be monetized through ad networks or direct sales, as well as additional revenue streams Taboola provides from highly targeted ads blended as part of the recommendation list. Publishers who are new to partnering with Taboola find that our existing network, scale and technology provide immediate and expanding value.

Also, and just as important, once a publisher uses Taboola on their Brightcove player, they can easily place Taboola on any flat content such as article pages and home pages to convert any kind of user into a video watcher. In many cases, our partners still have more page views that are not video views, and our Taboola Text2Video product is helping to create even larger lifts in site usage and revenue.

To further reinforce the strength of our technology, our mathematical research team has been studying and developing EngageRank for almost 3 years now, which has been constantly A/B tested to recommend the best next video from any content such as article pages, video pages, homepage, etc. to provide a 100%-500% lift in click-through rates (CTR) and user engagement with videos.

How to get started?
Go here and we’ll get back to you immediately. Brightcove customers can be up-and-running on Taboola live within an hour.

Adam Singolda
Founder and CEO
Taboola

Comments (4), Tags:

One of the very first solution partners in the Brightcove Alliance, Adjust Your Set, has teamed with Brightcove to use our market-leading online video platform to build new video-rich websites for leading retailers Marks & Spencer and Thomas Pink.

Adjust Your Set is a new breed of creative agency based in London that designs intelligent content for retailers, builds online multimedia players and manages the full process from concept through to brand channel. Adjust Your Set provides clients with the full agency creative treatment, from its interrogation of products and services to reveal the compelling stories within and the dramatizations of those stories right through to the production of the final films shot on HD using prime film lenses

Adjust Your Set is leveraging the openness of the Brightcove platform and the quality and smoothness of its playback to build highly customized player experiences and groundbreaking e-commerce video applications for Marks & Spencer and Thomas Pink.

Using our advanced APIs and SDKs coupled with their creative content have enabled Adjust Your Set to easily deliver engaging, interactive online video experiences on top of our platform and distribute them not just on the customers site but syndicate to community sites such as Facebook, media partners such as Cosmopolitan Magazine online and distribute to new platforms such as the iPhone

With Marks & Spencer, Adjust Your Set built a Brightcove-powered online video player that features a unique click-to-buy function that allows customers to purchase what they see on the screen. According to a recent press release from Marks and Spencer, in just six months since the launch of M&S TV, the company has now broadcast more than one million minutes of video with click-through rates as high as 30%. This has driven sales on some products up by as much as 90%.

Thomas Pink recently launched Pink TV with Adjust Your Set featuring a highly customized Brightcove player that also enables consumers to easily buy products that are featured in the videos through a unique sidebar feature that appears after the item has been shown.

We at Brightcove think the execution of the Pink TV project is truly first class. As such, our EMEA team has awarded it our inaugural site of the month award.

For more information on Adjust Your Set, check them out here.

Comments (0), Tags:

We are very pleased to report that Brightcove was recognized by Forrester Research as a leader in the online video platform industry in its new report, The Forrester Wave™: U.S. Online Video Platforms, Q4 2009. According to Forrester, Brightcove received the highest scores across all of the three major evaluation categories -- current offering, strategy and market presence.

According to the report, "Brightcove’s offering is the most comprehensive video platform in this Forrester Wave evaluation; it consistently scores high marks with few, if any, gaps. The company’s customer base, video scale, and internal resources are unrivaled in the market today. Brightcove’s significant resources and road map position the company to stay ahead in the video platform race.”

Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of 6 U.S. online video platform vendors against 37 criteria. In addition to receiving top scores across the three major categories, Brightcove was specifically recognized for its leading scores in distribution and integration.

Commenting on the news, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer, Jeremy Allaire, said: "Brightcove is honored to be recognized by Forrester as the leading online video platform. This is an exciting time for the online video industry, as video is becoming as pervasive as text on the Web and nearly every professional website is looking to publish video. We see an enormous global opportunity to establish Brightcove as the dominant platform for professional video publishing on the Web, and this recognition from Forrester further validates our leadership position in the market.”

We are honored to be recognized by Forrester in this groundbreaking report on the online video platform industry, and look forward to continuing to help our customers achieve their goals with online video with our market-leading platform.

For more information on the research or to download the full report, click here http://go.brightcove.com/forms/en-forrester-wave-report.  

Comments (1), Tags:

We are pleased to announce that Sky Deutschland has rolled out the Brightcove platform across its Sky.de Web properties to support the organization's growing online video initiatives. With Brightcove, Germany's leading pay-tv provider is able to publish and deliver secure, high quality video programming and exclusive content from Germany's top professional sports leagues, including Bundesliga, UEFA Champions league and Formula 1 motorsports.

Sky Deutschland's innovative pay-tv model has enabled it to reach more than 95 percent of TV viewers in Germany, which has translated into a substantial online audience for Sky.de. Brightcove's advanced feature set enables Sky Deutschland to now provide exclusive access to paying subscribers, via an authenticated log-in, to online highlights from the German Bundesliga each weekend, as well as to non-subscribers beginning each Monday. Sky Deutschland is also able to prevent abuse and video playback within unauthorized players through Brightcove's advanced content protection features.

The deal with Sky Deutschland expands the adoption of the Brightcove online video platform across News Corporation Web properties, which already includes Times Newspapers, BSkyB, and the television networks and studio properties of Fox Entertainment Group.

Comments (3), Tags:

A little over two years ago, Brightcove opened its European headquarters in London. In that short amount of time, the UK has become an important global center for innovation in the online video industry, often spearheaded by television broadcasters in the market.

We’ve had the honor of working with many of the leading UK broadcasters, including ITV, Channel 4, Five, BSkyB, UKTV and STV. This week, we are very excited to add Virgin Media Television to the list.

Over the past two years, we’ve noticed a number of interesting growth trends in the UK broadcast sector.

For example, in 2007 UK broadcast customers uploaded an average of around 250 videos per month into the Brightcove service. Today, the number is closer to 550 videos per month, representing 80 percent growth year/year.

The average length of video segments published online has also grown for this sector, from 1.96 minutes in 2007 to almost 3.5 minutes in 2009.

And consumer demand for online video from UK television broadcasters is showing no sign of slowing. In fact, the stream volume for this sector is growing at 12 percent quarter/quarter.

From short-form original programming to feature-length catch-up TV services, UK broadcasters continue to expand their online video offerings and introduce new initiatives that extend the reach of their content and brands, build community, and provide new monetization opportunities.

We are thrilled to see the market grow and broadcasters ramp their online video initiatives with Brightcove. It’s a privilege to work with so many leaders in the industry and we look forward to continued innovation and growth with our partners in the UK.

In the News Comments (1), Tags:

 
We are excited to report that Virgin Media Television’s LIVING brand recently launched Liv, the UK’s first online TV channel delivering free, exclusive, original short-form content each day, using the Brightcove online video platform. Through Brightcove, Liv is delivering high quality, ad-supported content on its site, www.livingtv.co.uk, as well as to a host of leading third party websites and social media platforms, including Facebook, using Brightcove’s advanced distribution and syndication features. The initiative gives LIVING the ability to expand the distribution of exclusive short-form, ad-supported video content online and will also generate additional advertising income.
 
Liv 's exclusive, specially commissioned content falls under four themes – Celebs, Style, “Bite  Me” and Popular and launched with brand new programmes Celebs Off Duty and Liv Famous, Dress Famous.
 
Virgin Media Television has seven wholly-owned channels, including LIVING, and is part of Virgin Media, which is the largest Virgin company in the world with almost 10 million customers.

In the News Comments (0), Tags:

We are very excited to introduce a new, weekly video series in the Brightcove Developer Center called Developer TV. Visit often for tips and tricks on using Brightcove, which is produced by developers, for developers. Some of the current topics include:

• How to create a simple BEML template (Brightcove Experience Markup Language)
• Getting started with Media APIs
• How to use the Media APIs with Python
• Using Ad XML in the Ad Module
• Using VAST Ad XML

If you have suggestions for topics for DevTV, drop us a line: devtv@brightcove.com

And don't forget to check out the other resources we provide for developers in our Developer Center, including articles, docs, reference guides, forums and blogs.

Comments (1), Tags:

Voting for the 2009 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Awards ends on Friday, October 16th, so make sure to case your vote. We're honored to be a nominee in the online video platforms (premium) category this time around and would appreciate your help and support in the voting process!

The winners will be announced at Streaming Media West in San Jose on November 18 and presented during a gala reception at the show.

To vote, just go to http://www.streamingmedia.com/ReadersChoice. 

Comments (0), Tags:

The Brightcove UK team is plenty busy over the next few weeks with a series of events and speaking engagements that we encourage our London followers to check out.

First up is the Streaming Media Europe conference, which will take place on Thursday, October 15th thru Friday, October 16th at Novotel London West. We are a Platinum sponsor of the event and will be exhibiting at booth #1. Additionally on Thursday from 12:45 - 1:15, our vice president of business development for EMEA, Rags Gupta, will be presenting in the exhibit hall about innovative online video use cases for enterprises, educational institutions, governments and healthcare organizations.

Rags will also represent Brightcove on the "Online Video Publishing Platforms" panel on Thursday at 11:45am. According to Streaming Media, this session will lay the groundwork for content owners to better understand what type of publishing platform will best suit their needs.

We also invite you to join us for our inaugural London Brightcove developer group meetup. Come join us for a night of networking, drinks and solution presentations with the Brightcove engineering team. There will also be a coding challenge that will be judged by Brightcove CEO, Jeremy Allaire.

When: Monday, October 26th, 6:00 pm
Where: Sun Microsystems, Regis House, 45 King William Street, London

To learn more, RSVP and find directions, click here: http://londonbdg.eventbrite.com/

Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else who might be interested in going. We look forward to seeing you there!

Comments (0), Tags:

We're pleased to announce today that leading Scottish broadcaster, STV, has launched a series of new HD-quality, long-form online video initiatives for catch-up viewing purposes using the Brightcove platform. The Brightcove platform's wide range of video publishing and distribution features, including long-form delivery capabilities, enable STV to deliver HD-quality, full episodes of the series.

The series, "Scotland Revealed," is a landmark, three-part documentary series filmed in HD that offers a spectacular look at the country, including some of its most iconic landscapes and cityscapes. It is now available on STV's online TV on Demand service, STV Player, for 90 days to viewers around the world.

STV re-launched its STV Player site earlier this year with Brightcove. The site ensures quick access to important and popular content while ensuring the highest quality viewing experience possible. To read more about the re-launch of STV Player, check out the blog interview that our VP of Professional Services, Eric Elia, did with STV in July.

You can also read today's full press release here.

Comments (0), Tags: