Brightcove - the new online video network

Brightcove is in the news again. This time, front page of the Wall Street Journal,  "Online Video Goes Mainstream, Sparking an Industry Land Grab".

Fearful of being cut out and worried about piracy, big media companies are starting to embrace online distribution. The earliest signs are deals cut by Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, Apple Computer Inc., General Electric Co.'s NBC and America Online to make popular TV shows available on the Web. Recently, cable television channel Oxygen Media Inc., National Lampoon Inc. and the New York Times Co. each signed up with Brightcove.

Brightcove provides an environment for independent video producers to deliver their content directly to consumers, bypassing the traditional TV networks and channels. Video content owners are no longer beholden to the networks for distribution. Consumers can search and find the video content that interests them and build a relationship directly with the content producers. Brightcove is almost like eBay for video content, providing a market and infrastructure for producers and consumers. See my previous blog on Brightcove for more details.

The Winter Olympics is a perfect example of video content that should be redistributed through an online service like Brightcove. Is anyone else tired of seeing Curling when what you really want to see is Suoer G ski racing? Broadcast TV is designed for the masses and ends up satisfying no one. Shouldn't we be able to see what we want, when we want it, and either pay for it, or have contextual ads spliced in? Brightcove will enable that vision. Google video and Yahoo video will attempt to do something similar.

Video search will become important once there is tons of video content online. DRM (Digital Rights Management) to protect the video will also become important. And of course, contextual advertising matched to the video content and end user will be critical. High speed bandwidth is already in place, although the carriers are making noise about wanting another cut of the revenue. All the pieces are coming together to enable a new online video marketplace. Brightcove is positioned in the center of the action.