Brightcove Launches Video Network

Internet video services provider Brightcove today unveiled a new network and several monetization options for content owners to distribute and earn revenue from their video content.

Both professional and amateur video producers can upload their clips to the Brightcove Network and share in half the revenue generated by ads that Brightcove sells against their content. Besides advertising, content owners can earn money by selling or renting downloads of their content through Brightcove, or through partner AOL Video. Content owners keep 70 percent of the proceeds from those transactions.

The offering is targeted to smaller media companies, including small cable networks and independent producers. According to Adam Berrey, VP of marketing and strategy at Brightcove, many media companies of that size can benefit from participating in the Brightcove Network.

“These media companies are building broadband channels, but may not have the capacity for a national advertising sales team, or are focusing on such a narrow niche in the marketplace that it doesn’t make sense for them to have one,” Berrey told ClickZ. “In the Brightcove Network, we package all that content into channels and sell the ads and share 50 percent of ad revenue with the content owner.”

The company has to date been focusing on the Brightcove Platform, which provides services to large publishers like MTV Networks, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Those media companies build their own Internet TV channels, sell their own advertising, and pay Brightcove a fee for using its platform.

What’s new today are the opportunities for smaller content owners to get involved; for publishers of all sizes to distribute that content; and for advertisers to buy ads on that content.

“When Jeremy [Allaire] started the company, he had a broad vision, but at its center were two main ideas. One was to build an open platform that let content owners build an Internet TV channel. A second was to have a marketplace that would help those content owners connect with distribution opportunities,” Berrey said. “We see this as fulfilling the vision that the company was started with.”

Brightcove previously sold ads against its video content from premium publishers in a CPM-based model. Video content was vetted for quality and categorized into one of several channels. Those ads are now sold as “AdNet Select,” and inventory is sold on a CPM basis across the network, or in genre- or publisher-specific channels.

The new consumer-generated content will show ads sold on performance-based pricing as “AdNet Performance.” Those videos will not face the same scrutiny by Brightcove, and may not be as high quality as the premium content, but will provide broader reach and be sold as CPC, Berrey said.

More details and new tools for advertisers are expected to be announced in coming weeks, Berrey said.

Any video content uploaded to the Brightcove Network will be made available for search via Brightcove.com, which has been remade from a B2B site into a consumer-facing channel guide. The company also plans to add tools for interaction and sharing to that site, Berrey said.

Brightcove has also extended an existing deal with AOL Video to allow Brightcove Network users to distribute their content through AOL’s video portal. In addition, Brightcove has launched a clearinghouse to facilitate distribution deals on third-party sites facilitated by a new Syndication Marketplace.