Brightcove Secures First Major UK Contract.

OK, now that Brightcove has secured its first major UK contract, only Sky Sports, so not that major, really. Brightcove is taking internet television by storm! Their clients include; Sony BMG, About.com, TIVO, NY Times, AOL and others.  Brightcove came onto my radar about 7 months ago, when they started grabbing headlines in the states. At the time, I was looking at Flash 8, thinking how it would revolutionize web content delivery, especially in terms of video. If you don’t believe me have a look at the flash demo. I think this sort of technology is expanding the way we enhance video with interactivity. Brightcove has based their business around this solution and within the last 6 months the amount of web content that was only possible with Flash 8 that I see while surfing is countless. Brightcove has taken a flash encoding video codec and built a bespoke player around the technology. The only complaint I have is that the encoding quality varies so greatly from site to site. The TTF site has nicely encoded selection of clips, but the Sky stuff looks a bit dodgy.  I am planning on looking into the encoding method and will get back to you with thoughts.
Additionally, Brightcove cleverly built a distribution and revenue generating advertising structure to assist content owners in maximising their reach and earning potential while Brightcove takes a cut.  Much in the way Google Ads work, Brightcove acts a middle man, but the client becomes very dependant on the relationship to distribute their content and sort through the finances. I thought that small players would originally make up the breadth of Brightcove’s business, but the big contracts they have scored puts them in a good position to  corner an emerging market. Born out of the part of the world with some of the brightest minds, Cambridge Mass (home to MIT and Harvard and others) Brightcove is a geeky company as well as marketing triumph. One to watch for sure!