Brightcove has been awarded a very broad patent for online video features. Features which are universally used by other sites and platforms. This is either pointless or dangerous, depending on how you choose to look at it.

Brightcove History

Brightcove is a company which offers an online video platform for publishing and distributing content on the Web. It was founded in 2004 and has since built am enviable customer base of high-profiles businesses. The company now streams 700 million videos every month, up from 400 million a month this time last year.

In 2005 Brightcove applied for a patent covering some very broad brush strokes concerning the online distribution of content, including video. Unbelievably, almost six years later and the patent has been awarded. Making it the latest in a long line of inconceivable patents being granted.

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Adobe Flash has been the standard for online video, games, and interactive media on the Web for a number of years. But maybe not for much longer, as HTML5 is waiting in the wings, ready to pounce.

Adobe Flash

The Web is now full of Flash content, with Adobe having managed to push its proprietary software on to the Internet since its introduction (as Macromedia Flash) in 1996.

The range of content which utilizes Flash is now so widespread that most Web sites will have at least one element powered by Flash. Video is an obvious one of these, with .exe Flash movies, and .flv Flash video files.

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Faced with a rapidly-dropping number of subscribers, cable companies are starting to realize they need to embrace rather than fight the Web to succeed in this new digital age. And Brightcove wants to help them, providing the platform which could see content cropping up on multiple sites on the Web.

Cable – Who Needs It?

The cable companies really aren’t keen on the Internet or online video. It’s a sector they don’t control, and currently don’t even have a foothold in.

But the Web is providing a viable alternative to expensive cable subscriptions for many people. Who needs to see a huge fee leave their bank account every month when the likes of Hulu provide content for free (at least for now). Especially with more TVs and devices being Internet-enabled, meaning Web video is moving from computers to the living room.

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Brightcove is an Internet TV platform and network which allows both established media companies and singular individuals to produce and publish video online and then make ad revenue from the resulting content.

It is now in the process of changing its service from the ground up, with Brightcove 3, a completely rebuilt service now going in to private beta before a full release in the autumn.

By way of sending out a message to all their many users, Brightcove has announced that it is soon going to be closing the YouTube-style consumer video community, which currently resides at the Brightcove.TV domain.

As of December 17, 2007, users of the video service and community will no longer be able to upload videos, as the website will be refocused to provide a central destination for the professional distribution and promotion of the company’s network of media partners.

Brightcove has always seemed more focused on developing methods of distributing and monetizing videos, providing a platform for several high-profile clients, so what exactly took this team so long to realize that running a YouTube competitor was not the way to go?

Yesterday, Google YouTube officially debuted its new in-video ad delivery system.

After weeks of experimentation, the first embedded video advertisements went live.

Trawling my selection of news feeds this morning, I came across several rather amusing bits on a spat (well, maybe not a spat, but I’ll put the word to use here anyhow) being had between VideoEgg and YouTube.

The former is more or less accusing the latter of stealing its overlaid-ad thunder. 

The latter’s response, well, actually there’s been no response, from what I gather. 

Fox Entertainment Group has announced a partnership with Brightcove to launch internet video channels of all Fox broadcast and cable content, including FX Network, Speed and Fox Broadcasting.

This deal is interesting because it allows syndication of Fox content throughout the internet using embedded video. Fox will handle advertising for all content displayed in the Brightcove player. Fox Entertainment Group’s content will extend beyond just Fox’s websites.

Brightcove has existing agreements with major players like CBS, MTV Networks, and Discovery, although none have been exclusive. This new deal is for Fox’s exclusive online partnership. You won’t be seeing Fox content on YouTube anytime soon.

Content is king for internet video. This is a major deal for Brightcove, which is aiming to ink similar exclusive partnerships with other major networks and companies.