MILAN—Streaming tech providers Brightcove announced two new capabilities in its AI Suite for video advertising: AI Contextual Ads and Smart Ad Breaks.

Both features are now available to customers.

"AI has transformed a lot of the video workflow over the past two years, captions, transcripts, metadata generation," said Facundo Alvarez Morales, product lead at Brightcove. "With AI Contextual Ads and Smart Ad Breaks, we're bringing it to a different layer: the decisions inside the platform that decide what a video earns. That's where we believe AI should be working hardest in this industry."

The two capabilities join a Brightcove AI Suite that has seen improvements relating to captions, transcripts, metadata generation, and content discovery in the past year.

Brightcove is also reporting that it plans twenty major releases in the last twelve months, including Prism, a fully redesigned interface launched in the past weeks.

The launch arrives at a moment of structural change in the advertising market, Brightcove executives said in making the announcement. The global contextual advertising market is on track to reach $258 billion in 2026 and $379 billion by 2030, driven by the deprecation of third-party cookies and the demand for brand-safe environments.

In addition, connected TV is the fastest-growing premium ad format, with the US market reaching $33.5 billion in 2026, a 28% year-over-year increase that outpaces every other established digital channel.

The rapid growth of both contextual advertising and connected TV put pressure on the ability of platforms to maintain the quality of the contextual signal feeding the ad call, and the precision of the moment the ad is placed, Brightcove explained.

The two new features are designed to help users overcome those problems.

AI Contextual Ads reads video content scene by scene and categorizes it against the IAB contextual taxonomy at both the video and scene level. The resulting signals are passed into the ad server at the moment of the ad call, giving advertisers contextual targeting at the resolution of the individual scene rather than the asset as a whole, a single video can pass different signals to different ad breaks. The ad selection mechanism itself does not change; what changes is that scene-level contextual becomes a real input alongside the dozens already weighed by the ad server.

Smart Ad Breaks analyses each video and recommends mid-roll cue point positions based on natural pauses, scene transitions, and brand safety signals. Editorial teams review and approve the suggestions before they go live.

"Scene-level contextual targeting at scale runs into one practical problem: the manual effort it takes to produce the signal." said Janpaul Pescollderungg, product manager at Brightcove. "AI Contextual Ads removes that bottleneck, and Smart Ad Breaks lets editorial teams scale their judgment across the library rather than the slice they have time to watch. The result is the heavy lifting comes off the team, and the judgment stays where it belongs."

MILAN, Italy—Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streamline video workflows.

The updates build on the roadmap Brightcove unveiled in July and contribute to a broader set of 12 new tools Brightcove has introduced in recent months. Nearly 150 customers are already trialing Brightcove’s new AI features and several are using the updated live experience to deliver high-quality events to large audiences, the company said.

A key highlight of these releases is the expansion of Brightcove’s AI Suite. The new Universal Translator now allows customers to localize videos into more than 50 languages directly within the platform. Users can refine AI-generated transcripts before translation begins, ensuring the resulting dubbed audio maintains the tone, pacing and authenticity of the original content. In response to customer feedback, Brightcove has added additional output options, including fully synthetic voices alongside those modeled on the original speaker, it said.

The Auto-Captions feature, already used by more than 250 customers, has been enhanced to deliver more accurate and natural-sounding captions. With the addition of a custom dictionary, customers can now control how brand names, product terms, acronyms and sensitive language are handled.

Brightcove has also introduced the Metadata Optimizer, which automatically generates and translates metadata using text, audio and visual analysis. With support for more than 40 languages and customizable style and tagging rules, the tool helps teams improve SEO, enhance searchability and ensure brand alignment across their video catalogs. Based on customer feedback, the tool has evolved to include visual inputs, improving contextual understanding and producing more accurate results, it said.

To help customers boost mobile engagement, Brightcove has introduced Vertical Videos, a new gallery template that enables businesses to host swipeable vertical video feeds on their own websites, it said.

The company also has enhanced the live-streaming experience through NextGen Live, which delivers major improvements in stream quality, latency, content protection and monetization.. NextGen Live now offers 4K ultra-high-definition streaming for sports, entertainment and enterprise broadcasts, as well as low-latency delivery with delays as low as eight seconds. Additionally, Brightcove has unified live streaming, server-side ad insertion, and digital rights management into a single, seamless workflow, giving customers a powerful and secure way to monetize live content.

More information is available online.

Video engagement company Brightcove has unveiled a plan to reimagine its platform to meet the growing demands of both media and enterprise customers.

Following its acquisition by Bending Spoons last November, Brightcove has been going through a period of transition, including making at least a third of its employees redundant.

Now, the company has announced what it describes as a “strategic evolution” in how it approaches product development, investing in areas such as new AI-powered features developed in-house, enhanced monetization tools and a more intuitive user experience.

Brightcove said its new direction is the result of extensive collaboration with more than 50 customers across industries, geographies and use cases. “These conversations have shaped a product strategy that is designed to meet the evolving needs of modern video teams while delivering measurable business outcomes,” said the company.

The company has set out two strategies going forward: innovation and quality of experience.

This will see the introduction of Ultra HD streaming and a native recommendations engine to the Brightcove platform. Using AI, the company also intends to introduce automated metadata generation, caption generation, translation and audio dubbing in multiple languages, intelligent video clipping and reformatting to optimize for social publishing and smart content analysis for precise advertising targeting.

In terms of quality of experience, Brightcove said it plans to refine its core platform via targeted initiatives, such as vertical video support, animated thumbnails, and a comprehensive UX/UI revamp.

It also intends to incorporate predictive buffering and adaptive bit rate optimization to help ensure smoother playback across devices and networks.

Speaking about the company’s vision, Luca Ferrari, CEO of Bending Spoons said: “At Brightcove, our aim is to deliver a powerful and reliable platform that is deeply aligned with the needs of modern media and enterprise users. We’re enthusiastic to bring our new product strategy to life, combining customer insight with Bending Spoons’ AI expertise to build a long-term strategy hand-in-hand with our customers.”

BOSTON—Following a successful customer pilot program in 2024, Brightcove has officially launched its AI Content Suite. The suite features a range of artificial intelligence-powered tools designed to make video content more impactful, improve business productivity and make it easier for content creators to get more from their content and drive greater engagement across audiences.

The Brightcove AI Content Suite includes three AI-powered capabilities—content creation, metadata optimization and translation—which simplify video content production by automating the creation and optimization processes, the company said.

“The AI Content Suite is a force multiplier for anyone looking to expand the impact of their video content without increasing their workload,” Brightcove Chief Product Officer Scott Levine said. “Embedded within our video platform, the AI Content Suite easily and quickly enables a video creation multiplier effect without going to other tools and platforms. This allows our customers to maximize their content reach and engagement.”

Key features include:

• Rapid, automated conversion of long-form content into engaging short-form clips, highlight reels and theme-based chapters to maximize reach across channels.
• Conversion of horizontal video content into vertical formats to extend engagement with mobile viewers and across social platforms.
• Enhanced discoverability through auto-generated metadata (including titles, tags and descriptions), ensuring audiences find and engage with relevant content.
• Universal translation capabilities to dozens of languages to extend global reach and make content more accessible (coming soon).

In announcing the launch, the company stressed that the Brightcove AI Content Suite is part of its broader AI product strategy and road map. It was built in close collaboration with customers across various industries to create solutions that address their business needs, such as deepening audience engagement and improving efficiencies in creating, editing and distributing video content.

Brightcove also shared some initial customer reactions.

"The AI Content Suite transformed our clip and trailer production process. What used to take hours now takes minutes, allowing us to reduce costs and focus more on creativity and strategy,” said Remi Brunier, director of product and UX at STV, the most-watched peak-time channel in Scotland and home to some of the most popular shows on Scottish television. STV was one of the dozens of customers participating in Brightcove’s AI pilot program.

“By automating the creation of engaging, concise trailers for our content, we've scaled our production for a wider range of titles and significantly reduced costs,” Brunier added. “This shift has been critical for our business, allowing our team to focus on high-profile projects and enhance our presence on social media platforms.”

Looking forward, the company also said the Brightcove AI Suite will continue to launch new products based on customer feedback. These include the addition of text-to-video capabilities and AI-powered automated video interactivity, personalization, and recommendations to engage audiences and build loyalty.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

BOSTON—Brightcove said it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Bending Spoons in an all-cash transaction valued at about $233 million.

The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2025, will expand Bending Spoons’ business into the enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, where Brightcove is a major provider of streaming media technologies.

It will also provide Brightcove with new technologies from Bending Spoons, which has served 1 billion people across the globe through its suite of digital technology products. These offerings include Evernote, Issuu, Meetup, Remini, StreamYard, Splice and WeTransfer, currently used by more than 200 million people each month, the companies said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Brightcove shareholders will receive $4.45 per share in cash for each share of common stock. The per-share purchase price represents a 90% premium over Brightcove’s 60-day volume weighted average share price as of market close on Nov. 22.

“We are pleased to have entered into this definitive agreement with Bending Spoons, which represents the culmination of a comprehensive strategic review process led by our Board of Directors and with the support of our management team and advisers,” Brightcove chair Diane Hessan said. “As the board considered the long-term path for Brightcove, we unanimously determined that this transaction represents the best opportunity to maximize the value of the business and deliver compelling, certain and immediate cash value to our stockholders.”

Added Brightcove CEO Mark DeBevoise: “Brightcove is a storied and successful enterprise SaaS leader with 20 years of history, 12 of them as a public company. We have been a pioneer and innovator in the streaming market, from the early days of video player technologies to the leading video-powered engagement platform we are today. Today’s announcement will enable Brightcove to leverage the technology and market expertise of Bending Spoons and best position Brightcove to continue to thrive in the streaming and engagement technology market.”

In a statement Luca Ferrari, Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Brightcove into the Bending Spoons portfolio. Brightcove is a trusted and respected name in the streaming technology space, and we look forward to serving its large global customer base. When Bending Spoons acquires a business, we do so with the intention of owning and operating it indefinitely. With this in mind, we’re excited about building on the strong work of the current team, and ensuring Brightcove thrives for many years to come.”

The transaction, unanimously approved by Brightcove’s board, is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals, including approval by Brightcove’s stockholders and required regulatory approvals, the companies said. Upon completion, Brightcove will be a privately held company.

Lazard is serving as exclusive financial adviser to Brightcove, and Goodwin Procter LLP is serving as Brightcove’s legal adviser.

Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal adviser to Bending Spoons with EY Advisory SpA providing financial and tax due-diligence services. JP Morgan and Wells Fargo served as the M&A advisers to Bending Spoons.

BOSTON—Brightcove said it has launched Marketing Insights, a new tool in its video insights and analytics platform that measures the business impact of video content to give marketers greater insight into their strategies.

“Video continues to be one of the most powerful ways to engage audiences, yet measuring its impact on business outcomes has long been a challenge,” Brightcove Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Klingler said. “With the launch of our new Marketing Insights offering, we’re further empowering marketers to gain deeper visibility into the performance of their video campaigns and their broader marketing strategies.

“As a data-driven marketer, I’m excited about how these new capabilities will help brands connect the dots between campaign performance and real business value. This solution is a game-changer for any marketer looking to drive measurable impact.”

With the new tool, marketers can track data from inbound traffic to their videos, capture viewer origins through Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters and analyze which campaigns are effective at driving views and conversion. Linking performance and marketing efforts provides insights marketers can use to improve strategy refinement and make better resource allocation decisions, the company said.

"We’ve transformed the traditional concept of UTM links, a tool marketers have relied on for years, by integrating it directly into our video player,” Brightcove Chief Product Officer Scott Levine said. “This allows us to capture detailed video traffic source data and seamlessly incorporate it into our platform to show ROI from traffic attribution and inbound marketing. By providing actionable insights, we're helping our customers understand what drives audience engagement and how to optimize their marketing strategies. This integration simplifies campaign optimization and budget planning, making it faster and more efficient than ever."

Marketing Insights is available as part of Brightcove’s Marketing Studio premium package.

More information is available on the company’s website.

In recent years, media consumption has undergone a dramatic transformation. It’s no secret that global companies like Netflix, YouTube/Google, Amazon and platforms like Roku and Samsung TV Plus have dominated the scene, significantly impacting traditional broadcast and cable viewing. Nielsen’s The Gauge, which analyzes U.S. TV-viewing trends, highlights streaming as the predominant form of content consumption, with over 41% of people’s viewing time being spent streaming their content versus 20% viewing on broadcast and 27% on cable (as of July).

For years, many claimed streaming and the dedicated companies and platforms behind it would destroy local broadcasters and local content. What’s become clearer recently is that this surge in streaming consumption doesn't spell the end for local broadcasters; instead, it has opened up opportunities to reach and engage new, younger audiences and maximize ad revenue around local content.

Many local broadcasters have already embraced streaming, adapting part of their offerings to meet the digital demand. With new technology, the ease of transitioning broadcasts online has improved, making it even easier for local stations to stream their content directly to consumers, including full live streams and high-value segments like local news stories, sports updates and weather reports.

Now, broadcasters must accelerate their digital presence and utilize the full power of streaming to grow their business and remain front-of-mind with consumers. What remains especially true is the value of this local content to local audiences, and with streaming, broadcasters can meet the audience wherever and whenever they want to consume.

The Opportunity for Broadcasters in the U.S. and Abroad
While local broadcasters face unique challenges, particularly regarding content rights for their affiliated networks, they tend to own significant portions of their content, especially local elements (sports, news, weather, etc.). This presents a unique advantage. Broadcasters can leverage local content to establish a meaningful online presence to compete and lead in their markets.

On a global level, the assumption that large streaming and media companies like Netflix will dominate every market internationally is being challenged. Leading regional media companies possess an intrinsic understanding of their markets backed by robust data. This insight places them in a favorable position to outperform global giants, especially as some global media companies scale back their international streaming efforts. As we are seeing with some of our media customers at Brightcove, leading regional media companies will thrive in their respective regions if they take the right steps to meet modern audiences with modern streaming services.

By prioritizing their digital presence to meet the consumer shift toward streaming, local broadcasters and regional media leaders can capitalize on substantial advantages that come from running a streaming platform, including:

• Targeted Advertising: Streaming allows for more focused, precise and timely advertising, which is easier to measure and often more valuable in terms of return on investment (ROI). The immediacy and robust first-party data delivers incremental value versus the traditional broad demographic approaches used in broadcast advertising. Connected TV is one of the hottest platforms for ads in the market right now, and local broadcasters are equipped to efficiently execute on these platforms with their content.
• Multiple, Improved Monetization Opportunities: While the viewer shift from traditional broadcast to streaming might not be one to one, the potential for monetization through streaming can be significantly higher with various monetization models (AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, FAST, etc.). Given their improved targeting and younger demographics, advertising costs per thousand (CPMs) in streaming and CTV are higher. There are also more opportunities to charge for premium content. Hybrid models are also possible, potentially delivering a dual revenue stream. Ultimately, there is an opportunity for this shift to streaming to be vital in reversing the trend of shrinking revenue streams and fostering renewed growth in the broadcast industry.
• Digital Flexibility: Digital platforms enable broadcasters to shift content strategies quickly and segment their audience more effectively. This allows for targeted content and advertising, yielding higher CPMs and less wasted coverage and inventory. It also enables broadcasters to easily test and experiment with their coverage models and new programming.

The Technical Challenge
While streaming can be a profitable segment for local broadcasters, its infrastructure demands of streaming can be daunting and costly. Not only is the cost of creating the tech infrastructure in-house extremely high, but maintenance requires large dedicated teams to ensure uptime and quality and keep the platform updated with the latest technological advances that provide audiences with the quality viewing experience they demand.

Broadcasters can mitigate this challenge by partnering with experienced and specialized providers like Brightcove, which offer solutions and services to serve the end-to-end needs of media companies seeking a digital and streaming-focused future. The future of broadcasting will continue to evolve with advancements in targeted advertising, user data integration, and content reformatting to enhance relevance and engagement.

The right partner can take this on to transform the experience for broadcasters, allowing them to focus on creating the right content rather than technological developments or worrying about how to get their content to their viewers.

The Future of Streaming and the Media Industry
Broadcasters have been effectively selling their inventory to a broad demographic, but the wave of streaming now allows them to be hypertargeted and deliver the right content to the right people, effectively increasing their value and monetization. They can have one of the most attractive platforms for major organizations to reach buyers, increase brand awareness and build loyalty. With the right technological partner, this can be done quickly and cost-effectively.

As we look to the future, the industry will continue to evolve. The integration of AI will further revolutionize content creation and distribution. AI capabilities like automated summarization, article-to-video transformations, and optimized ad placements will enable broadcasters to deliver more relevant and engaging content at an unprecedented pace. These are all things we’re working on at Brightcove.

The narrative that streaming is detrimental to the broadcasting industry is flawed and potentially untrue if broadcasters embrace it. With the right strategies, partnerships and vendors, local broadcasters and regional media leaders can harness the power of streaming to enhance engagement, expand their reach, increase revenue, and ultimately drive the future of media.

AMSTERDAM—Brightcove at IBC 2024, which concluded today in Amsterdam, introduced the Brightcove AI Suite, a multi-faceted product launch addressing the growth and cost-saving needs of its customers with tools for content creation, audience growth and engagement, increased revenue and improved business efficiency.

“Generative AI is transforming how companies create content and how users engage, and we believe it will drive a boom in video content and its consumption. To enable our customers to take full advantage of these next-generation creation and engagement capabilities, we are enhancing our platform with a suite of AI-driven solutions to deliver on these opportunities,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove.

“By listening to our customers and analyzing their businesses and use cases, we built the Brightcove AI Suite to address their needs, especially in key focus areas, including maximizing content utilization, driving engagement, growing revenue and solving the cost-to-quality equation.”

The Brightcove AI Suite launches with five new AI-powered solutions: AI Content Multiplier, AI Universal Translator, AI Metadata Optimizer, AI Engagement Maximizer, and AI Cost-to-Quality Optimizer. Each is available to existing customers as a pilot program for a limited time at no additional cost. General availability is planned for later this year, Brightcove said.

The offerings help customers create and optimize content, grow engagement and monetization, and reduce the costs of creating, managing, and delivering content without sacrificing quality.

As part of this initiative, Brightcove is using models from industry leaders like Anthropic, AWS and Google to add the power of their generative AI models to Brightcove’s solutions. Additionally, Brightcove is integrating AI solutions from other partners, including CaptionHub and Frammer, it said.

The Brightcove AI Suite will initially focus on solutions in four key areas that Brightcove customers shared as their most significant priorities and business needs. The solutions within these areas are designed to accelerate customers’ engagement and video AI capabilities across industries and use cases. The four priority areas are content creation, content management and optimization, content engagement and monetization and quality and efficiency, the company said.

“As a trusted partner to more than 2,000 global customers, we are also launching the Brightcove AI Pledge: a commitment to securely handling customer data with transparency and responsibility,” said Scott Levine, chief product officer at Brightcove.

“Part of our differentiation will be our ability to advance generative AI securely, protecting our customers' most valuable assets, including transparent guiding principles to protect customer data and content integrity. We will only use data and content to train our AI models with explicit permission from our customers so they can decide their level of inclusion and security.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that J:COM Co., Ltd., Japan’s largest cable TV company, is using Brightcove technologies to power J:COM’s newest streaming service, Ikimono Watch (“Animal Watch”).

The service plans to broadcast content from across Japan’s zoos and aquariums.

“J:COM is Japan's biggest and most respected cable company. We’re honored to collaborate closely with them on this new venture to provide a high-quality and engaging streaming experience for viewers across Japan,” said Chiyo Yanagita, country manager, Brightcove Japan. “J:COM’s decision to choose Brightcove is a testament to our platform’s reliability, security, and ability to scale and grow with the service.”

The new streaming app, Ikimono Watch, works with J:COM set-top boxes and was built with Brightcove’s Android software development kit (SDK). Brightcove’s Video Cloud securely houses all of the video content sourced from zoos and aquariums across Japan, and the Video Cloud API is integrating with the app’s content management system (CMS) to retrieve content and ensure a smooth, efficient viewing experience.

“By choosing Brightcove's platform, we were able to ensure a smooth launch for our ‘Ikimono Watch’ project. The company’s experience in video distribution and handling various types of content has contributed greatly to the efficient and successful introduction of our new streaming service. Video Cloud is indispensable to the strategy of Ikimono Watch, and we look forward to its future growth,” explained Masaki Uchiyama, J:COM General Manager, Next Gen. Platform Development Department, Service Planning Division.

J:COM joins a roster of media companies that rely on Brightcove to power their streaming capabilities, including Acun Medya, AMC Networks, BBC Studios, Canela Media, LIXIL Corporation, MotoAmerica, NHL, One31, REELZ, SBT TV, SHISEIDO, SKY Mexico, The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Wacoal and Yahoo.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com. 

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that it has implemented Amazon Q Business, a new generative AI assistant on Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Using its own public documentation, product, and release notes, Brightcove is using the new assistant internally to further bolster its award-winning customer service.

As an early adopter of Amazon Q, Brightcove has launched the “Brightcove Expert Bot,” an AI-powered chatbot embedded into the internal tools, as a new resource for the customer and product support teams. Streamlining its customer support processes enables employees to quickly and effectively find relevant information, solve technical cases, analyze support requests, summarize support tickets, and use those results to help recommend the best solutions to meet their customers' needs, Brightcove reported. 

“Our customer success team is at the heart of our business. Their unmatched service and unparalleled support have earned them the Support Staff Excellence Certification by TSIA for ten years in a row,” says Deb Richards, executive vice president of global customer success at Brightcove. “With the new AI expert chatbot resource, we are finding new ways to empower the team to automate timely tasks, find answers faster, and make a difference in the quality of support we provide our global customers.”

Brightcove reported that its use of Amazon Q on AWS marks a significant step in the company's commitment to innovation and increasing efficiency by leveraging artificial intelligence. As part of that effort, Brightcove said it is strategically collaborating with leading experts and organizations known for their dedication and expertise in AI to find new ways to super-serve its global base of media and enterprise customers.

"We view generative AI technology as a game-changer for internal operations and customer-facing workflows. As the technology improves our internal processes, we are developing ways to implement AI across our product portfolio to enhance the Brightcove experience," says Scott Levine, chief product officer at Brightcove. "AWS has been a great partner in allowing us to test, fine-tune, and launch this technology. They built Amazon Q in an easy way to deploy and manage while prioritizing security to minimize risks."

“Brightcove and AWS share a commitment to innovating on behalf of customers,” said Matt Garman, senior vice president of Sales, Marketing, and Global Services at AWS. “With Amazon Q, Brightcove is harnessing the power of its data platform and generative AI on AWS to improve customer service and experiences while enabling its teams to work more productively and efficiently.”

For more information, visit Brightcove.com. 

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that John Wagner is joining the company as its chief financial officer. 

In the new role, Wagner will be responsible for Brightcove’s global financial organization, which includes financial operations, planning, accounting, and investor relations.

“John’s strategic financial expertise and impressive record of managing companies through various growth and profitability stages and enhancing shareholder value make him the perfect addition to Brightcove's leadership,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove. “His insights and leadership will be instrumental as we deliver on our commitment to providing the best solutions for our customers and maintaining our leadership position in providing streaming technology.”

Wagner brings more than two decades of strategic and operational financial leadership experience within the technology industry. He brings extensive experience managing and scaling financial operations to support growth and profitability in addition to public and private capital raising and acquisitions. Most recently, Wagner served for nine years as the CFO of EverQuote, an online insurance marketplace, where he oversaw the company's successful initial public offering (IPO) and led the finance organization for five years post-IPO. He’s also held senior executive financial roles at various software companies, including Carbonite, Constant Contact, NuoDB, and Salesnet.

“Brightcove has built a legacy of quality and innovation in streaming technology, powering some of the most notable media and enterprise companies,” said Wagner, Brightcove's CFO. "The team’s commitment to innovation and passion for their customers positions Brightcove for a strong future. I look forward to partnering with Marc and the rest of the executive leadership team to help shape the company and lead Brightcove’s financial strategy and operations.”

Wagner holds a B.B.A. degree in accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an M.B.A. degree from Boston University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com. 

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that the motorcycle racing series MotoAmerica will use Brightcove as its official streaming provider and that Brightcove will power the live and video-on-demand (VOD) capabilities of the MotoAmerica Live+ streaming service, which will exclusively broadcast the upcoming 82nd running of the Daytona 200 (March 7-9, 2024).

“Delivering quality live and on-demand streaming experiences is essential for today’s sports and entertainment organizations to reach and engage their audiences effectively,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove. “We’re happy to partner with MotoAmerica to help them deliver a unique viewing experience for fans worldwide. Through our award-winning platform, MotoAmerica will now be able to monetize its content on a global scale and drive additional revenue.”

“MotoAmerica began the journey into live-streaming motorcycle racing events in 2019. Throughout the years, we’ve received feedback from our fans to enhance the viewing experience,” said MotoAmerica COO Chuck Aksland. “In response, we decided to collaborate with Brightcove to offer our fans the upgraded experience they have been asking for. With the new platform provided by Brightcove, MotoAmerica can incorporate additional elements into the overall viewing experience. These elements include integrated live timing, betting options, news updates, merchandise offerings, and access to the 24-hour all-motorsports channel MTRSPT1, all in one location. Partnering with Brightcove ensures that both current and new fans of MotoAmerica can enjoy the best viewing experience possible. We are very excited about the improvements and are confident that our fans will appreciate the enhanced features and functionality now available to them.”

MotoAmerica joins a roster of professional sports organizations currently deploying Brightcove’s technology to connect with their fans, including Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Raycom Sports, ATP Tour, Badminton Horse Trials, Canadian Football League, Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), Harness Racing Victoria, Little League Baseball and Softball, Major League Soccer (MLS), National Hockey League (NHL), National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), U.S. Ski & Snowboard, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, United World Wrestling and USA Volleyball.

MotoAmerica is North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is home to the AMA Superbike Championship as well as additional classes, including Supersport, Stock 1000, Twins Cup, Junior Cup, and King Of The Baggers. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that In The Black Network (ITBN) selected Brightcove’s platform for the launch of its AVOD streaming service this October. 

ITBN is a new OTT venture founded and led by former Fox Soul general manager James DuBose. The new network focuses on streaming content that showcases and amplifies Black storytellers and culture.

ITBN will leverage Brightcove’s technology to power its OTT service across all major connected TV devices and operating platforms to deliver its content globally on demand. Additionally, ITBN will use Brightcove’s recently launched Ad Monetization service, designed to help companies maximize ad revenue opportunities.

“In The Black Network is gearing up to be the go-to streaming service for Black creators to share their voices across a wide range of audiences through compelling, impactful, original, and culturally relevant stories,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove. “We’re thrilled to be a trusted partner for In The Black to help ensure they have the best technological capabilities to effortlessly deliver content at scale while boosting their ad revenue potential.”

“We found an ideal partner in Brightcove when searching for streaming technology that could help launch In The Black Network and evolve with us,” said In The Black Network’s Founder and CEO James DuBose. “They are the best in the industry, and we are proud to work closely with them.”

ITBN will stream an extensive collection of free entertainment content (including sports, music, scripted, drama, talk, family, and feature films) on a dedicated app available on iOS, Android devices, Apple TV, YouTube, Roku, LG, Sony, and Samsung media players with more distribution partners to follow. 

The new streaming service joins a roster of media companies that rely on Brightcove to power their streaming capabilities, including AMC Networks, BBC Studios, Forbes, Rogers Media, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and Reelz.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

Brightcove has released new capabilities in its Video Cloud platform that allows customers to create audience segments based on video engagement data. 

Being able to create audience segment data will help businesses in their marketing and communications efforts and help them achieve a variety of business goals, including active user outreach for business development, audience nurture campaigns, the ability to build and better target similar audiences, and more, the company said. 

The two new enhancements include: 

• Audience Sync, which allows customers to connect and sync to marketing integrations (like MAPs/CRMs) directly in Video Cloud for more streamlined access.
• Segment Sync, which pulls video engagement data to form target audience groups that can sync with Audience Sync for more effective marketing and communications campaigns.

In releasing the new features, Brightcove noted that the new features will particularly help marketers that focus on demand generation campaigns and those who serve in communications and marketing operations teams. These features will help those teams reach audiences by using data to group the audiences key metrics like engagement, location, devices, etc. 

With these new enhancements, Brightcove customers who use Marketing Studio or Communications Studio can build these custom analytics reports in Brightcove’s Video Cloud Analytics Module to create segments that can then sync with MAPs/CRMs. 

This will allow them to more seamlessly able to access and use video engagement data to generate reports based on video views and their behaviors, Brightcove said. 

The new features will also streamline workflows because marketers will not have to reinvent the wheel in their MAP and CRM systems to build tailored segments and campaigns.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced an agreement with the National Hockey League (NHL) to provide its technology and platform for the delivery of digital video content on the websites of the League and the 32 Clubs, as well as the NHL app.

“The NHL has selected Brightcove to ensure its fans receive reliable, high-quality and efficient video streaming, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to enhance their streaming capabilities,” said Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise. “We look forward to working with the League to deliver a world-class, seamless streaming user experience to NHL fans worldwide.”

“We’re delighted to partner with Brightcove to support the delivery of video content across League digital platforms,” added Nili Doft, NHL senior vice president, digital media. “We look forward to working with Brightcove, who will help us continue to deliver great experiences for our passionate fans through their innovative streaming solutions.”

Brightcove’s streaming solutions – including ingest, players, management, data and insights, and monetization – will be used to transform how the NHL delivers its video to hockey fans across the globe, including by offering high-quality video, fast load times and fewer disruptions, the NHL said. 

The National Hockey League joins a large roster of professional sports organizations who are Brightcove clients, including Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Raycom Sports, ATP Tour, Badminton Horse Trials, Canadian Football League, Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), Harness Racing Victoria, Little League Baseball and Softball, Major League Soccer, National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), U.S. Ski & Snowboard, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, United World Wrestling and USA Volleyball. 

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced a strategic agreement with PubMatic that will see  PubMatic’s programmatic advertising solutions integrated into Brightcove’s video platform. 

The deal will enhance Brightcove’s recently launched Brightcove Ad Monetization service by providing Brightcove customers with an expanded network of opportunities to monetize their video content and maximize advertising revenue, the companies said. 

“At Brightcove, we continuously look for ways to provide extra value to our customers and help them monetize their video content. We want them to be able to focus on creating their content while we do the heavy lifting to ensure the right mix of monetization partners are set in place,” explained Michael Dorf, vice president of global ad operations at Brightcove. “PubMatic is leading in the marketplace with supply path optimization solutions and new innovations like Activate, which opens tremendous new revenue opportunities for publishers.”

“We look forward to connecting with Brightcove’s extensive portfolio of media clients to deliver premium advertising solutions that will help them drive business results,” Meghan Jacobi, director of OTT Partnerships at PubMatic. “This integration provides publishers with unique new sources of demand through Activate, and solutions to manage and monetize their video content for maximum revenue. Through the combination of our platforms, we can also provide publishers deeper insights into their audience and valuable data about the performance of their advertising strategy.”

This latest partnership reinforces Brightcove’s commitment to forging relationships with the most prominent advertising platforms in the industry so that its customers can more easily monetize video content, the company said. 

Companies taking advantage of Brightcove’s Ad Monetization service include Allied Press, Atlanta Black Star, Buckeye Broadband, Cricket Australia, Goalcast, Met Office, Plastic Surgery Channel, The 33rd Team, TVB and WINK News.

If you went back to 2019 and started reading a lot of articles on the streaming industry, you would quickly come to the conclusion that the streaming industry would soon be rolling in profits, churning out cash in the summer of 2023 the way cable systems did twenty years ago in the heyday of the pay TV business.

Then, if you skipped back to 2023 and you started reading recent articles about streaming services axing shows, cutting costs and still not making any money, you might come to the conclusion that something has gone horribly wrong. Even though most consumers have embraced streaming, the streaming bubble has burst. The major streaming companies are still swimming through billions of dollars in red ink.

Bightcove’s CEO Marc DeBevoise brings a longer perspective to the debates over the future of streaming than the ups and downs of the past few years. 

After doing pioneering digital work at NBCU and Starz in the 2000s, he held a variety of roles between 2011 and 2020 that helped develop and then lead CBS’s digital strategy and operations. At a time when some analysts still viewed broadcast networks as old media ill-equipped for the digital age, DeBevoise’s teams launched pioneering entertainment and news streaming services like CBS All Access (now Paramount+) and CBSN (now CBS News streaming service), that showed broadcasters could successfully compete in a digital/streaming world. In March of 2022 he was named CEO of Brightcove. 

In this Q&A DeBevoise provides a much wider perspective on the future of the streaming industry. He argues that the recent spate of gloomy articles about major streaming companies and the industry’s persistent problems of red ink and high churn rates, obscure the fact that the industry is still big and growing, particularly in international markets. He is also bullish on some important tech trends that could help streamers do a much better job of attracting users and improving their financial prospects. 

This is a edited version of a much longer conversation: 

TV Tech: When you look at the streaming landscape, what are some of the big opportunities and challenges you see that are shaping the streaming industry and what you are focusing Brightcove? 

Marc DeBevoise: The seat I sit in today is a little different than the seat I used to sit in at CBS where I was evangelizing for a slate of content, and how we can use what were then novel ways to get that content into the consumers hands. 

Streaming is no longer novel. Streaming is now part of the fabric of everybody's lives. 

I took this job [at Brightcove] because I believe the space is in transition. In terms of a baseball analogy, I used to say we were in the early innings. Now I think we are at the middle to late innings, not the late ones yet, but fifth or sixth innings. 

And the good news is that streaming is a massive market. It is still growing. In terms of bits and bytes, 90% of global internet traffic is streaming video; 66% of total internet viewership is streaming video. That's up from 53% of your year ago. Global time spent is up 14%; the average user spends like three hours and the average U.S. user has like seven services. 

So it's set to be a $250 billion market by 2026. It is a big and growing industry. Contrary to the stories you see about the big media companies that are slowing down their investments and the whole industry is melting down and what’s going wrong, it is a big, growing industry, especially around the globe.  

There's still meaningful growth in Asia, meaningful growth in Japan, growth in Europe and in some of these other territories. So what you're seeing is the big guys got a big spike and COVID that has now slowed them down. They're not shrinking. In fact, they're still growing subscribers and they're certainly growing viewership. 

But what's happened is that the costs don't match the expenses. They over spent; they spent a lot to grow into COVID. What you're finding is that the big guys are now hitting the profit wall and Wall Street's not giving them a pass anymore on big losses. 

So, part of our thesis and strategy is that the big guys are going to have to outsource a meaningful portion of their tech stacks because they need to save money. They can't hire 1000 engineers every time they want to solve a problem. 

And they're gonna have to shrink their content library, their content investment on a yearly basis. I think that $160 billion, which was the content spend last year, is going to either flatten or come down over the next few years. 

But you have to remember that the Nielsen data says streaming is the number one media for consumption. It is now bigger than cable is bigger than broadcast. And when you at how much growth there is and how much traffic there is, one of the fastest growing spaces and one of the largest chunks is this thing that Nielsen calls "other". This category, which is everyone else [beyond the big six or seven companies] has grown 16% year over year, and it's like a meaningful portion is probably like seven or 8% of the U.S. audience. So that part is really growing. There is a big market there to service. 

And if you look globally, Netflix isn't going to run the table in every territory. That was the big fear. Now you have real local services that are going to have real impact. 

So I believe we are looking at a future that is going to be driven by dozens, if not hundreds of major services around the globe, rather than the six or seven that you read about or talk about all the time. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying YouTube and Tiktok aren't doing incredible things and that Netflix and Paramount Plus aren’t doing well. They are all going to be massive.  But the BBC is going to have a play in the UK and 131 will have one in Thailand and Coupang in South Korea and TVer in Japan and Sky in the UK as well. 

Even smaller ones, Masterclass and all the others are doing well. There are real markets for those kinds of services and they will do well. 

Another point I want to make about the market is that we think of streaming as being all about the media industry. We think about all these media companies trying to push content out to consumers. But I actually think there's an even potentially larger, if not very large market, in how enterprises use streaming video. If you look at how marketers have to reach customers today, video is one of the most efficient ways to drive purchase intent, conversion. 

And that’s not just about buying ads on television or on a streaming services. It's doing it on your own site, doing it on social media, and having a way to really manage it. Already some of the biggest marketers in the world are actually functioning almost like media companies. They are actually putting out so much content that you would think they are media companies. 

And then the last point [about growth] is what we are doing right right now. We're streaming a video to each other right now. 

One of the biggest concerns most major corporations have today is how they are going to communicate, engage with my employee base, and with my constituency base. So I think there's just a big transformation that's still ongoing there. And if you're a corporation that doesn't have a marketing strategy that includes streaming video somewhere on the outside, and a communication strategy to your employees, I think you are missing the boat. 

So there are a lot of big shifts going on and some of them are about cost savings. But at the end of the day, it is a big and growing market and you know, we still believe like I did your 10 years ago, that there are a lot of opportunities. 

TVT: Some of the financial pressures you mentioned from Wall Street have pushed a lot of companies towards free ad-supported streaming TV channels. How do you see that space developing? 

MD: We are helping our customers get there. We're a big content manager but we also have a partnership with a company called Frequency that helps us offer a soup to nuts solution for FAST channels.

I think you have to have a dual stream revenue model or hybrid ad and subscription services, as did CBS All Access/Paramount+. Many others are doing the same thing. 

The FAST channel explosion in the US has been massive but I think it's peaked [in terms of distribution]. Most of these platforms are not taking more channels, they're not adding more channels. So it's really going to be about swapping out channels from the 200 to 300 channels that are most valuable for Samsung and Roku and Pluto and the other big platforms. 

But globally, FAST has not caught fire yet. FAST channels really have limited distribution everywhere else. Pluto has done a good job of rolling out internationally. I think Roku is starting to expand internationally. I think Samsung really has done a decent job in many territories. So I think you're gonna see that distribution expand and I think you're gonna see more of those channels expand on a global basis. 

The good news is that streaming is the most valuable ad inventory out in the market today. So we see it as a growth business but more as a growth business globally in terms of distribution. 

Of course viewership is still growing pretty heavily in the U.S.

So the expansion of channels has probably slowed down but the amount of viewership is still there. People love the price point. Free is unbeatable, right? 

And I actually think that's why broadcast has survived and done pretty well, relative to what you would have thought. 

The real pain point in the industry is the decline of cable subs, and the cable networks that were wholly reliant on those fees. They're the ones really suffering. You see it in CNN, you see it in some of the broader cable networks.

TVT: Another impact of the financial pressures on streamers you mentioned earlier, has been on their interest in cost savings. How do you see that impacting the way they approach tech spending and potentially outsourcing some operations? 

MD: Right now they are spending so many resources just getting content to the different platforms that they have to reach and to all the different places where they have to have a presence, which means that they just haven't been able to spend the resource on optimizing how what they do on each platform and doing all the things they need to do to improve the viewer experience. 

We really think this is the moment for the industry to turn from tech insourcing to tech outsourcing. They need to cut costs. 

The technology we have is as good as the larger streaming services out there and we are up to scale. The scale of our traffic is larger than some of my previous employers’ overall scale of traffic because we're doing it for 3,000 customers around the globe. 

We can give you an ingest a content management system, a DRM and cataloging system, a playout and analytics tool. We can give you those things to run a full service out of the box at a much cheaper rate. We did a deal in the first quarter with the digital media company that needed to save money that I can’t name. But that deal shows that we can provide the infrastructure, soup to nuts, for large media entities.

So there's a way to save money and do things at the same scale so you can devote resources to the things that really will differentiate you, which is both content if you're a big content service, and potentially on things like targeting and ad tech.

Brightcove has hired Teresa Tang as senior vice president, head of Analytics, Data Science and Data Engineering. She takes on the position after roles at MasterClass and CBS Interactive.

In a press statement, the company said Tang is “an accomplished leader in the tech and media field, building and managing data-driven organizations.” She joins Brightcove from MasterClass where she was vice president of Analytics, Data Science and Data Engineering, and a key member of the Executive Leadership Team while helping lead MasterClass’ Series E and F funding rounds of $100M and $225M, respectively. 

Prior to that Tang held leadership positions at CBS Interactive across Business Intelligence, Analytics and Product, where she served as an advisor to the C-suites and enabled the rapid growth of the multi-billion-dollar revenue digital and streaming sector of CBS Interactive. She helped launch CBS All Access (now Paramount+), CBSN (a 24/7 global streaming news service) and CBS Sports HQ (a 24/7 sports news network).

BOSTON—Brightcove has appointed Scott Levine as senior vice president, head of product. He will oversee product management operations, partnering with the firm’s engineering, data, research, product marketing and product design groups.

Levine will be based in New York City and report to Brightcove’s Chief Executive Officer Marc DeBevoise.

Prior to joining Brightcove, Levine held several senior product and technology roles at TelevisaUnivision. Most recently, Levine was the senior vice president of Product and Technology at TelevisaUnivision , a key leader of TVUN’s OTT and DTC platforms, including building, launching and operating Vix, Vix+, Univision apps, and ecosystems. 

During his time at TVUN and predecessor Univision, Levine was also responsible for the Google Enterprise relationship, including content distribution products. He also served as senior vice president, product and technology, Univision Digital, where he was responsible for Univision’s streaming strategy and product development.

BOSTON—Former AMC executive David Beck has been appointed Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer for Brightcove, a provider of intelligent video streaming, monetization, and communications. In his new position, he will lead strategy, business development, and corporate development for the company.

Working closely with recently appointed CEO, Marc DeBevoise, Beck will be focused on developing strategies that enhance current offerings and create opportunities to expand Brightcove’s existing businesses. His broad remit will also focus on enabling Brightcove to expand into new markets and lines of business utilizing its market-leading software platform.

“We are excited to bolster our executive team with the appointment of David Beck as Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer. David is an exceptional strategist and operator with deep industry experience and a proven track record of architecting innovative strategies and initiatives for world-class companies and brands,” said Marc DeBevoise, Brightcove's Chief Executive Officer. “I’m excited to get to work with David and have him help us realize our vision and crystalize our continued growth strategy.”

Beck brings two decades of experience in strategy, operations, and business development at elite digital brands, most recently having served as the Executive Vice President, Head of Content Strategy and Business Operations at AMC. At AMC, Beck led the strategy to accelerate AMC’s streaming business model transformation, including its integrated Linear, SVOD (AMC+), and AVOD/FAST services and partnerships for B2B and DTC distribution. He also drove the modernization of its core operations across AMC, BBC America, Sundance TV, IFC, and WE TV. Prior to his time at AMC, David served as the EVP, Corporate Strategy & Operations at WarnerMedia, and Chief Strategy Officer of TNT & TBS. He is also the co-founder of advisory and investment firm BRAVE Ventures, acquired by Turner (now Warner Bros. Discovery).

“Brightcove is an innovator and trailblazer in the video communications space, and I’m both energized and honored to join the company at such an exciting time,” said Beck. “With a new CEO developing a focused vision, a fantastic team with building enthusiasm and ready to act, and a best in class technology platform to build on, I am incredibly excited to go after the opportunities ahead of us.”

BOSTON—The video streaming tech provider Brightcove Inc. has hired Marc DeBevoise as CEO and board director. 

He will assume the post on March 28, 2022, succeeding Jeff Ray, who will retire from his role as CEO and Board Director.

DeBevoise brings over 20 years of experience in technology, media, direct-to-consumer, and streaming to Brightcove. Debevoise had previously served as the chief digital officer of ViacomCBS, CEO and president of CBS Interactive, and held leadership roles at Starz and NBCUniversal

In his roles at ViacomCBS, DeBevoise led the company’s unified streaming, digital, and technology operations globally and was responsible for the company’s direct-to-consumer streaming services, many of which he led the founding of, including Paramount+/CBS All Access, CBSN, and CBS Sports HQ.

Past recognition of his pioneering work in digital and streaming media include a Tech Leadership Award from Broadcasting + Cable. 

“Marc is an impressive, talented leader who has extensive experience managing large, diverse teams and positioning them for outsized growth and innovation, '' said Deb Besemer, chairman of the Brightcove Board. “His successful tenure as CDO of ViacomCBS and CEO of CBS Interactive, responsible for developing a rapidly growing, multi-billion-dollar digital and streaming business, makes him a compelling choice to lead Brightcove. Our team and customers will benefit greatly from Marc’s experience.”

“We are still in the early days of the streaming video and device revolutions, especially in terms of enterprise adoption,” said DeBevoise. “Brightcove enables any enterprise, brand, media entity, or content creator to create and distribute content on their own terms and capture their own streaming future. There is simply no better time to be a distributed, agnostic, video platform. Brightcove is known for delivering world class scalability, security, and reliability, all requirements to deliver exceptional value to customers. I am thrilled to be joining this talented team and look forward to delivering even more innovation for our customers and their audiences.”

In announcing the hiring, Brightcove also thanked retiring Jeff Ray for his accomplishments at the company. 

“During his tenure Jeff Ray led a talented team to bring Brightcove to profitability, growth and a strong technology foundation for the future. On behalf of the board and everyone at Brightcove, we thank Jeff Ray for his leadership over the past four years and we wish him all the best in his retirement.” said Deb Besemer.

BOSTON—Brightcove had debuted its new Cloud Playout feature for its end-to-end video platform. With the addition of Cloud Playout, Brightcove says that customers can consolidate all video needs onto a single platform.

A feature of Brightcove Video Cloud, Cloud Playout enables content owners and organizations to program a scheduled playout of both on-demand video assets and live footage or events into a single stream. This provides what the company calls a “broadcast-grade live TV experience” using pre-recorded content to increase audience engagement and create new revenue opportunities.

Brightcove has announced that SXSW Online will be the first customer to utilize Cloud Playout for its conference and festivals. Other early adopters include AMC, ShudderFest, BookMyShow and others, per Brightcove.

“Since Brightcove’s inception, video innovation has been a key priority for us, and Cloud Playout demonstrates our commitment to providing our customers with the best technology and tools to help them succeed with video,” said Namita Dhallan, chief product officer of Brightcove. “Cloud Playout is the next innovation in our platform, and by enabling customers to streamline the management and playout of content within a single solution, we’re saving them the additional costs and security risks of utilizing third party apps, while still providing the scalability to reach audiences around the globe, on their schedule.”

For more information, visit www.brightcove.com.  

BOSTON—Brightcove has undergone a rebrand that the company says solidifies its mission to own the video platform conversation globally, serving as the voice on how video is hosted, shared, monetized and experienced, while achieving customers’ goals through its technology.

Brightcove says its new identity is a representation of its efforts to push the boundaries of what’s possible in video, establishing a continued dedication to help tell its customers stories. In addition, Brightcove has updated its logo, with the company describing it as a “bold new graphic identity.”

“This is a pivotal time for our industry, and the need for video will remain an anchor for brands who understand the power it can deliver to unite, engage and communicate,” said Jeff Ray, CEO of Brightcove. “Our customers represent some of the most innovative companies in the world, and we’re proud to partner with them to own the moments that matter. This brand evolution reflects who we are today, our ambitions for the future and our commitment to the companies who place video at the center of their business.”

In addition to news of the rebrand, Brightcove shared its Q3 2020 earnings, which surpassed what it says was record-setting Q2 results, with video views up 46% year-over-year and global time spent watching video having increased 47%.

For more information, visit www.brightcove.com.  

“Best of Show Up Close” is a series about nominees and winners in the annual Future Best of Show at NAB award program.

We spoke with Charles Chu, chief product officer with Brightcove, a Best of Show winner for the Brightcove Live platform.

TV Technology:How is the integration of Ooyala into Brightcove going after the acquisition earlier this year?

Charles Chu: The Brightcove team is hard at work integrating Ooyala’s OVP technology into the Brightcove platform to create one unified platform for all customers. At our recent event, PLAY, we were thrilled to meet and hear stories from customers that were previously of Ooyala. We have a migration plan in place and are working diligently with each customer to move them when the time fits their schedule. Brightcove was the leading OVP before, but adding in aspects of Ooyala’s OVP technology, we have solidified our position.

TVT:What is it about Brightcove Live that sets it apart from similar offerings?

CC: The award-winning Brightcove Live solution enables broadcasters, publishers, brands and enterprises to deliver and monetize live video at a low cost with the flexibility to scale with business needs. Brightcove Live is a broadcast-grade, cloud-based live-streaming solution with broad device reach and integrated monetization capabilities using server-side ad insertion (SSAI). Broadcasters, publishers and brands alike can originate live events using Brightcove’s globally-distributed architecture, and deliver a high-quality experience to viewers with minimal delay across multiple platforms and devices. What sets Brightcove apart from the rest is the launch of new features to meet the needs of our customers. This most recently includes:

• Secure Reliable Transport (SRT): Support for live stream ingest via the SRT protocol, enabling forward error correction and the robust low-latency delivery of live broadcasts over unpredictable and challenging network conditions.

• Transport Stream (TS) Input Interface: Allows broadcasters that are delivering live streams over the internet the flexibility to send a broadcast native MPEG2-TS stream to Brightcove Live without having to convert to digital RTMP format while eliminating the need for costly onsite encoders. By accepting MPEG2-TS, Brightcove Live can detect SCTE-35 ad markers, replacing the linear ads with digital ads across devices using SSAI.

• Real Time Media Protocol (RTMP) Output Interface: Allows users to expand audience reach by pushing streams to other RTMP entry points with the flexibility to turn them on and off during the event. This enables a simplified workflow with maximum stability and minimal risk to deliver live video to multiple locations.

• Live to Social: Brightcove Live events can now be streamed to Facebook simultaneously via the Brightcove Studio and will soon be available for YouTube. Live to Social enables users to grow and retain viewers by live streaming content to existing audiences in social communities.

TVT:What does it cost? Is it available?

CC: Brightcove works with a wide range of customers, our pricing is dependent on the scale of the event and support needed. Brightcove Live is always always evolving to incorporate the latest features and functionality our customers need. The recent enhancements are live and being deployed to customers of all sizes and segments around the world, with the latest features going live in Q1 of 2019.

TVT:What else should we know about Brightcove Live or Brightcove in general?

CC: Brightcove works with customers in more than 70 countries representing many different market segments including global media companies, regional broadcasters, publishers, brands and enterprises. Anticipating our customer's needs is key, and that is why Brightcove has a robust product roadmap related to our live offering and features, and functionality will continue to become available over the coming months. We continue to improve upon our award-winning solution to provide our customers with features that meet and exceed their needs. 

LAS VEGAS—If you’re not able to make it to the 2019 NAB Show, you can have the next best thing by accessing a live stream of a number of programs. To handle this responsibility, NAB has once again tapped Brightcove as its live streaming partner.

In addition to managing the live-streamed programs, Brightcove will also publish content directly to its social channels in real time and make content available on-demand after the show.

“NAB Show is the premier event for our industry and we are thrilled to be the live-streaming technology of choice for the eighth year in a row,” said Charles Chu, chief product officer for Brightcove. “We love working alongside the NAB Show to deliver viewers an exceptional live-streamed experience that makes them feel as though they are right in the action.”

Brightcove will also be at the show as an exhibitor, booth SU1920, and with representatives taking part in multiple industry panels throughout the show.

The 2019 NAB Show runs from April 6-11 in Las Vegas.

BOSTON—Brightcove, a cloud services provider for video, is entering into a definitive agreement that will see the company acquire cloud video technology Ooyala’s online video platform business.

The acquisition will have Brightcove taking on Ooyala’s OVP technology, which includes the video content management and publishing platform Backlot, as well as other platforms Analytics, Live and Ooyala’s underlying IP and associated patents. Brightcove will also acquire parts of Ooyala’s engineering, support and sales staff, including all of the company’s Guadalajera, Mexico, operations. Per the press release, Brightcove also intends to take on all global customer, reseller and partner relationships that are part of the OVP business.

Brightcove is expected to integrate aspects of Ooyala’s technology into Brightcove’s online video platform to boost its global offerings for customers.

This acquisition comes about four months after Ooyala management bought itself out from Telestra. Telestra had owned Ooyala since 2014, but earlier in 2018 said that the acquisition of Ooyala had resulted in more than $500 million in write-downs, and that as of last February it valued its investment with Ooyala at zero.

The deal is for a reported value of $15 million.

“This transaction, which includes immediately growing our highly skilled and committed global workforce, accelerates our ability to deliver faster innovation and deeper support for all customers,” said Jeff Ray, Brightcove CEO.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

BOSTON—Brightcove users now have the change to access a beta version of its new Context Aware Encoding video compression technology that is designed to improve video quality. Using machine learning and deep video analysis, the platform aims to maximize visual quality while reducing storage and delivery bandwidth requirements by up to 50 percent.

Context Aware Encoding analyzes individual videos and optimizes them for the target device and bandwidth profiles. Video parameters like resolution and framerate are optimized, as well as codec parameters like bitrate, codec profile and level, to create the appropriate adaptive bitrate ladder.

This new technology also creates a custom encoding profile that is configured to the combination of individual videos’ content complexity and viewing environment. Brightcove has also reduced the number of renditions created and provides automatic adjustment for the bitrates to provide savings on storage and bandwidth.

Current Brightcove Video Cloud customers can participate in the Context Aware Encoding beta program through Brightcove.

BOSTON—Cloud video services company Brightcove has launched its new live video platform, Brightcove Live.

The API-driven platform augments scalable live-streaming with server-side ad insertion (SSAI), cloud DVR, content encryption, on-the-fly clipping, and VoD asset creation.

The platform has already been tested by Australia’s Seven West Media before it’s been brought to market. The company tested Brightcove Live for the purpose of workflow improvement using the Live-to-VoD feature. It was able to stream action from 16 different courts within an hour of each match’s completion and publish more than 400 clips, such as interviews with the players and match highlights.

Brightcove Live integrates with Video Cloud to leverage Video Cloud’s best-in-class tools for monetisation and analytics and its rich ecosystem of broadcast and publishing technology partners.

“With Brightcove Live, we’re directly addressing problems facing publishers and broadcasters today – how to deliver and monetise live events and linear channels using simple but flexible tools, without breaking the bank,” said Anil Jain, executive vice president and general manager of media at Brightcove.

“We continue to invest heavily in innovation and Brightcove Live is the type of advancement that provides our customers with the performance and efficiency they need in a highly competitive marketplace.”

 This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe.