This past month at Streaming Media East in New York City, Brightcove announced a partnership with video ad management and monetization company FreeWheel to bring the first HTML5 video advertising solution for the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The new solution combines Brightcove's support for HTML5 video, including intelligent device detection, playlist rendering and playback of H.264 encoded video content, with FreeWheel's Monetization Rights Management (MRM) product to automatically push of HTML5-compatible, contextual advertising content into the Brightcove player experience.I spoke with Jeff Whatcott, SVP of Marketing at Brightcove, who demonstrated the new HTML5 video advertising solution, available to Brightcove and FreeWheel customers in June 2010. Whatcott expanded on the new offerings announced at Streaming Media East in a post on Brightcove blog, "Solving the Online Video Monetization Puzzle," which also included expanded support for VAST 2.0 and VPAID IAB advertising standards. He summed up these product innovations and ongoing investments as important pieces to a broader monetization puzzle, which involves questions of strategy, content and audience.
In an article on USAToday, "Apple-Adobe Flash feud helps video solutions companies," Whatcott noted that the video format war has been "really great for business," and has pushed companies like his to innovate solutions for the iPad. He added that, "our customers want their sites to be seen by everyone now, not later."
Brightcove Chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a press release announcing the new solution and partnership with FreeWheel:
"While we have seen tremendous interest from our customers in rolling out HTML5 video experiences, the ability to effectively monetize the content has been hurdle for early adopters. Together with FreeWheel, we are committed to helping these customers extend their ad-supported strategies to every screen and capitalize on the fast-growing audiences using HTML5 devices."
Doug Knopper, co-founder and co-CEO of FreeWheel added:
"It's clear that HTML5 will become a pervasive standard for Web video and we are excited to partner with companies like Brightcove to bring this advertising solution to our clients."Brightcove's online video platform is used by major publishers like The New York Times, the Discovery Channel, A&E and Sony Pictures, and offers publishers a way to publish video across the web, mobile and connected TV platforms. FreeWheel's clients include Turner Broadcasting (TBS, CNN, TNT), the Discovery Channel, Major League Baseball and CBS.
Both companies are privately held and each recently raised new rounds of funding in April 2010. FreeWheel raised $16.8 million from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and existing investors, Turner Broadcasting System, Battery Ventures, and Foundation Capital bringing the company’s total funding close to $30 million. Brightcove raised $12 million in a fourth round of funding bringing their total funding to more than $100 million, and according to PaidContent.org has been talking about an IPO as soon as next year.
About Brightcove
Brightcove is a cloud-based online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video on the Web. Founded in 2004, Brightcove has offices across North America, Europe and Asia and customers in 42 countries. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel offers the most formidable system for digital video ad management and monetization. Built from the ground up by a handful of former DoubleClick executives, FreeWheel's solution-set has already armed companies like Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Brothers, CBS, VEVO, Discovery Communications, and others with the tools and services necessary to make more money from their video content. For more information, please visit: http://www.freewheel.tv/. Follow the company on Twitter @FreeWheeldotTV.
Also, see Beet.TV's interview with Jeff Whatcott from Streaming Media East here: Brightcove and FreeWheel to Enable Video Advertising on the Apple iPad
