Brightcove Takes on YouTube; Bows Ad, Syndication Networks

Online video solutions firm Brightcove on Monday launched a consumer-destination site in an effort to compete with video-sharing sites such as YouTube, as well as an advertising network and syndication.

Check it here.

The WSJ reports:

The Brightcove Network  has been in test mode for months and already is being used by media and  entertainment companies such as Reuters  Group PLC, Viacom  Inc.'s MTV Networks, and Dow  Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Until now, only  content owners selected by Brightcove could use the network. Now any media company or  professional video-content owner will be able to launch a Web video channel at  Brightcove. Web sites looking for video can then see what is available at the  Brightcove marketplace. The content owner, Brightcove and the Web sites would  then share revenue generated from ad sales and sales of the  videos.

Brightcove's launch  comes as programmers and Internet companies are scrambling to figure out how to  make money from the millions of movies, TV programs and other videos flooding  the Internet. Earlier this month, search titan Google  Inc. agreed to buy YouTube Inc., the video Web site that attracts the most  visitors, for $1.65 billion. Analysts who have been briefed on the Brightcove  Network say it has little chance of catching up with YouTube as a consumer  destination. Also, other sites, such as Revver Inc. and Maven Networks Inc.,  offer Web distribution tools to video owners.

Brightcove also is  launching a consumer site, brightcove.com, today that will initially have  hundreds of thousands of videos provided by its 1,000 or so programming  partners. The site will have a search engine that will enable users to troll the  Internet for other videos. Brightcove also will give Web-site owners the  technological tools to solicit videos from their users, a form of content made  popular by YouTube and similar  sites.

Video owners who post  their content on Brightcove will be able to insert their own ads or ads sold by  Brightcove's sales force. Brightcove also has distribution deals with other  video Web services, including AOL Video, Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Video Search and  blinkx, so content owners posting on Brightcove can opt to have their videos  linked to those  services.