Thursday, July 3, 2008

Web video companies aim for user-friendly apps

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

As video applications proliferate on the Internet and in enterprises, users are demanding more from their rich media experiences. This has sent marketers, publishers and application developers scrambling to simplify the creation and deployment of such features and make them more self-service in nature.

Over the past few weeks, the region’s two major independent video platform developers — Waltham-based PermissionTV Inc. and Cambridge-based Brightcove Inc. — have announced products aimed at making Internet video easier for website publishers, taking advantage of the user trend.

Two weeks ago, Brightcove announced its next-generation platform, Brightcove 3, aimed at making it easier for media firms — the company’s core customer base — to integrate long-form videos into their online presence. The platform includes an application program interface (API) that allows publishers and marketers to add their own features from other parts of their site into the video feed. The platform is still in a closed beta test, with a handful of existing customers, including Lifetime Networks and Showtime Networks, using it, according to officials.

“Video has become a fundamental part of the web, so we’re seeing all kinds of customers trying to integrate video into their site,” said Adam Berrey, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at Brightcove. Brightcove 3 should be available in the fall.

PermissionTV last week launched what it calls a “platform development kit,” aimed at marketing agencies. The platform, like Brightcove’s, includes an API, as well as an online “solutions hub” that provides publishers with ideas regarding what may be possible. The plan, said officials, is not only to make video easier, but also to spur adoption among websites that have not yet integrated a video offering.

“Our clients are very interested in pushing the limits of the video experience and what they can do with interactive sites,” said Matt Kaplan, vice president of creative and client services at PermissionTV. “They know they can include video on their site, but now they are asking, ‘What can we do with it?’”

Both companies say the idea behind the new features is to simplify the use of video online and provide platform users — media companies, publishers, marketing agencies or enterprises — with the tools to personalize their content.
While both companies have well-established roots in the industry, the greater adoption of video is presenting opportunities for upstarts, as well.

Greg Dracon, a principal at Boston-based .406 Ventures who recently invested in New York-based open-source video publishing platform maker Kaltura Inc., said that while the Brightcoves of the world spurred a wave of investment and brought Web video to the public, there is a second wave of interest in the industry as its use proliferates.

“There are millions of websites out there that don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get video on their site,” he said.