IP Democracy: Brightcove is Shaking Up the Media, Online Establishment

The Wall Street Journal fronts above-the-fold this extensive piece on online video, but the real focus of the article, written by Peter Grant, is Cambridge, MA-based start-up Brightcove. Brightcove enables a lot of self-publishing of video, a radical shift in both the entertainment and Internet worlds.

Even in its early days, this business model represents a challenge to the media industry, and an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Once, producers of films, TV shows and video material relied on other big companies — broadcast networks, cable systems — to get shows in front of an audience. Now, these new forms of distribution could turn anyone into a producer with a nearly endless array of possible outlets. “In the past, content owners had to rely on gatekeepers like cable companies to get to consumers,” says Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove’s founder, a 34-year-old serial entrepreneur who doubled the value of his baseball-card business when he was a teenager. “Now they don’t have to do that.”

CBS, which has been aggressive in experimenting with video distribution on the web, is purportedly eyeing a deal with Brightcove, following in the footsteps of Reuters and a host of cable networks. (Disclosure: We’re developing a video channel using Brightcove over at IP Media Monitor.)

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 21, 2006 9:45 AM to IP Democracy