When Jeremy Allaire founded Internet TV technology provider Brightcove three years ago, he made a conscious choice to pursue print publications as customers for his Web video service.
That decision to go after newspapers and magazines, which are in the midst of a massive transition as the Internet wreaks havoc on their business models, has paid off.
The company has signed about 80 percent of national newspaper and magazine publishers, including Meredith, the New York Times Co., Dow Jones, Washington Post-Newsweek, Time Inc. and Hearst Newspapers, Mr. Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, said in his keynote speech at last week’s New Video Summit in Boston. (TelevisionWeek is a Brightcove client.)
“The New York Times was one of our first partners. The traditional print industry is suffering from a diminishing base and they have to seek new revenue streams to make up for that and contribute to growth,” he explained. “Online in general is a place where they are looking to do that, and now [with video] they can compete for TV advertising dollars. … Everyone is going after that $70 billion in TV ad spend, and to get that, you need rich media products.”
When Mr. Allaire first approached broadcast and cable networks more than two years ago, they weren’t interested in doing business. “We were knocking on doors and they were just being shut by people who owned the rights to the most meaningful content, anything being broadcast on-air,” he recounted.
But then came Apple’s video iPod, and that changed everything.
Today Brightcove counts more than 40 TV network customers, including Discovery, The N, National Geographic Channel, Speed Channel and Lifetime.
“The video iPod drove a lot of people to say, ‘We can clear rights,’ and the distribution of cable channels made the cable guys kind of flip the finger to the cable operators, and that started to open things up,” Mr. Allaire said. “Then the dramatic rise in piracy through YouTube and people said, ‘OK, if we are doing this ourselves, we are going to get ripped off.’”