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May 15, 2013

When Life is On Demand

By Peter B. Counter, TMCnet Contributing Writer

Full adopters of on-demand video streaming for all of their entertainment needs have had a gaping hole in their chosen service. Yes, there is a wonderful freedom in having cloud-based video on multiple devices, letting a user watch what she wants, when she wants, where she wants, but that freedom is taking its toll on cable networks. The one saving grace so far seems to be with live coverage of events such as sports or award ceremonies.



Brightcove, an innovator of cloud-based solutions, is closing that live entertainment hole with its new Brightcove Video Cloud Live offering. Supplying its customers with the means of encoding live material and providing video in real time from the same distribution platform that clients already use, Brightcove is committed to a future in which the streaming of live events resides everywhere from the palm of your hand to your Internet-connected television.

The live streaming solution doesn’t just run through the customer’s existing distribution platform but also offers the same analytic options from which other on-demand video benefits. That said, the entire advantage rests in the ability of the audience to choose the time of viewing. Analytics or no, if a target demographic isn’t available to watch a hockey game at 7:00, then they simply don’t watch it. Brightcove is aware of this demand as well, and as a result the Video Cloud Live offers customers the ability to repackage the entire event into an on-demand form immediately after the game or ceremony is finished.

Brightcove Video Cloud Live also comes with a wide range of ways to monetize this service. From the ability to provide ad bumpers, to watermarks and pre-rolls, customers have a slew of revenue-generating tools at their disposal, not to mention real-time analytics.

Services like this aren’t only being offered by Brightcove; there is competition on the market. Comcast specifically has its hand in live streaming video, announcing its SaaS solution, thePlatform (News - Alert), last week. It makes sense too. With big names in sports broadcasting like ESPN lobbying for data cap exemptions, even the networks that are traditionally slow on the uptake, even if not directly opposed to on-demand services, think this is an idea worth pulling for.




Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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