Fox + Brightcove = True

Today we’re seeing another alliance between an online TV company and a content giant. Internet TV service Brightcove has signed to become the online video platform for Fox Entertainment Group.

Under the pact, the Fox broadcast net, FX and Speed have already started programming and hosting ad-supported Internet video channels with Brightcove technology, Variety’s Michael Schneider reports: “When you look at the Big Four broadcast networks, none of them have singularly adopted an Internet TV platform — Fox is the first,” Adam Berry, VP of marketing and advertising at Brightcove, says to Variety. “This signifies the way Internet TV is moving into the mainstream.”

Fox Entertainment Group (carrying Fox, FX, and SPEED) will be hosting targeted, ad-supported content on Brightcove, which will then allow users to share and embed that content wherever they please. The partnership also allows Fox to syndicate its content through affiliates’ websites as well as social networks, ArsTechnica’s Jacqui Cheng writes.

At PodTech we know that this is only the beginning. In a near future we will see many, many merges and deals in this area. Online video platforms will marry TV channels and movie studios as well as online advertising producers. But – to stay in the present – whats special with Brightcove?

According to Jacqui Cheng Brightcove is akin to a YouTube for major content providers in that it allows them to make content available via a web page, and syndicate it through other sites. “Unlike YouTube, Brightcove allows its partners to choose whether or not their content can be embedded by users, and allows the providers to plant advertising in their videos,” Cheng writes. At Beet.TV Andy Plesser writes that the significant thing is the incorporation of the Brightcove platform, which means that Fox videos can be shared and posted on other site by providing an shareable imbed code.
TechCruch‘s Duncan Riley adds that Brightcove has existing agreements with CBS, Discovery, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Showtime, Rainbow Media, Buena Vista TV, Dow Jones, BSkyB and the New York Times, although none so far have been exclusive as this new deal is said to be.

There’s quiet some buzz around this news today. However at HipMojo Frooch doesn’t get it: “So I rate this move as a small step forward, but one that News Corp will probably come to regret,” he writes adding that News Corp was miffed on not buying YouTube when it sold to Google: “I think partnering with Brightcove is doing it halfway and in fact creating a headache down the road”.

We’ll see about that. Whats interesting is that Fox’s action is a way is a statement that Internet video represents the future of television.

By Tina Magnergard Bjers and John Furrier