Brightcove enters UK online video market

Brightcove, the US internet television system provider, has launched in the UK to take advantage of the spiralling demand for online video in the country.

Unlike Joost and Babelgum, which aggregate online video content under their own portals, Brightcove provides the system by which major media companies can launch their own internet TV services. The company is working with the music company Sony BMG, Emap's Heat magazine and IPC Media's Nuts unit to launch internet TV under those brands. It has also signed up Hachette Filipacchi, the women's magazine publisher behindElle.

The company plans to open an office in Soho and will use the UK, where online video usage is outpacing the US, as a platform to enter Europe and has high expectations for growth in the region. Comscore, a research company, said during April 80 per cent of UK internet users over the age of 15 watched a video online. The online video market has taken off rapidly on the back of faster broadband speeds and the advent of user-generated content. With sites such as YouTube, the online video portal, raising the profile of online video, major content producers like Emap are keen to tailor more content for web users to capture lucrative online advertising revenue.

Brightcove is backed by AOL Time Warner, The New York Times and The Hearst Corporation, among others, and raised $60m (£30m) this year to fund an expansion into Europe. The company was founded in 2004 in Massachusetts, and works with media companies including Dow Jones, CBS, Discovery Communications, MTV and Fox Entertainment Group in the US.

Adam Berrey, a marketing and strategy director at Brightcove, said that aggregators like Joost and YouTube have played a key role in promoting online video usage, but that major media companies want to launch their own branded services to control their content and get access to advertising revenue.