Brightcove drops free services

Brightcove is officially out of the free online video market as of Dec. 17, according to correspondence sent to customers Monday. Its free video hosting network, which attempted to monetize videos through an ad-supported model, will be shut down in December along with the Brightcove.tv site.

The service launched in 2006, but failed to generate significant revenue for Brightcove, which said the revenue from the ad-supported video network never exceeded 1 percent of total income. On the other hand, Brightcove's pay hosted video network has helped the company gross significant revenues, and its recently-released latest iteration, Brightcove 3, is now in use on big media sites like the New York Times, the Discovery Channel, and the Wall Street Journal.

But Benjamin Wayne, CEO of Fliqz, a white-label online video company targeting small businesses, felt the move by Brightcove left some loyal customers out in the cold.

"Brightcove drops this notice on them, who've they've trusted with their content, and Brightcove doesn't offer any transition plan for small companies to move their video assets, except to start paying $1,000 a month for the Brightcove player," Wayne said. "As a company committed to serving the same customers Brightcove just cut loose, Fliqz realizes no free site is going to work long-term. But you can do it cost-effectively, and at a price point that works for smaller companies."

A release from Adam Berrey, SVP of Marketing and Strategy for Brightcove, said Brightcove's core business model would not be affected by the closing of the free hosting site. Brightcove public relations staff asserted that a transition model is indeed in the works for customers to transfer their metadata and video assets, should they choose to change services and not upgrade to Brightcove 3. These capabilities should be available by Dec. 1, according to company sources.

"The decision to shutter the free Network and Brightcove.TV is simply a matter of focus and priorities, which again are our SaaS platform product," Berrey said.

The company stated that the Brightcove 3 Basic package would cost small businesses four figures annually, slightly lower than Wayne's estimate of Brightcove's fee for the service. The statement said Brightcove is on the path to profitability, does not anticipate needing to raise more capital (it has already banked $91 million), and has tripled revenue in 2008. 

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