To make it easier for small Web publishers to host videos on their sites, Cambridge, MA-based Brightcove will announce today that it is rolling out an “Express Edition” service starting at $99 per month.
The company’s previous lowest-end offering cost several hundred dollars per month. At the new $99 monthly level—which doesn’t require a monthly contract, as previous Brightcove packages did—users can store up to 50 videos on Brightcove’s servers and use up to 40 gigabytes of download bandwidth. (For $199 per month, they can store 200 videos and use 100 gigabytes of bandwidth; $499 per month will get them space for 500 videos and 250 gigabytes of bandwidth.)
“Nearly every sector of industry and society is embracing online video for marketing, education, and communications, so there is a huge opportunity” for a cheaper video hosting service, says Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove’s senior vice president of marketing. “Based on the research we’ve done and the demand we’ve seen from organizations of all sizes and scope over the past year, we’re confident Brightcove Express will be a success.”
Brightcove argues that free video-sharing sites like YouTube aren’t adequate for serious publishers because they limit videos to 10 minutes or less and don’t allow live streaming or control over advertising.
The Express Edition pricing is part of the new Brightcove 4 video platform being introduced today, just 13 months after the company rolled out its Brightcove 3 service. In recognition of the growing number of devices that consumers use to access video, the platform includes improvements such as support for developers who want to build video-driven iPhone applications.
