VUDU Inc., a leading provider of digital technologies and services that deliver Internet entertainment to consumers’ HDTVs and Home Theaters, and Brightcove, the leading online video platform, today announced a partnership to enable Brightcove customers to distribute their content directly to the living room television via VUDU. The first feature available in the VUDU Labs area of the VUDU service will be the MyPlay application, which offers current Sony Music videos through Sony Music’s MyPlay Video Network affiliate program.
VUDU, Brightcove Partner to Deliver Ad Supported Content to Set Top Box
VUDU’s partnership with Brightcove supports multiple advertising platforms, allowing Brightcove customers to maintain their existing online video monetization strategy and infrastructure while expanding their distribution reach to the television. VUDU is the first partner to support Brightcove-powered, ad-supported content distribution on a set-top-box.
“For the first time, content owners can simply and easily make all of their online video available on the television without changing their monetization strategy,” said Edward Lichty, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Content for VUDU. “Through our integration with Brightcove’s online video platform, we are combining the selection and control of the online video experience with the visual richness and lean-back satisfaction of the television experience. Once again, we are increasing the value of the VUDU platform for our partners and our users.”
“Expanding online video distribution beyond websites to the living room television has been challenging,” said Chris Johnston, Director of Technology Partnership at Brightcove. “The partnership announced today with VUDU is a significant step forward for media businesses that want to centrally manage distribution and monetization across the Web while also taking advantage of the high-quality TV experience VUDU enables.”
The integration with Brightcove utilizes VUDU’s Rich Internet Applications (RIA) platform to add a new level of on-demand video to the VUDU service by enabling ad-supported content. RIA enables VUDU to support dynamic ad logic and live ad calls to content owners’ existing advertising platforms. Content owners retain complete control over their advertising inventory.
About VUDU:
VUDU is a leading provider of digital technologies and services that deliver entertainment to consumers’ HDTVs and Home Theaters. The VUDU service is designed to deliver tens of thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows directly to HDTVs. The VUDU service is currently available on VUDU’s 1080p Movie Players, the VUDU BX100, VUDU XL and VUDU XL2. All versions support native instant start HD as well as HDX, the highest picture quality for on-demand content available anywhere, and automatically upscale standard resolution movies. All movies are displayed in 1080p resolution at 24 frames per second, the cinematic gold standard. The VUDU BX100 movie player is currently available at Best Buy and online for only $149.
Through relationships with every major US movie studio and more than 50 independent studios and distributors, VUDU offers a vast array of on-demand choices at the highest quality. VUDU offers a library of more than 15,000 movies and TV episodes, including the largest HD library anywhere with over 1,800 movies currently available. The VUDU collection is constantly updated, and newly released movies from major studios are available on the same day as the DVD is released. Consumers can finally watch great movies without the hassles associated with traditional services:–no driving, no mailing, and no monthly fee.
Introduced in late 2008, VUDU’s RIA is a standards-based platform that makes Web-hosted rich applications and services easily accessible through the VUDU Labs area of the VUDU service. Consumers can now use the VUDU remote control to access their favorite Internet content in their living rooms, optimized for display on their HDTVs. Current RIA applications available on VUDU Labs include YouTube, Pandora, Picasa, Flickr and over 120 channels of free online video. Combining the openness and ease of development of Web applications and a lean-back user experience optimized for television, VUDU RIA will be opening to developers later in 2009.
About Brightcove:
Brightcove is an online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video on the Web. Founded in 2004, Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with offices across North America, Europe and Asia.
