The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a short story about Cambridge, MA based Brightcove getting a next round of funding (now totaling $99M from VCs.) The leading web based video distribution company needed to re-fill the coffers as they seek to complete their infrastructure build-out, in its effort to become the video "utility" for the next decade.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

In the article, the point was made by investment partner Jim Breyer (Accel) that, "video as a ‘data-type’ is still in its infancy." And, the fact that the company still manages to attract this side of $100M in a down economy speaks volumes of the disruption potential this particular "data-type" can have on the economy.

Consider the voice / music transition from analog to "data-type" not too long ago-and it’s not much of a stretch to see how everything is up for grabs as the more bandwidth intense video goes through a similar metamorphosis.

However, it is not just more of the same for Brightcove, in the form of e-commerce video initiatives, training and webinar video that has been the bread and butter for this start-up. One look at the Brightcove web site shows the direction the company and the industry is heading. In its tag line: "Publish, Distribute and Monetize Web video…for the iPad and other Apple Devices." Brightcove seems to be betting on the video (data-type) capabilities of the new "must-have" device to drive adoption to its video platform and suite of solutions. With 100K app downloads in the first weekend iPad started selling, that is not a bad direction to move.

But we think this is simply the low hanging fruit for Brightcove as this initiative is part of a larger trend in the industry - video to any display, any time. To help get there the company is using HTML5 (that goes beyond plug-in based players like Flash and JavaFX.) The HTML5 standard, which is still in draft mode, looks to seamlessly bring video to any display - from small handheld’s to your 50-inch living room flat screen, all via the web.

The video data-type is here and changing everything and companies like Brightcove are developing the tools to auto detect, and dynamically switch between video players that optimize video for the display. But the competition is heating up. The WSJ also reported that Google’s recent purchase of Brightcove rival Episodic Inc., shows more than just casual interest in this space by the web services giant. The company bills itself as "The Most Complete Online Video Platform" for video content on the web. Another well-funded ($20M) start-up is Mountain View, CA based Ooyala ("cradle" in Telugu a So. Indian language) with its own iPad and secure video solutions for web video distribution.

So get ready for everything to change again as we are privy to witness the universe move as cable and ADSL Internet service providers see their traditional video services (cable TV et al.) become cannibalized through access to the web backbone. Like the caterpillar that transforms into the butterfly, they are undergoing their own metamorphosis willingly or not. - Steve Sechrist