COVID-19 has quickly swept through our socio-economic footprint and impacted individuals, families, communities, and businesses around the world. Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the virus. Our team has spent a great deal of time preparing for the weeks and months ahead with a laser focus on our customers, partners, and employees.

We know the critical role that Brightcove video plays every day in organizations, from communication to employees, to the delivery of critical news to customers around the globe, and everything in between. We have taken several measures to ensure that the COVID-19 crisis does not impact the experience with Brightcove’s platform or services. Below are the ways in which we have taken action and these will continue to evolve as required. 

Safety of Employees
Our number one priority is the health and safety of our employees around the globe. To that measure, we have:

• Abided by guidelines/travel restrictions: All of our global offices are adhering to guidelines and best practices from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other global health organizations.
• Ability to work from remote locations: Many teams at Brightcove have worked remotely from all corners of the globe, for over a decade. This practice has enabled us to provide you with world-class service even in a time of social distancing.
• Next Steps: A cross-functional team within Brightcove is closely monitoring all aspects of the pandemic and will take prudent, agile, and swift action necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and the continuity of service. We are committed to doing our part to minimize the spread of COVID-19 while ensuring service continuity for you.

Continuity of Service:
We are committed to ensuring that our technology continues to support the needs of your organization.  We will continue to focus on:

• Infrastructure: All Brightcove products are built upon a highly reliable commercial cloud infrastructure and delivered through a variety of content delivery networks (CDNs). 
• Flexibility:  As with any best-in-class SaaS organization, we are able to perform all systems monitoring and product development remotely.  
• Global Presence: Our R&D and Support teams are globally dispersed and able to provide you with around the clock access. Though geographically dispersed, we are one global, highly coordinated team, dedicated to supporting your business needs.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our global Technical Support team via our Support Portal: https://supportportal.brightcove.com

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Sports programming has always been seen as the last bastion of broadcasters and pay-TV operators in their running battle with streaming; it was content that could help them maintain their footing as more consumers turned to over-the-top delivery of their movies, news and episodic TV.

But that’s changing as more sports leagues, sports teams and sporting figures have discovered what everyone else knows: If you want to reach a larger audience — and to keep the one you have — you need to go over the top and be available on any device, anywhere and at any time.

And, just as streaming providers and content owners have learned that insights driven by data is crucial to their growth, so too has the sporting world.

OTT sports usage data is a part of Brightcove’s Global Video Index for the first time in Q3 2019. Sports will be a part of future Video Indexes moving forward, as we analyze hundreds of millions of data points for insights into how viewers are watching, what devices they are watching on and what kind of content they’re consuming.

Sports audiences take to OTT

A recent study from USC’s Annenberg School for Communications found that 78% of self-described “intense sports fans” who would pay for a sports-specific channel, would be willing to pay more for a sports streaming channel.

And, as we found in the Q3 2019 Global Video Index , they watch on every device in — and out — of the home.

More than half (54%) of sports content views begin on smartphones globally, that’s up 49% from a year ago. Connected TVs (CTV), meanwhile, saw a 312% increase in views over-the-top, with the highest completion rates of any device.

Some sports findings:

·   In North America, connected TVs saw sports video views increase 730%, with computers (58%) used most often to view sports content.

·   In Australia/New Zealand, CTV views were up 188%, followed closely by smartphone views (+135%). Smartphone’s share of views was highest at 68%.

·   The Asia-Pacific region saw sports consumed most often on mobile devices (61%) but saw the highest completion rates on computers (61%).

·   In Europe, smartphones ruled, with 71% of sports video views starting there. Y/Y views increased 71% on smartphones and fell 43% on computers.

·   Japan/Korea, meanwhile, saw most sports views on smartphones (56%), with the highest growth in terms of views (+124%) also occurring on smartphones. Completion rates were highest on computers and tablets.

Mobile remains a ‘growth industry’

As 5G begins to deploy globally (Ericsson’s Mobility Report expects 2.6 billion 5G mobile connections by 2025) consumers will gradually see speed increases and use more data than ever before. Ericsson expects consumers to use 24 GB of data a month, compared to 7.2 GB today, with about half being video.

In Q3, we saw mobile’s share of video views increase to 62%, with computers trailing at 38%, a significant increase from a year ago, and even last quarter.

Smartphones saw more than half (52%) of all video views, up from 41% a year ago. It was the first time that video views on smartphones alone had the majority of share. The number of video views increased on every device but computers, showing that the migration of online streaming video from its original “home” was accelerating.

The number of views on smartphones increased in every region, with Y/Y gains from a low of 6% (North America) to a high of 33% (Middle East/Africa).

APAC (77%) and Middle East/Africa (60%) saw the highest percentage of video views on smartphones.

We expect the share of video views on smartphones to continue as consumers, in emerging markets especially, use smartphones as their primary screen.

Along the way…

The dominance of iOS continues to wane as more Android phones – especially more affordable models from China — continue to flood emerging markets.

Four markets remain solidly Android-based. Asia-Pacific is at an all-time high of 90% Android share, followed by Middle East/Africa (81%), Latin America (81%) and Europe (72%).

Continuing a trend, long-form video (21-40 mins.) and ultra-long-form video (41+ mins.) continued to see growth on all devices but computers, which slipped slightly.

Smartphones continue to see a large number of long-form (21-40 minutes) and ultra-long-form (41+ minutes) starts, 64% and 55% respectively. But, virtually every content length saw significant growth on all devices.

Interested in learning more about the latest video streaming trends? Download the full report .

The Brightcove Global Video Index reflects the anonymized, aggregated, online video metrics of Brightcove customers.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Webinars can be a powerful video marketing tool for gaining new leads and engaging with your current customers. But setting up your first webinar may seem a little overwhelming. After all, you have to coordinate a lot of moving parts to ensure your live event goes off without a hitch.

Not sure where to begin? Have no fear! We pulled together some tips and tricks on every step you’ll need to take to host a successful webinar — from technical admin to promotion to follow ups.

1. Nail down the logistics

First things first: Define the who, what, when, where and why behind your webinar. In particular, this means figuring out the following:

• The topic: What type of content will your webinar cover? Will it be associated with any of your current or future marketing campaigns?

• The speaker(s): Will you be presenting your webinar alone or will you host an interview-style discussion?

• The date: When will the webinar take place? PRO TIP: Make sure the date works for all involved parties and builds in enough time for you to promote effectively.

• The platform(s): What platform will you use to collect registrations? How will you host the live event? PRO TIP: Consider tying a third-party registration form to a landing page that your team creates on your own site — instead of using the standard landing page that services like GoToWebinar or Zoom provide. Doing so will enable you to create a unique registration experience that matches your brand style.

2. Coordinate as a team

Once you’ve finalized the above, it’s time to get to work! Set up a kickoff meeting with all the parties involved. This likely includes the presenter(s), stakeholder(s) and individuals who will be creating and distributing all of the promotional assets (such as writers, designers, developers and the marketing ops team). During the kickoff, make sure that everyone’s aligned on the topic and timeline. And then work together to define the best promotional strategy and messaging. 

PRO TIP: A mix of promotions is best to ensure you’re getting the word out to the largest audience possible. Consider leveraging social posts, email campaigns and blog posts to drive to your registration page. If you’re co-presenting with one of your partner organizations, you have the ability to engage their audience through those channels, as well. Just be sure to coordinate and create separate tracking URLs so you can easily determine which asset drove your audience to register.

3. Create and finalize all your materials

After you’ve locked down your strategy, it’s time to start creating your awesome webinar content. For presenters, this means developing slides and talk tracks — while the rest of the team should get to work on creating all the promotional assets.

PRO TIP: Make sure the final presentation deck aligns with the approved promotional copy. After all, you want to make sure that registrants are getting the information they’re looking for when they attend your webinar.

4. Take it live

The day of the webinar is finally here! Here are a few best practices on how to maximize your time with attendees:

• Set the scene: Be sure to start by introducing the topic and yourself.

• Incorporate examples: Don’t just talk at your attendees; incorporate examples from your own experience to add your unique spin. 

• Leave time for questions: Incorporate about 10 minutes for a Q+A session at the end of the webinar. And make sure your email address is on the last slide so that attendees can follow up with you directly.

PRO TIP: Consider polling the audience before you begin your presentation. Ask a question that will help you get a sense of your attendees and their professional background. And then adjust your talk track based on the type of information that would be most valuable to them.

5. Follow up

After the webinar is over, be sure to send a follow-up email to attendees that thanks them for participating. And import all of your leads into your sales database so that your sales team can begin having one-on-one follow-up conversations.

PRO TIP: Add a link to the recording of the webinar to your follow-up email so that registrants can easily watch it again on their own time.

And that’s it! By following the steps above, you’ll be set for webinar success — ensuring the event runs smoothly and you capture the best possible leads.

For more inspiration, check out our 22-Minute Webinar series.

To view our Partner blog, click here

The pace of streaming services launching has accelerated and will likely continue as consumers more readily adopt over-the-top delivery as their method of choice for video entertainment.

Last month, Disney rolled out its long-awaited Disney+ streaming service and — on the first day — the company saw more than 10 million sign ups. “We never had demand like we saw that day,” said Kevin Mayer, head of the company’s direct to consumer (D2C) and International division, acknowledging that Disney was surprised.

Tech issues and subsequent customer service problems cast a bit of a shadow on the launch in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. But Mayer said Disney already was working on a coding fix, one that made Disney’s launch a week later in Australia and New Zealand go off with fewer problems. The service has more launches on the horizon for 2020.

Disney+, for $6.99 a month, is central to the company’s planned long-term evolution into a major player in the streaming industry, something CEO Bob Iger has made a centerpiece of his final couple of years at Disney.

It’s no longer optional to go OTT

The shift in the marketplace is a clear one: Consumers are showing a growing demand for streaming services of all kinds.

As Disney noted during its investor day last spring, global D2C paid subscriptions are growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37% , and are expected to top 810 million globally in two years.

Even more crucial is the amount of content being consumed, a number growing at a CAGR of 50%. Estimates from researchers eMarketer and IHS put the total hours of paid D2C video at 1.2 billion hours a day by 2020, up from 260 million hours last year and just 20 million in 2010. Disney plans to debut at least two dozen new TV shows and an additional 10 movies in the next 12 months.

“It feels absolutely vital for us to do this,” Iger recently said. “This is, no question about it, the future of media.”

Analysts see Disney easily topping 90 million subscribers by 2024, and that ESPN+ and Hulu — which are part of a $12.99 streaming bundle available from the company — could easily push the number of streaming customers to more than 160 million worldwide.

But, the reality is that the Internet was never designed to distribute video, least of all live video like sports, breaking news and live events.

As Thomas Carpenter, director of operations management for Disney Streaming, recently told Bloomberg Business Week, streaming on the Internet is “…like inhabiting Mars. It’s a hostile environment. It’s constantly trying to kill these streams.”

The bottom line

The news around Disney+ highlights that even the most successful OTT launches come with their ups and downs. No matter your organization’s size or background, capitalizing on today’s exciting streaming opportunities often involves navigating through a host of technical challenges. As the marketplace becomes increasingly crowded and complex, it’s more important than ever that you have a streaming partner you can trust to launch and grow your OTT service successfully. 

For insights on how to maximize your OTT potential, check out our OTT content hub .

Stay tuned.

To view our Partner blog, click here

OTT content will be be a crucial tool for pay-TV providers hoping to increase revenue and retain subscribers in coming years.

That’s according to a new report from data and analytics company GlobalData, which points out that OTT traction is gaining in all geographies, pressuring traditional TV operators and, in the case of North America, driving cord cutting at an accelerated rate.

Operators will have to create interactive content libraries, provide on-demand video, and update their portfolio with HD and 4K content to remain compelling, the report said.

Broadband will play a more crucial role, as well. In the US, for example, operators have begun to pivot their businesses to make connectivity their primary business strategy over delivering low-margin pay-TV content.

Globally, high-speed broadband initiatives are accelerating, too, with many driven by government funding. That, said Antariksh Raut, senior analyst of Telecoms Market Data & Intelligence at GlobalData, will continue to help expand broadband coverage and adoption, which is critical for OTT video success.   

But, don’t assume pay-TV is getting stickier because global subscription numbers are forecast to increase. That’s more a product of expansion in the Asia-Pacific region than anything. Overall revenues are trending down for the next several years as more users cut the cord and turn to streaming content.

Total pay-TV revenue is expected to decline $9 billion in 2024 to $210.9 billion, compared to $219.9 billion in 2018, the company said, losses that will primarily be felt in developed markets.

OTT content is still pulling subs from pay-TV

While several pay-TV operators have launched their own OTT video services, SVOD players such as Netflix, Amazon, and HBO Now are gaining more relevance with their international and local content portfolio. And, streamers continue to increase their content budgets to appeal to local audiences.

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“Adding live and pay-TV channels is also gaining relevance where the competition between pay-TV and OTT service providers is increasing,” said Raut. “For Instance, Hotstar, an OTT video platform in India, provides access to live sports and other broadcast channels along with its own content library comprising of movies and web series.”  

The US SVOD market remains the biggest in the world with an estimated 71% of revenues in the space.

The bottom line

Pay-TV providers like AT&T are leaning more toward offering their customers OTT services like HBO Max and DirecTV Now, a trend developing in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, as well.

The question, of course, is whether or not they’ll be able to stop the bleeding by offering what increasingly is a mirror image of the content they offer through their traditional services. Will over-the-top bundles of 70 channels or more be able to attract viewers that already have turned a cold shoulder to their pay-TV cousins?

In recent quarters, US operators haven’t been able to replace customers lost to cord cutting with the same number of customers buying virtual pay-TV bundles. With more competition from new a la carte offerings like Disney+, that trend is unlikely to change.

Stay tuned.

Ed. Note: This post first appeared on the Videomind  blog.

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Picture this: Your target customer stumbles upon your brand’s video on YouTube and is really intrigued by what you have to offer. Maybe they’re thinking about how your service will help them reach a corporate goal, or the ways in which your latest product will streamline their day-to-day operations. You’ve hooked them, right? Well, not so fast. All of a sudden, the video pauses to buffer—or, even worse, an ad from your top competitor starts running during one of the designated promotional breaks.

In the end, a free-platform-only video strategy puts your brand integrity at risk and opens up the opportunity for you to lose valuable business. Read on to learn the top five reasons you should invest in an online video platform (OVP)—and hear how switching to a secure offering empowered SEEK to control their viewer experience.

1. Protect your brand reputation

When using free platforms, you have no control over the ads or recommended content that appear alongside your videos. This poses a huge risk to your brand reputation, as it’s possible that your videos will be associated with content that is off-message, stems from competitors, or contains inappropriate footage. 

By investing in an OVP, you can own your image and ensure your brand takes center stage for your viewers.

2. Control the user experience

When your content lives on someone else’s site, you give up your ability to manage the user experience. For instance, if a certain platform is prone to buffering issues, you risk the chance that your target audience will abandon your videos and associate the negative viewing experience with your brand. This could, in turn, impact the viewer’s willingness to make a purchase from your company down the line.

By moving to a secure video platform, you can provide a user experience that meets your quality standards. And you can even customize the look and feel of your videos to match your brand aesthetic and marketing goals.

3. Reap the SEO benefits

Videos are considered high-quality content and are rewarded as such in search results. But if all of your content lives on a free platform, you’re missing out on the valuable “SEO juice” they offer. 

By embedding the videos on your own site through a secure video platform, you can improve your SEO because you “own” the video file.

4. Tap into the video experts

When relying solely on a free video platform, you’re on your own when it comes to determining the right video strategy for your organization.

Invest in an OVP to gain access to highly trained specialists who are ready to offer guidance on how to maximize your video marketing potential. With this trusted support system, you can launch powerful campaigns without in-house technical expertise.

5. Make smarter, data-driven decisions

Free platforms can only offer superficial analytics, which can’t be tied to individual prospects. And, in many cases, if you make an edit to a video you’re already hosting on a free platform, you risk losing all the video history and stats associated with it. 

With an OVP, you can leverage robust content performance and viewer experience data to gain impactful insights on the effectiveness of your video marketing campaigns—and integrate with your existing analytics solutions for even deeper insights.

SEEK switches to a secure platform to control their viewer experience

SEEK, an Australian employment marketplace, recently launched a powerful new library of educational videos for job seekers and employers. Their library—powered by Brightcove’s Video Marketing Suite and Brightcove Gallery —offers a single location for everything from hiring advice to job-seeking guidance to engaging business stories. This new content offering empowers SEEK to connect with key audiences and strengthen its position as a leading destination for career advice.

In the past, SEEK hosted its videos on free social platforms, but the company realized that it needed to switch to an OVP to control the behavior, look, and feel of their video player. 

By moving to the Brightcove platform , SEEK now has total control over the end user experience and confidence that their content is displayed in a brand-safe environment that’s free of third-party ads and competitive distractions. In addition, they can now take their video experiences to the next level through playlists, autoplay functionality, and curated content—and leverage real-time analytics to improve the viewer experience over time.

For best results, blend thoroughly

By hosting your videos on a secure platform, you can have ultimate control over the viewer experience and avoid any association with unsavory or off-brand content. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should abandon free platforms altogether. They have their place in a blended, holistic marketing strategy—as long as you utilize them based on their specific strategic advantages. For instance, you can increase your audience reach by posting a brand awareness video on YouTube. But then that video should ideally drive viewers to premium content on your own branded portal.

Are you ready to make the switch to an OVP? Learn more about the Brightcove platform .

To view our Partner blog, click here