The big news today definitely surrounds Brightcove, who has finally launched their new service that allows content owners of all sizes to launch their own Internet TV channels for free and empowers them to generate revenue through advertising and video download sales.

You can check out what some companies are saying about the new service such as TasteTV, who has been using the Brightcove platform for their Indie Food Channel.

Coinciding with the launch of the Brightcove Network, the company announced the availability of several new services designed to generate revenue and increase distribution for Internet TV channels. To make earning money from commercial content easier, Brightcove launched a new video advertising network and the ability to offer high-quality video downloads for purchase or rental. To help online video programmers reach new audiences, the company introduced the beta of a new consumer destination for discovering and interacting with Internet TV channels. In addition, Brightcove has partnered with AOL to give content owners the option to easily sell their pay-media downloads through the AOL Video portal using Brightcove.

"In the last six months we've seen explosive growth in the online video market, especially in consumer sharing, but this is only the beginning of the Internet TV era," said Jeremy Allaire, chairman and chief executive officer of Brightcove. "Now content producers, from serious amateurs to major studios, are looking for an approach to Internet video that gives them commercial opportunities with their content as well as control over their distribution, and that's exactly what we're delivering with the launch of the Brightcove Network."

The Brightcove Network gives any content owner the ability to build a commercial Internet TV channel, launch it on their site, syndicate it to other web sites, and distribute it on Brightcove.com. The service is free to use. Content owners who use the Brightcove Network give Brightcove the right to sell advertising in their videos, and in turn they receive 50% of the revenue from ads that run in their channels. In addition, content owners can choose to offer video downloads for rental or purchase. They have the option to set any retail price they choose, with a $0.99 minimum, and they earn 70% of the sale price for each transaction.

To expand the revenue and distribution options for Internet TV producers using Brightcove, the company launched several new initiatives that support the Brightcove Network:

• Advertising Network -- Brightcove AdNet, the new Brightcove advertising network, aggregates online audiences across major and niche Internet TV channels giving marketers a more efficient way to reach consumers and offer online video programmers a way to more easily generate advertising revenue.
• Pay-Media Service -- The new pay-media service gives content owners using Brightcove the ability to earn revenue from the sale of online video by offer high-quality video downloads for purchase or rental at prices they determine.
• Syndication Marketplace -- Expanding distribution options for Internet TV channels, the company has introduced the first beta of a new online marketplace for discovering Internet TV channels that are available for syndication to third party web sites.
• AOL Video Distribution -- Content owners using the Brightcove platform will have the ability to distribute their paid video content through the AOL Video portal.
• Consumer Destination -- Finally, the company announced plans to make Brightcove.com a consumer destination for discovering and interacting with Internet TV channels. The first beta of the destination site was released today, and the company plans to add significant new features during the next six months.

For content owners that want greater control over their Internet TV business, including full control over the sale and delivery of advertising within their content, Brightcove will continue to offer the Brightcove Platform. The Brightcove Platform gives content owners a broad set of services for building online video businesses. Video programmers who choose to use the Brightcove Platform pay for it based on the volume of traffic that views their content each month. Moreover they have the option to use Brightcove revenue generation and distribution options including the advertising network, pay media, syndication marketplace, AOL Video, and the Brightcove.com destination.