Brightcove specializes in tools for publishing and distributing video on the Web. Customers include Farmers' Almanac TV, National Lampoon, Barrio 365 and Shipwreck Central. Late last year, AOL and a few others invested $16 million in the company.
The alliance between the two will automate a way for these publishers to get their goods viewed on TV. Put another way, TiVo is serving as a broadcaster for networks like Expo TV--which concentrates on product news and trade shows--that don't have a time slot, or a good one, on a cable network.
"If it's on Brightcove, you'll be able to watch it on your TV using TiVo," Jeremy Alliare, Brightcove's CEO, said in a statement.
The two companies will phase in content partners and downloading capabilities as time goes on.
Although a household name in North America, TiVo remains one of those companies that analysts perpetually believe will get bought or beaten out by larger competitors. TiVo lost $34.5 million during its 2006 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31. This was an improvement over fiscal 2005, when it lost $79.8 million, but the pace of new subscriber growth was down compared with the previous year.
Last month, TiVo won $73.9 million in a verdict against EchoStar in a patent case.
