Archived Press Release: The FA Scores with New Brightcove-powered Online Video Initiatives
LONDON, May 27, 2010—Brightcove, the leading online video platform, today announced that The Football Association (FA), England’s governing body for the game of football, has launched a host of new online video offerings for TheFA.com, as well as a dynamic new iPhone app, using the Brightcove platform. The FA is also leveraging Brightcove to support a variety of video initiatives around the official website for England’s World Cup team, including interviews with players and highlights from previous games and tournaments.
“Football in England today has more spectators, participants, revenues and media interest than any other sport,” said Alistair Robertson, Project Lead at The FA. “We have a tremendous amount of fans visiting our website each day to see the latest news and highlights of the England team, The FA cup and our many National Game initiatives, so it is crucial that we are able to provide the highest quality user experience possible. The breadth of features available in the Brightcove platform enables us to achieve this, as well as expand our video initiatives to popular mobile devices like the iPhone.”
With Brightcove, The FA is able to deliver high quality, interactive online video viewing experiences for football fans worldwide. Brightcove’s range of customization features enable The FA to easily and dynamically integrate video throughout the TheFA.com site, which is crucial in increasing search engine optimization around video and deepening user engagement. Brightcove also makes it easy for The FA to significantly expand the audience reach of its video content through advanced social sharing tools for popular sites like Facebook and Twitter and a wide-range of third party distribution capabilities. Brightcove’s “white-list” status by Facebook gives The FA the ability to embed Brightcove players directly into the England team’s wall, as well as on the FATV section of the team’s Facebook page.
The FA also recently introduced a fan-friendly mobile app using the Brightcove iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and Brightcove Mobile Experience solution. The app is designed to enable fans to keep in instant touch with the England team through the latest news from the World Cup camp, including exclusive video highlights of great England games, goals and legendary players.
“Online video presents a unique opportunity for organizations like The FA to increase engagement with fans and dramatically expand their online audience,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “We are thrilled to be the online video platform behind The FA’s dynamic new offerings, particularly on the eve of the immense traffic and interest that will be generated from the World Cup this summer.”
To see the Brightcove player in action, go to the official England website at www.TheFA.com/England. The FA plans to roll out additional video programming and capabilities using the Brightcove platform in the near future.
About Brightcove
Brightcove is a cloud-based online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video on the Web. Founded in 2004, Brightcove has offices across North America, Europe and Asia and customers in 45 countries. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com.
Press Contacts
Europe
Sheena Riviera
AxiCom for Brightcove
+44 20 8392 4064
sheena.riviera@axicom.com
North America
Erika Shaffer
SutherlandGold Group for Brightcove
206-972-5514
erika@sutherlandgold.com