Our core business since 2005 has been to provide an on-demand, white-label online video platform. In 2006, we launched a free version of this service for smaller publishers called the Brightcove Network. The Network was supported through advertising sold by third-party ad networks, and we shared the revenue with the publishers who were using the Network.
Although more than 40,000 publishers have signed up for the Network, it represents less than 1% of our revenue. Our core business, the Brightcove platform, has been extremely successful for us and for our customers. So we've decided to focus 100% of our business efforts on the Brightcove platform, which customers pay us to use.
We will be discontinuing the free Brightcove Network offer and its showcase website, Brightcove.TV, on December 17, 2008. This change won't affect our platform publishers or our corporate website (Please see the Network and Brightcove.TV FAQs for complete details.)
We have tremendous respect for the content and sites that our Network publishers have produced, so the decision to discontinue the Network was a difficult one. But we are providing an opportunity for Network publishers to easily and affordably migrate to Brightcove 3, the new version of our online video platform.
To that end, we have introduced Brightcove Basic, a low-cost edition of our platform designed for the needs of emerging media companies and small businesses. Basic gives small media companies and publishers access to powerful Brightcove 3 features and offers a range of choices to work with third-party ad networks. All Brightcove Network publishers automatically have a free trial of Brightcove Basic through December 17, 2008. (Learn moreabout Brightcove 3).
We appreciate all the support and participation in the Brightcove Network over the past two years. We hope that Brightcove 3 will open up new opportunities and contribute to the success of the vast diversity of publishers who use Brightcove every day for online video.
UPDATE: There has been some confusion and speculation about pricing for the Brightcove 3 Basic edition. The best way to get a price quote is to contact Brightcove sales. Brightcove 3 Basic edition is offered on an annual contract basis at a price that works out to be the equivalent of several hundred dollars per month.