Brightcove Once brings easy video ad support to Chromecast viewing

For Google’s streaming stick, Chromecast, to become an indispensable part of the living room, it’ll need to prove to media companies that it can generate ad revenue.

Fortunately, Brightcove may help that happen. Today the video service company is launching a product called Brightcove Once that will automatically insert video ads into video content that’s pushed from your devices to your TV screen using Chromecast. The news comes a week after Google rolled out a full Chromecast SDK, enabling developers to really push the boundaries of what the device can do.

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The technology behind the new product comes from Unicorn Media, which Brightcove  acquired last month for $49 million. It’ also Brightcove’s first big use of Unicorn’s tech since its purchase.

Usually, inserting a video that isn’t edited into the content you’re watching means the ads play with a noticeable delay. Brightcove Once seeks to eliminate that by inserting those video ads without people even realizing they aren’t part of the overall content. The advantage of this is that the ads aren’t intrusive to viewers and can also be targeted (and thus, more relevant).

“There’s a consumer expectation that media brands [like NBC, ABC, etc.] are directly responsible for the video experience. So if they want to expand beyond cable and broadcast TV, the experience has to be at that same level,” Brightcove CTO AJ McGowan said in an interview with VentureBeat.

Ad targeting and video ads that don’t have any pause or delay will be important especially from a consumer standpoint. People already don’t love the idea of having to sit through ads, but if it isn’t a super painful process, it would go a long way in shifting people from traditional commercials on television to Chromecast.