Syndication

Brightcove allows you to make your player available for syndication on Affiliate web sites. You maintain control of the appearance, branding elements, and titles in your syndicated player. You also have the ability to view detailed reports on Affiliates that publish your player. These reports are similar to reports for players on your own site.

Creating a Syndicated Player

By creating a syndication offer, you make one of your players available for syndication by Affiliates. When you modify the titles or lineups displayed in a syndicated player, all published instances of that player update as well. You should consider creating a new player for syndication, separate from the player on your web site.

You can create multiple players using different design templates or lineups for syndication. Creating multiple players and syndication offers allows a potential Affiliate to choose the version that best integrates into their existing site design. You will need to create a new syndication offer for each player that you make available and Affiliates must apply for each player separately.

Creating a Syndication Offer

In the syndication tab, click new syndication offer in the bottom left. Choose a video player to make available from the list of players in your account. Remember, only one player can be associated with a syndication offer but you can create as many syndication offers as you like. Preview the player using the button in the upper right area of the screen to verify that you have selected the correct player for syndication (preview requires Internet Explorer).

When you are satisfied with the player, click next or select the Details tab of the new offer window. Choose a name for the syndication offer (Affiliates will see this name when they apply to syndicate your player). You should describe the syndication offer, including the type of content you will provide, how often you will update the content, how long you plan to make the player available for syndication, and any special requirements for Affiliates. The more information you provide in the description, the more comfortable Affiliates will be adding your player to their site.

The syndication offer creation process lets you describe your offer and define options for contact information, approvals, and publishing code.

Approval and Notifications

In details tab you specify whether or not you want to manually approve or deny each syndication request. If you choose to automatically approve syndication requests, you still have the ability to revoke access to a player at a later time. You also have the option of requiring additional contact information from your affiliates. You will always have access to an Affiliate’s email address though the Brightcove Console regardless of whether or not you request extended information.

You can choose to receive an email notification when a syndication request is received by checking the notification checkbox and providing an email address. The email address you provide for notification does not need to be your Brightcove sign-in address. If you choose not to receive email notifications, you will need to manually check for new syndication requests in the Incoming Requests area of the Syndication tab when you sign in.

Choosing “List in a public directory” will allow your syndication offer to be indexed by public search engines and included in Brightcove’s directory of syndication opportunities when available.

Publishing Code

You can make up to three types of publishing code available to Affiliates. The different types of code are described below.

JavaScript publishing code is the preferred code for publishing a player using Brightcove. JavaScript publishing ensures that your syndicated player will be restricted to only the URLs specified in the syndication request and provides more detailed reporting data on Affiliate players.

HTML publishing code provides compatibility with social networking services such as MySpace as well as some blogging services that disallow JavaScript in posts. HTML Publishing code does not function when domain restrictions are enabled for a player. Any players previosly published via HTML will be become non-functional if domain restrictions are enabled. Therefore, you should use HTML publishing code when you want to allow open access to your syndicated player for a large number of Affiliates using services such as MySpace. Players published using HTML provide only limited reporting data and may not load automatically due to changes in the way Microsoft Internet Explorer handles plug-ins.

If the HTML publishing option is not available, you will need to edit the player and disable domain restrictions before you can make the HTML code available. You can edit the player after you have created the syndication offer and then edit the offer to make the HTML publishing code available.

ActionScript publishing code allows for embedding a syndicated player inside an Affiliate’s existing Flash (.swf) movie. Enable ActionScript publishing code if you want to make your Player available to embed in Flash-based web sites or applications.

Attaching Images to Your Syndication Offer

When you have completed entering information in the Details tab, click the Next button to go to the Images tab. Here you can upload images to customize the appearance of your syndication offer for potential affiliates. The background color of the syndication offer screen is white. Logos and syndication images should be Jpeg images and will look the best when displayed on a white background. See the image specifications below:

The syndication offer contains your logo, offer promotion image, and syndication still as well as specifications for the syndicated player. The images correspond to the locations in the syndication offer shown above.

When you have finished adding images, save the syndication offer to return to the Manage Offers area. Select your new syndication offer and click the Get Syndication Code button in the upper right area of the screen. There are two links available for your syndication offer.

The Syndication Offer Presentation URL takes potential affiliates to your offer where they can read a description and preview the syndicated player. You should place this link on your web site to advertise your syndication offer to potential affiliates.

The Syndication Request URL bypasses the offer preview and allows the potential Affiliate to sign in and request to syndicate your player without previewing the offer.

Read the Brightcove Affiliate FAQ to find out more about syndication using Brightcove.