• TechCrunch, Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:45 AM

The official launch of Brightcove got all kinds of attention yesterday, but it wasn't the only video news of the day. Google also brokered its first "sponsored video" deal for Google Video-not YouTube. Eepybird, the guys in white lab coats who perform experiments with Coca-Cola and Mentos (which both sponsored the "experiments"), have made a reported $35,000 from posting their video on video-sharing site Revver.

Now, their most recent video will make an appearance on Google's video site. The official Google blog said this was the first of what it hoped would be many sponsored videos. But there's a catch--such deals are only available to video creators with more than 1,000 hours of video available.

The idea is to keep the hacks away and encourage serious video producers to upload their content to Google Video. Advertising on the EepyBird video is post-roll. Maybe this will be a precursor to rev-share agreements on YouTube, too. "It's fascinating to see Google, the creator of possibly the best long-tail monetization engine in history, launching a video program focused on elite producers only," TechCrunch says. This, too, on the same day Brightcove announced its new free-for-everyone Web ad-supported TV service.

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