• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 6, 2009

As the adoption of video platforms proliferates beyond the realm of media and entertainment, Brightcove and Ooyala remain the vendors to beat, according to a new Forrester Research report.

The two "lead the pack with their end-to-end product offerings that target organizations of all sizes," according to Forrester senior analyst and report author Bobby Tulsiani.

VMIX and Kaltura follow closely behind with what Forrester calls "comprehensive offerings" from "strong performers," while Twistage and Fliqz are considered to serve more narrow segments of the market as mere "contenders."

"The online video platform space has come a long way from the pop-up player and choppy playback experience of a few years ago," said Tulsiani. "Basic media management, player capabilities, and publishing capabilities are now table stakes for all of the video platform providers, and most differentiate along their capabilities in user-generated video, distribution, monetization, and analytics."

Brightcove -- rumored to be a Google acquisition target -- separated itself from the pack with leading scores in distribution and integration, while Ooyala earned its highest marks in monetization and analytics. Each platform, however, is fully capable of serving all segments of the video market on a global basis, according to Forrester.

To assess the state of the online video platform market and see how vendors stacked up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of six U.S. online video platform vendors, including Brightcove, Fliqz, Kaltura, Ooyala, Twistage, and VMIX.

Forrester then evaluated each vendor against 37 criteria, which it grouped into three buckets: current offerings, including media management, user-generated video, player capabilities, publishing capabilities, distribution capabilities, monetization capabilities, and reporting capabilities; strategy with regard to a vendor's roadmap for the future; and market presence with regard to customer base and financial strength.

The vendors evaluated for the study primarily enable organizations to create on-demand video experiences for external consumers or constituents. Forrester did not include vendors that have a primary focus on live streaming or enterprise video conferencing.

Furthermore, Forrester did not include companies that primarily focus on the high end of the market, such as Digitalsmiths, Move Networks, and ThePlatform, in this evaluation -- although some of the vendors it evaluated also compete in that space.

Today, 71% of the U.S. online audience watches video online, while Forrester expects the number of streams consumed to more than double by 2013. Driving this growth is an explosion of video content from users, professional studios, and marketers.

Indeed, while the large media and entertainment companies may have been first to integrate video into their Web sites, Forrester sees organizations of all sizes across all industries increasingly adopting video on their sites.