• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 23, 2011

Online video platform Brightcove has struck a deal with video syndication firm 5min Media to make its premium video content available to sites that use Brightcove's technology.

Acquired last year by AOL, 5min boasts a library of 250,000 mostly how-to videos across various categories, including home, food, health, fashion/beauty, travel and auto. Its content partners include Hachette Filipacchi, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Hearst Corp. and IGN Entertainment.

Last month, it added 2,000 videos from celebrity and lifestyle-oriented Web publisher Sugar Inc.

Under its latest deal, Brightcove Pro and Brightcove Enterprise customers can publish 5min material directly through those platforms.

"For many publishers, creating a steady drumbeat of high-quality, impactful content is an ongoing challenge when it comes to their online video strategy," stated Brightcove President/COO David Mendels. "Together with 5min Media, we are giving thousands of customers around the world instant access to premium content that can also easily be monetized, making it easier for these organizations to expand their video initiatives and reach new audiences."

Brightcove already powers video on AOL. For 5min, the deal could help expand its audience of some 27 million monthly viewers across a network of hundreds of sites. Americans overall streamed 14.7 billion videos in April, the most to date for a given month, according to new data from Nielsen.

The U.S. online video audience hit 141.4 million viewers that spent an average of 4 hours, 31 minutes watching content during the month. AOL ranked sixth among top Web video providers with an audience of 12.6 million in April, up 12.6% from the prior month.