A little over a month ago I started a little experiment. I wanted to compare usage between our SpaceRef Brightcove video channel and our newly created SpaceRef YouTube channel. Up to that point SpaceRef had been using Brightcove exclusively as our video service provider.
The numbers should not have surprised me as YouTube has a tremendous lead over everyone else. But still I was. I uploaded a small selection of current videos to our SpaceRef YouTube channel that were also on our Brightcove channel and did absolutely no promotion for them. None. I didn't link to them from SpaceRef or any of the sites on the SpaceRef network. What was the result? For the 1 month test run our YouTube channel had 29% more individual video views. That's pretty impressive.
There are some difference though between the two services. I find that the Brightcove channel has a little better video quality. As well Brightcove has for some time allowed you to monetize your channel and it's only recently that YouTube has integrated AdSense.
For the time being we're going use both video channels and compare them as we go. I'll report back in a few months on our progress.