• Beachfront Builder Platform Announced to Help Proliferate Mobile Video Apps

    While the quantity and quality of mobile apps keeps expanding, there's one corner of the ecosystem that has lagged: high-quality video apps. Once you get beyond apps like HBO Go, Netflix, WatchESPN, Hulu Plus, Xfinity and a handful of others, the choice and quality drops off pretty quickly. That's because great video apps are expensive to build and to maintain, especially since the number of mobile device platforms keeps multiplying.

    This is the problem that Beachfront Media, which has built the video aggregator MeFeedia, is trying to solve with a new mobile video app development platform it announced called Beachfront Builder, which launches in private beta next Thursday. With Beachfront Builder, content providers are able to quickly build video apps for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire, with others coming soon.

    The platform allows content providers to import video from OVPs like Brightcove, Oooyala and others, plus MRSS feeds and hosts like YouTube, Vimeo and others. Apps can be branded with logo and style with additional customization available for "Professional" and "Enterprise" levels. There's a content management system so content can be organized into custom categories. Once complete, apps are submitted to all the relevant app stores. Monetization occurs either though integrated ads or paid options. A full analytics suite is included.

    Pricing wasn't announced yet, but the entry level "Basic" version will be free and supported via an ad split, with the two upper levels available for a fee.

    As I've been adding a ton of video interviews to VideoNuze recently, I'm eager to give Beachfront Builder a spin. When I do, I'll report back on my experience and reactions.