MeFeedia Team Launches Beachfront Builder, A Platform For Building Apps On Every Device

Ok, so this isn’t news, but — video publishers want to get their content on as many devices as possible. That means iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and that’s not even counting a whole mess of different connected TVs. The problem is that the path to getting there is slow, laborious, and expensive.

For content creators, “going mobile” frequently means hiring multiple developers to build, manage and update apps across multiple operating systems and device platforms. Or they can outsource the whole thing, which has a high upfront cost, and leaves them stuck doing the whole thing over again whenever they want to update their app or when a new device is launched.

That’s why the MeFeedia team is shifting gears and has rolled out a new platform that is designed to help video publishers quickly and easily create mobile apps across a wide variety of platforms with little upfront investment. The company is relaunching as Beachfront Media and releasing Beachfront Builder, an all-in-one suite for creating, delivering video to, and monetizing apps across all of the major mobile platforms.

Beachfront Builder, which is launching in private beta today, was designed to allow publishers to build rich, video-specific applications. The platform lets users customize the apps and players, hook them up to existing video management platforms like Brightcove and Ooyala, and begin serving up video to mobile devices.

The platform is launching with native app support for the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and Android tablets (including the Kindle Fire), and also provides support for advanced analytics and monetization out of the box. Publishers can either bring their own ads, or they can use those provided by Beachfront, with the platform provider taking a cut.

While pricing has yet to be announced, Frank Sinton, CEO of Beachfront Media, told me that users of the platform will be charged based on usage, with very little upfront cost to get up and running. The idea is to reduce the cost and friction associated with getting content up on new devices, and to grow and profit along with them.