VoD pioneer TVN Entertainment Corp. and linear content aggregator Avail Media announced Monday the companies will merge to provide an integrated, end-to-end solution for content owners and service providers. Terms were not disclosed.
The combination creates the largest independent provider of end-to-end content aggregation, management and delivery services. It delivers content from more than 200 content partners, including Hollywood movie studios, cable networks and independent content producers, to more than 46 million homes and 120 million consumers. Its customers are MSOs, telcos and DBS providers.
“The value proposition for managed content aggregation services certainly makes sense in today’s environment where it is increasingly complex to navigate the acquisition of content from multiple sources and in multiple formats for distribution to multiple networks, platforms and devices,” said Yoav Schreiber, senior analyst, Digital Media Infrastructure, for Current Analysis. “That said, plenty of companies are managing this process in-house. However, there will always be a subset for which the cost-benefit analysis leans towards a third party provider.”
Schreiber also said TVN and Avail are not alone. In the United States, he points to Comcast Media Center. “There is also growing wholesale solutions of IP-delivered digital media that address many of the same needs/requirements. And you are likely to see several of the major vendors announce/enhance capabilities in these areas, such as Cisco, Ericsson, SeaChange, etc.,” he added.
Initially, TVN and Avail Media will continue to operate separately as divisions of Avail Media. TVN will be based in Los Angeles and Avail Media will be in Reston, Va. Avail Media CEO Ramu Potarazu will be CEO of the combined company and president of the Avail Media division. TVN President and CEO Doug Sylvester will be president of the TVN division. No staff reductions are expected.
Since TVN has been focused on VoD and Avail Media has been focused on linear video, the companies have been more complimentary than competitive, said Sylvester in an interview with xchange.
