Synamedia, the largest independent video software provider, today announced that Sky, Europe’s leading media and entertainment company, has taken a stake in the business, joining majority shareholder the Permira funds.
Sky’s shareholding reinforces Synamedia’s position as a strategic long-term technology partner to a growing roster of market-leading pay-TV operators and media companies worldwide.
Both Sky and its parent company Comcast are long-time Synamedia customers as well as strategic development partners.
Andrew Griffith, Sky’s Group Chief Operating Officer, said: “We’ve long collaborated with the team at Synamedia to help bring great content, products and entertainment to millions of customers across Europe and this investment will help deepen our innovative partnership.”
Yves Padrines CEO of Synamedia, added: “At a time of accelerated evolution in the pay-TV industry, this investment is a fantastic endorsement of our product vision, R&D roadmap and service portfolio from Sky, Europe’s leading media and entertainment company.”
As an independent firm backed by both the Permira funds and Sky, Synamedia’s mission is to help customers maximise the return on their existing infrastructure while laying the foundations for a blended broadcast/OTT multi-screen model that will deliver improved consumer choice and convenience while protecting income and opening up new revenue streams.
Synamedia has over 200 pay-TV and media customers including: AT&T, Astro, beIN, Bharti Airtel, Charter, China DTH, Comcast, Cox, Disney, Foxtel, Get, Liberty Global, Oi, OSN, Rogers, Sky, Shaw, Tata Sky, Verizon, Viasat and Vodafone.
The company boasts a workforce of thousands located primarily in the US, UK, Israel, India, Belgium, China and Canada.
In related news, Synamedia has appointed video software compression pioneer and Envivio founder and CEO, Julien Signes, as Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Video Processing business unit. Signes will lead Synamedia’s video processing business as the industry transitions to software-based encoding for broadcast, as well as for OTT, using either on-premise or cloud-based solutions running on commodity hardware.
ABOUT KAUSER KANJI
Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 19 years, formerly at Virgin Media, ITN and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live.