Red Bee purchases TV Genius
Red Bee Media has acquired TV Genius, a company that specialises in cloud-based content discovery across the internet, TV and connected devices. The idea behind the strategic acquisition is that it will blend Red Bee Media’s rich metadata services with TV Genius’ content discovery technology to bring what a statement refers to as “a synchronised viewer experience across live and on demand TV with accurate search, personally relevant recommendations and enhanced TV guides across multiple platforms and devices.”
“A critical requirement for monetising content across platforms and screens is to enable consumers to easily discover content in what is becoming an increasingly cluttered and fragmented marketplace”, said Bill Patrizio, CEO of Red Bee Media. “Accurate search and personally relevant recommendation is a key differentiator in addressing this challenge and this acquisition allows us to significantly enhance our current offering by investing in new technologies at the core of the future TV experience. TV Genius is at the forefront of content discovery and we’re excited to welcome them to the Red Bee Media family. Together, we intend to reinvent the EPG for online video.”
“As an integrated part of Red Bee Media, TV Genius will now have the ability to quickly grow its Content Discovery Platform while maintaining industry-leading relevance”, said Tom Weiss, CEO of TV Genius. “The personalised EPG, social TV, and companion applications are changing the way we watch and interact with TV in significant ways. The TV Genius team is excited to be joining Red Bee Media to help create new consumer experiences for existing and new customers around the world.”
In line with its ongoing growth strategy, Red Bee Media plans to invest in TV Genius’ technologies as an integrated part of its portfolio and the core driver behind innovative and intelligent solutions for its content discovery offering and RedPlayer, the first ‘media grade’, next generation online video platform. RedPlayer, which was launched in June, allows broadcasters and content owners in the UK and internationally to deliver and monetise high quality video to multiple devices, including PC, iPhone, iPad, gaming consoles and connected TV in a secure and scalable manner.
As a bit of background, TV Genius is used by a number of leading media businesses including ITV, Sky, Freeview, Astra, Bauer Media, IPC Media, STV and AOL. TV Genius recently announced the launch of its Facebook-integrated TV guide solution, further improving content discovery experience for TV viewers. The new solution uses TV Genius’ award-winning Content Discovery Platform to personalise TV guides; when a user logs into the EPG with Facebook Connect, all the shows their friends like are instantly highlighted in the grid. The solution taps into the increasingly popular use of social media.