Red Bee Buys TV Genius, Enters Search & Recommendation Business
Already a giant in media management - managing the content for the BBC iPlayer, the ITV Player, and 4OD - Red Bee Media has found a new world to conquer. The company announced today that it has acquired the U.K. video search and recommendation company TV Genius. The move signals a shift in emphasis, from getting premium content online to helping viewers find it.
Red Bee plans to blend its metadata services with TV Genius's content discovery technology, creating a unified search, recommendation, and delivery platform for both live and on-demand TV. The combined services will be a first for a U,K. media management company.
TV Genius's technology will be integrated into Red Bee's offerings, and will be the core driver for Red Bee's content discover offering and the RedPlayer, the company's next-generation online video platform which launched in June. The RedPlayer lets content owners stream to multiple devices, including connected TVs, iPads, and gaming consoles.
TV Genius was formed in 2005 and has shown significant growth each year. Its search and recommendation engine processes over 100 million transaction each month in seven countries. Businesses that rely on it include ITV, Sky, Freeview, Astra, Bauer Media, IPC Media, STV and AOL
"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," says 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."
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