Frequency, a firm that aggregates Internet video for distribution on set-tops and mobile devices, said it has secured $11 million in equity financing from a group that includes Liberty Global, YOU On Demand and Oakmont Corp.
Frequency, a Los Angeles based company founded in 2010, said it will use the funds to fuel growth, including international distribution and on the ongoing development of its distribution platform. Frequency claims that it provides Internet video services to over 100 million subs for TV, mobile and OTT operators worldwide.
The company aggregates and distributes content from a wide range of producers and integrates them with several platforms via a single license. According to the company, it can integrate with partner video ad systems, and have those companies sell the ads. It’s already integrated with “most leading” ad platforms and exchanges and can sell, serve and deliver ads on behalf of its distribution partners. Sling TV is among the distribution partners listed on the company’s web site.
Frequency, which timed the announcement with this week’s TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco, told Varietythat Ziggo, Liberty Global’s MSO in the Netherlands, will start to offer Web videos from Frequency on set-tops in Q3 2016.
Liberty Global has been eager to fuse OTT content and apps at the set-top level, with UPC Hungary’s integration of YouTube among recent examples. Liberty Global is also pushing ahead with a next-gen cloud-based set-top box/video platform, code-named EOS, that’s expected to enter trials later this year.
Inge Smidts, chief marketing officer at Liberty Global, is joining the Frequency’s board of directors.
The financing “lets us accelerate our growth and expand the reach of our platform for both content providers and operators, globally. We’re delighted to be in business with this great combination of financial and strategic partners to help us drive that growth,” Blair Harrison, CEO of Frequency, said in a statement.
In the U.S., MVPDs have also begun to tie new forms of OTT content at the set-top. Comcast, for example, offers content from Watchable, its new ad-supported, aggregated OTT video service, on mobile devices as well as X1 set-tops.
