Syncbak, which provides stations with streaming capabilities, said it is rebranding as Zeam Media.
The new name is designed to move Zeam from a tech company to a media and advertising company.
Gray Television, the National Association of Broadcasters, Morgan Murphy Media and Northwest Broadcasting CEO Brian Brady are investors in the company.
The change comes after February’s launch of the Zeam streaming service, which features programming from about 300 local stations in markets covering roughly 80% of the U.S.
Jack Perry, CEO of Zeam, told Broadcasting+Cable that Gray executives suggested the name change because it was becoming more of a media company.
“We want to be a media company that has a tool that connects every broadcaster, every viewer and every creator,” Perry said. “We’re adding more and more viewers every day through our direct-to-consumer campaign, but we’re also connecting advertisers.”
Perry notes that Zeam’s tech stack is uniquely designed to look local first. “That’s going to be the highest-paying ad,” he said.
On the Zeam website, viewers are coming back six times a day and spending 90 minutes per day on the platform, according to Perry. “I think it’s going really well,” he said.
Zeam’s other activities include the Zeam Times Square studio in New York and Zeam 360, a mobile streaming channel originating from a Zeam-branded van that visits local stations and other interesting spots.
The company also offers MediaMogul by Zeam, a content management and monetization system, and AdSync by Zeam, which provides dynamic ad insertion technology for live and on-demand streams.
The new name was created working with marketing agency Known. Perry said Syncbak looked at 1,000 possibilities for a new name before settling on Zeam. Zeam was good because it was short — just four letters — and could be used as a verb. “We could own it and get the dot-com, which is still important today,” he said. “Once we landed on Zeam it was, let’s take it and run.”
Zeam has been running commercials with John Stamos supporting the streaming service and the company’s new name.
Syncbak and Gray launched VUit, another local streaming platform, in 2020. VUit will be shut down in favor of Zeam.
