Multiscreen video content and tech specialist Vubiquity is looking to expand its international presence while adding some key video “storefront” capabilities to its portfolio through the acquisition of U.K.-based video-on-demand content aggregation firm FilmFlex Movies Ltd.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but FilmFlex, a joint venture of Sony Pictures Television and The Walt Disney Company, claims to have handled more than 90 million transactions since its founding in 2005.
Vubiquity, which acquired the On Demand Group, another U.K.-based VOD company, from SeaChange International in 2012, said the deal will help the company boost its international efforts while giving it a video storefront capability it can tie into its emerging AnyVu Cloud platform, which will support the delivery of video to a wide range of screens and new services, including electronic sell-through offerings.
FilmFlex counts service provider customers such as Virgin Media, EE, TalkTalk and Film4, and has deals in place with more than 30 content owners and studios, including Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, Icon, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, and Axiom Films, among others.
“Having a stronger presence in Europe is important to us,” Vubiquity president Doug Sylvester said, noting that the FilmFlex acquisition will provide the company with incremental rights to content that can be licensed in the U.K. for delivery to set-tops and connected devices.
He said the front-end, digital storefront piece coming way of FilmFlex movies will come into play in all markets. While some partners will want to integrate that platform for electronic video services they manage, others partners have asked Vubiquity to handle the full, end-to-end managed service, Sylvester said.
He said FilmFlex team of about 25 people, including CEO Jeff Henry, is joining Vubiquity and will remain based in the U.K.
“FilmFlex’s assets and capabilities, when merged with Vubiquity’s reach and scale, result in a very large opportunity for both companies –and for the customers we share,” Henry said, in a statement.
