Leading media localization providers IYUNO Media Group and BTI Studios, today announced a merger designed to meet the rapidly growing demand for localized content by enabling worldwide dubbing and subtitling capabilities for streaming, film and television. The two companies, who are both among the five largest in the localization industry globally, will become a new market leader supported by powerful financial institutions and leading-edge technology.
The two companies will merge under the IYUNO Media Group brand and will be headquartered in London. David Lee, founder and former CEO of IYUNO Media Group, has been appointed Executive Chairman and Shaun Gregory, former CEO of BTI Studios, will serve as the CEO of the new IYUNO Media Group. Lee and Gregory’s leadership will ensure seamless integration and innovative technology solutions to fundamentally enhance the overall media ecosystem.
With a combination of 40 facilities located globally across 30 countries, the new company instantly becomes the definitive creative and production leader for language localization. With facilities offering best-in-class technology, media processing and services delivery the new IYUNO Media Group now provides total end-to-end coverage with expanded capacity and a streamlined approach for its customers looking to scale up or launch new services.
The combined company will accelerate its vision to be a technology leader providing innovative solutions to better streamline the growing complexity in meeting client needs. The new IYUNO Media Group will also utilize artificial intelligence-driven machine learning to serve the variation of different quality tiered projects or lead times that clients face. The new company will utilize its investment in technology for future markets such as corporate, gaming and e-learning where demand for media localization is growing rapidly
Investors Shamrock Capital and Altor will join SoftBank Ventures Asia in backing the new entity, providing financial support, experience and knowledge in the media industry for global growth. All three institutions are keen to grow the new IYUNO Media Group and support the overall media industry.
“Clients need a better solution. The current media localization industry's fragmented, manual and non-systematic approaches are outdated and inefficient. Our combined experience and long-standing commitment to diverse global markets makes our products and services second-to-none,” explains David Lee, founder of IYUNO Media Group, and executive chairman of the new company. “The merger with full support of our investors Altor, Softbank Ventures Asia and Shamrock Capital, further strengthens us to take our place as the unparalleled global leader.”
In the age of digital technology, local content can have massive global impact as they become more readily available to anyone, anywhere, generating ever higher demand for translation through subtitling and dubbing. The media content localization marketplace continues to experience unprecedented growth driven globally by the appetite for content and the expansion of easily accessible VOD platforms. The global market of media content localization is growing at a rapid pace, providing a massive opportunity for the newly merged company.
“Quality, efficiency, and security are key themes for content owners as the need to differentiate themselves becomes more prevalent in the fast-paced race to localize content on a global scale,” Shaun Gregory, CEO of the newly formed IYUNO Media Group comments. “The merger provides a global network of owned and operated creative studios, never seen before in the market, which now allows us to support the increasing demand for localization services worldwide in the entertainment industry.”
London-based BTI Studios and Singapore-based IYUNO Media Group are currently serving clients that include regional broadcasters, Hollywood studios and global OTTs. With over 6 million dubbed and 18 million subtitled minutes in 82 languages, the company offers the greatest subtitling and dubbing operations coverage of any Media and Entertainment localization vendor.
