Vubiquity acquires FilmFlex
May 28, 2014
In a move that adds a consumer facing storefront to its AnyVU cloud service offering and extends its international reach and licensing capabilities, multiplatform video services provider Vubiquity has acquired UK-based FilmFlex Movies, one of the largest VoD and multiplatform providers outside the United States. FilmFlex, formerly a joint venture between Sony Pictures Television and The Walt Disney Company Limited, provides digital storefront and video on demand services to connected consumers throughout the UK. The company has licensing agreements with major US studios and many independent distributors.
With over 90 million transactions enabled since launch, FilmFlex is one of the largest independent providers of white label VOD services outside the United States. FilmFlex offers a customizable digital video storefront, already used by service providers and brands such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Film4 and EE, as well as content aggregation and delivery to set-tops and connected devices. Bringing the two companies together extends Vubiquity’s relationships with major global content and service providers and adds new licensing and digital storefront capabilities to Vubiquity’s offerings.
“Vubiquity remains focused on expanding the breadth of our managed services and technical solutions that today support content and service providers worldwide,” said Darcy Antonellis, CEO of Vubiquity. “With FilmFlex we add additional studio assets and licensing, and gain important front-end technology to enable EST and other monetization models for multiplatform video consumption.”
Vubiquity’s acquisition of FilmFlex follows the launch of the company’s AnyVU Cloud platform, which offers a broad set of modular services that include a deep library of licensed content for both linear and on-demand, set-top box delivery and direct-to-subscriber streaming, electronic sell-through (EST) as well as other next-generation video services. FilmFlex’s digital storefront, assets and capabilities will be integrated into the new platform, and offered as part of the suite of modular services available to Vubiquity’s customers.
“With the addition of FilmFlex’s proven, carrier-class digital storefront to the AnyVU Cloud platform, Vubiquity offers a complete end-to-end solution for quickly launching and monetizing multiplatform digital video services, while also allowing service providers who prefer a modular approach to choose only those services that fit in with their strategic plans,” continued Antonellis.
“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,” said Jeff Henry, FilmFlex’s CEO. “We look forward to continued growth together as we integrate our companies.”