Fandango acquires M-GO
February 1, 2016
Movie digital destination Fandango, a unit of NBCUniversal, is to acquire OTT service M-GO, a joint venture between Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation.
The acquisition – the terms of which were not disclosed – comes on the heels of Fandango’s record-breaking 2015, when the company experienced 81 per cent growth in ticketing dollars year-over-year and added more than 1,600 new screens, bringing its total US screen count to more than 27,000.
“With the addition of M-GO, we’ll be able to accelerate the ticketing momentum achieved in a record-breaking 2015 by creating compelling new digital products that serve consumers throughout the movie lifecycle,” said Fandango President Paul Yanover. “We’re excited to start working with our studio and exhibition partners to bundle theatrical tickets and home entertainment products in the form of ‘super tickets’, gifts with purchase, and other promotional offers.”
By creating theatrical ticketing and home entertainment bundles, Fandango says it will offer compelling ‘super ticket’ products such as special movie catch-up bundles with franchise movie instalments, home entertainment pre-sell opportunities, and bundles with bonus content, collectible memorabilia, fan experiences, and more.
Furthering its goal to super-serve moviegoers, in 2015 the company increased its investment in ticketing and launched FandangoLabs, a new research and development group that was formed in collaboration with movie and technology industry leaders to innovate and enhance the moviegoing experience. Moving forward, FandangoLabs will utilise the capabilities of the M-GO platform in the creation of new moviegoing products and services.
Along with the acquisition, the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and Technicolor will work together to explore opportunities to collaborate on next-generation video technologies, inclusive of augmented and virtual reality, to accelerate innovation in this immersive space.
Fandango’s mobile app has garnered 50 million downloads and is available on Apple’s iOS devices and Google’s Android platform. The company operates Fandango Movieclips, the movie trailers and movie-related content channel on YouTube, a dedicated website (http://www.movieclips.com) and mobile app for iOS and Android.
Fandango powers movie trailer and video channels on Samsung devices, Hulu, Facebook, AOL and Watchable. It also provides ticketing to IMDb, Yahoo! Movies, Moviefone, MSN and others.