Advanced Television

Sky takes V-Nova stake

June 26, 2017

Pan-European broadcaster Sky is taking a minority equity stake in video compression solutions provider V-Nova. The value of the investment is £4.5 million (€5.2m).

In a stock market announcement on June 23rd, Sky said: “In accordance with Listing Rule 10.4.1, the Company advises that in 2015, Sky’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Sky Italia S.r.l, provided £4.5m of financing to V-Nova, a London-based company developing video compression technologies.  Under the terms of the agreement, the outstanding debt has now been converted into a minority equity stake in V-Nova.”

A spokesperson for V-Nova described the move as “great news” for the company as it increases the participation of major industry players in the company. Sky Italia began working with V-Nova in 2015, and has used its solutions for contribution (e.g. transmitting video from a football broadcast back to Sky) and IPTV (delivering video to end customers over the internet). Sky’s relationship with V-Nova will enable it to understand more about V-Nova’s technology and its potential relevance and application for Sky in the future.

V-Nova already benefits from a number of investors, including players such as Eutelsat. V-Nova also acquired the full global patent portfolio of video imaging specialist Faroudja Enterprises Inc. in January 2017.

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