Fugitive establishes UK AVoD business with Merzigo
November 18, 2020
Fugitive, the rapidly growing content development, financing, executive producing and distribution company run by Anthony Kimble and Merrily Ross, has joined forces with Merzigo, Turkey’s leading MCN and YouTube content aggregator, to establish an international Merzigo business in London.
The Fugitive team, led by Merrily Ross, will be responsible for assessing and acquiring content with available AVoD rights from across the world and then working with Merzigo’s high-tech facility in Istanbul to upload and manage the content, while exploring ways to optimise revenues across digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Dailymotion. Sought after content includes big name factual entertainment brands, factual programming in genres ranging from reality and true crime to history and science, plus scripted content ranging from soaps and telenovelas to crime series and movies.
Merzigo is an innovative and market leading digital channel curation business in Turkey, with a reputation for successfully increasing revenues and growing committed online communities for broadcaster brands such as Fox and KanalD, producers such as Acun Medya Global, and programme brands such as Survivor and Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem – the latter of which is the highest grossing TV series on YouTube in the EMEA region. Merzigo also works with Disney, National Geographic, TV8 and Kanal 7.
Merzigo’s success can be partly attributed to its sophisticated proprietary algorithms which draw viewers to content, but also to its work on cleverly customising channels and providing high-level piracy protection for all its managed content. Merzigo also has the facility to dub content in 16 languages, covering most of the world’s key markets.
Merrily Ross from Fugitive comments: “This exciting new collaboration with Merzigo allows Fugitive to capitalise on its extensive network of international contacts and, of course, the rapidly growing AVoD market. There is so much content out there in the world but relatively few companies with either Merzigo’s track record or high-tech and curation capabilities. By joining forces, we bring something new to this sector of the distribution market and will be quickly in a position to help rights owners truly maximise the value of their IP in the rapidly developing digital universe.”
Yiǧit Doǧan Çelik, managing director of Merzigo, adds: “The time is right for Merzigo to grow its international footprint and I am delighted to be partnering in this expansion with Fugitive. The team’s mix of commercial and creative skills compliments our own, and we both have a clear ambition to grow Merzigo into the ‘go-to’ business for broadcasters, producers and distribution partners looking to enhance and extend the life of their content, as well as to increase revenues.”
The Fugitive team is currently setting-up the Merzigo international office in central London, where it will provide a range of business affairs and support services. Merrily Ross is also recruiting a dedicated content acquisitions executive to manage the day-to-day content flow.