LOS ANGELES—Xytech Systems, a provider of media resource management software, has announced a merger with Fabric, a developer of media supply chain and metadata management solutions. The name of the new company will be announced at a later date and will be led by Fabric CEO, Rob Delf. Xytech’s current CEO, John O’Connor will become Chief Operating Officer.

The two companies are targeting the expanding market for data-based media resource management and supply chain-based media production with Xytech known for its comprehensive media resource management solutions including asset management, localization, formatting, packaging and transmission services and Fabric’s metadata and supply chain management tools.

By integrating their technologies and expertise, the new entity “will deliver innovation and efficiencies to media organizations in producing, managing, and distributing their content,” the company said.

“To me, that is a really big opportunity to move the needle forward and be more technology-focused so the architects of the supply chains are saying Xytech will work for us for the future, while at the same time preserving this very specific functionality that the industry’s relied on for 30 years,” Delf told TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope. “That’s the purpose of the merger.”

The two companies expect the merger to deliver substantial customer value by reducing time spent on media management tasks. The combined solution will feature greater automation and data handling, allowing organizations to quickly access and manage their data and resources with minimal manual intervention. This efficiency translates into faster decision-making and a more agile response to market demands, according to the company.

“Fabric’s award-winning media supply chain and metadata management solutions complement Xytech Systems’ powerful resource management tools perfectly,” said John O’Connor, CEO of Xytech Systems. “Together, we’ll provide our customers with powerful tools that simplify their workflows and accelerate their business processes.”

Private equity firm Banneker Partners, which specializes in investing in resource management and supply chain management tools, acquired Xytech in 2021.

“We are excited about the transformative merger between Xytech and Fabric, a partnership poised to redefine the standards in media resource and data management,” said Kenneth Frank, Partner at Banneker Partners. “By uniting their strengths, we are merging mission-critical technologies with the industry’s leading management team to pave the way for the innovation that Xytech and Fabric customers need for the future. This isn’t just about combining companies; it’s about creating an exceptional, data-driven, and future-focused media and entertainment platform.”

NEW YORK—As Paramount Global wrestled with management turmoil and ongoing negotiations for a proposed merger with Skydance, the company managed to report improved financials for its money-losing direct-to-consumer streaming segment in Q1 2024 earnings statement. 

The Q1 2024 earnings showed Paramount+ adding 3.7 million subscribers in the quarter as the streaming service hit 71 million subs and Paramount+ global ARPU expanded 26% year-over-year. Paramount+ revenue grew 51%, reflecting subscriber and ARPU growth. 

Overall the company’s DTC segment reported a 24% YoY bounce in revenue. Subscription revenue grew by 22%, driven by subscriber growth and pricing increases for Paramount+, and advertising revenue rose by 31%, driven by growth from Pluto TV and Paramount+, including the benefit of Super Bowl LVIII, the company said. 

Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OBIDA) fell from a $511 loss in Q1 2023 to $286 million in Q1 2024. 

Paramount stock was down by 4.57% at 12:20 p.m. on April 30 as Wall Street tried to make sense of the management changes—with the April 29 departure of longtime CEO Bob Bakish, the company is now being run by three executives—and the prospects for the company’s merger with Skydance or sale to another party being completed.  

The boards of EMG and Gravity Media have announced the completion of a definitive agreement to combine their businesses.

The combination of the two companies creates one of the world’s largest broadcast technology and production organizations.

The new entity, which is yet to be named, will include more than 100 outside broadcast trucks and flypacks and 40 studios and production facilities across Europe, the Middle East, United States, and Australia.

It will also have 30 offices across 12 countries, with a total of  2,000 permanent employees and access to a global network of freelance personnel.

The new entity will be led by Shaun Gregory, the current CEO of EMG, as its global chief executive officer. John Newton, founder, CEO and majority shareholder of Gravity Media, will serve as executive chairman.

Speaking to TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope as part of a media briefing, Newton and Gregory revealed the deal was officially signed before Christmas and has passed all regulatory hurdles.

The two companies first began discussing the merger pre-Covid, added Newton, and resumed negotiations last year.

“This is a non-cash transaction, which is why it’s a merger,” he added. “It takes the best of both businesses. There is a scale difference. The EMG business is bigger than the Gravity Media business, but all of the existing Gravity Media and EMG stakeholders are now in the new combination.”

The merger provides a much bigger and more stable company in an environment in an industry that’s been through some difficult times, added Gregory.

Asked what it means for staff, Newton said he doesn’t see much crossover between the two businesses. “One of the reasons for doing the deal is that the geographic markets are quite separate,” he added.

“Gravity Media has a big position in APAC, a bigger position in the U.S. than EMG. Obviously, we have some overlap in the U.K. but Gravity’s U.K. business provides slightly different services to EMG. There’s a good story for the aggregation of those services from glass to eyeball as such. We’re production and content, and media services and facilities. So that’s a combination of creative elements and also technical elements as well.”

In terms of geography in the U.K., Newton said he expects that in time all of the new entity’s production staff will move into Gravity Media’s White City production center, while the OB trucks and back-off staff will likely move to one single location, “if a location that can accommodate the scale of what’s needed can be found.”

“We’re always looking to improve, optimise and have an efficient business,” added Newton. “So just because there’s a merger, there doesn’t always have to be fallout from that.

“If you look at our industry, generally, all of our competitors are suffering from the same challenges that we have. Hopefully, those bad days are behind us and we’re going to start to see credit markets settle, inflation coming back under control, and that’s going to drive a growth phase. We want to take the best of the services that we have globally, offer them to our current markets plus new markets, which will mean we’ll be looking for more staff in those areas where we don’t work.”

According to Gregory, the merger allows the new entity to aggregate component parts of both businesses, enabling it to offer customers more services. “This industry is not behind the times, but I think it’s not mature, and there’s an opportunity to take a more proactive role,” he explained.

“There’s a kind of gap in the market for an Amazon of this sector, a truly digitized business that connects both people and customers around the world. There’s a real opportunity for someone to step in and provide that real customer-facing point where you can just do something differently.”

BOSTON—EditShare, a provider of editing and storage production technology has agreed to merge with Shift Media, a cloud-native video solution provider that helps creators manage, present, and collaborate on their high value projects. The combined business will operate as EditShare, with Shift Media’s well-known products, MediaSilo, Wiredrive, and Screeners.com folding under the EditShare corporate brand. The two companies are backed by ParkerGale Capital and Marlin Equity Partners, respectively.

With the expansion of video production into markets beyond entertainment and marketing into corporate communications, higher education, house of worship, and many more, EditShare says its merger with Shift Media “will deliver a comprehensive, open solution that enables creative teams and content creators to seamlessly store, edit, collaborate, and share their content, whether they choose to work on-premise, in the cloud, or with a hybrid solution.” 

EditShare’s high-performance workflow focused product suite includes EFS media optimized shared storage and FLOW intelligent media management. In 2022, the company launched EditShare FLEX built on AWS to focus on remote and collaborative workflows. Shift Media’s cloud-native, software-as-a-service solutions include MediaSilo, Wiredrive and Screeners.com. MediaSilo provides a video collaboration HQ for fast approval while Wiredrive helps commercial production companies and agencies quickly and easily create custom pitch materials and showreels. Screeners.com provides virtual screening for press review and sales opportunities of high value pre-release content.

Ramu Potarazu, Shift Media’s CEO, will lead the combined company under the EditShare banner following the close of the transaction; current EditShare CEO Conrad Clemson will leave the business.

“The tireless work of Conrad and the EditShare team has put us in a position of strength for the future,” Potarazu said. “Shift Media was built on the principle that video workflow technology should be completely intuitive and customer friendly. EditShare and Shift Media are highly complementary businesses with market leading products and services and shared commitment to putting the power of video production in the hands of creators. As a combined company, we will create a one-stop shop with a more comprehensive range of products and global network of channel partners, enabling us to better meet our customer needs around the world.”

“Our two companies have very strong businesses and powerful product offerings,” said Stephen Tallamy, CTO of EditShare. “Together, we will be better positioned to deliver a powerful, comprehensive, and intuitive content management and collaboration offering to the broad middle market, which is where most of the industry sits.”

ParkerGale Capital and Marlin Equity Partners, previous backers of EditShare and Shift, respectively, will maintain their positions as primary investors and board members of the combined company. "I'm excited that Marlin Equity Partners and ParkerGale will continue to support the business," said Potarazu. “Together, we are aligned on delivering cutting edge solutions in response to the stratospheric growth in video production and continued move towards flexible, collaborative on-premise, hybrid, and cloud workflows.”

Demonstrations of the combined company's solutions can be seen at IBC2023, on stand 7.A35.

WASHINGTON D.C.—The FCC has asked for a wide range of new documents as part of its assessment of the $8 billion merger of Apollo Global Management, Standard General L.P., and Tegna. 

The merger has been criticized by pay TV providers for potentially giving the station group too much power in transmission consent negotiations and by public interest groups and unions as potentially hurting local news coverage.

Standard General has pushed back against those arguments in filings with the FCC, contending that its “proposed acquisition of Tegna and the related transactions, including Standard General’s sale of eight TV stations to CMG [Cox Media Group], will yield significant public interest benefits without any countervailing public interest harms.”  

In an Sept. 30 statement emailed to TV Tech, Standard General said “Standard General, who will be the sole owner of Tegna, has consistently confirmed that its plans for post-closing TEGNA do not involve station-level layoffs”

In another email statement regarding the ongoing FCC process, Deb McDermott, the future CEO of Tegna said that “We just wish to be treated like everyone else.”

In its request for additional documents, FCC asked for financial documents presented to financial institutions and potential lenders that could shed light on potential staff cuts and investment plans. It is also asking for detailed information on local news operations, retransmission consent negotiations and the merger agreements. 

At the very minimum, the new document requests indicate that the FCC may not approve the deal before the end of October and that the process could drag on beyond that.  The deadline for the new documents is October 13. 

If the proposed $8 billion merger of Apollo Global Management (AGM), Standard General L.P., and Tegna is approved, Standard General would acquire Tegna’s 61 full power television stations and two radio stations across 50 markets. Apollo will control the licenses of 31 full-power television stations in 26 markets and 54 radio stations in 11 radio markets.

More specifically, the FCC is asking for this information: 

• “All documents, including presentations to AGM and any other financial lending or investment institutions, addressing each company’s evaluation of this transaction (as well as alternative transactions considered among the companies), the motivating reasons for each company joining in the transaction, the reasons why the transaction would be advantageous to each company, and, specifically, documents discussing the cutting of staff, the diminution or displacement of local content, and the expansion of national content;
• All documents, including without limitation offering memoranda or prospectuses, used to secure funding, or to market to, or discuss the proposed transactions with, prospective investors;
• All analyses supporting or quantifying the Applicants’ contention that the transaction will facilitate investment in local content and production capabilities, including specific business synergies and efficiencies that will facilitate such investment or otherwise aid the operation of Standard General and CMG [Cox Media Group] were the transaction to be consummated;
• All analyses and documents relating to projected future capital expenditures, personnel headcounts, and programming plans for each of the broadcast stations included in the Applications;
• For each station acquired by Standard General or CMG within the last five years, provide documentation and data with respect to the addition of local and news programming, specifically breaking out, for each station, the weekly addition (or loss) of hours of (a) local news, (b) other local programming, and (c) news and interest segments not originated by the station.  Provide documents or, if not otherwise available in document form, a narrative response describing the relationship between centrally originated programming by Standard General and CMG and any requirements for local stations to air such programming, including without limitation any written agreements or correspondence between Standard General and CMG and the stations with respect to such programming;  
• Describe in detail how a Washington, D.C. newsroom will be integrated with local stations and the extent of local station editorial control over resulting news coverage; provide all documents relating to any such proposed integration.
• All documents concerning any actual or potential consolidation of news operations or services, including impacts on personnel headcounts;
• All analyses and documents relating to Standard General’s review of the CMG retransmission agreements currently in place, including calculations of post-transaction rate increases, or, alternatively, a statement that Standard General has not reviewed such agreements; 
• All correspondence from Deborah McDermott or other Standard General executives to TEGNA employees addressing how the proposed transaction may affect staffing or conditions of employment.”

The FCC is also asking for he following schedules to the Merger Agreement:

• “Section 4.2 - Capital Stock and Indebtedness 
• Section 4.4(a) - Consents and Approvals; No Violations 
• Section 4.4(b) - Consents and Approvals; No Violations 
• Section 4.11(a) - Employee Benefits Plans 
• Appendix 4.11(a)(i) Appendix 4.11(a)(ii) Section 4.11(e) - Multiemployer Plans 
• Section 4.11(g) - Post-Employment Benefits 
• Section 4.15(a)(iii) - Tax Matters
• Section 4.16 - Employment and Labor Matters 
• Appendix 4.16(c) 
• Section 4.20 - MVPD Matters 
• Section 4.21 - Finders or Brokers Section 6.5(a) - Employee Matters 
• Section 6.6(e) - Regulatory Approvals, Efforts”

 In addition it has requested the following schedules to the Contribution Agreement: 

• “Section 1.01 - Permitted Liens 
• Section 3.04 - FCC and Programming Distribution Matters 
• Section 3.13 - Financial Statements 
• Section 4.05 - FCC and Programming Distribution Matters 
• Section 4.06 - Taxes 
• Section 4.12 - Employees; Labor Matters; Employee Benefit Plans 
• Section 4.15 - Financial Statements”

 SAN FRANCISCO—After Elon Musk sent a letter to the Securities and  Exchange Commission “terminating” the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on July 8, Twitter’s chairman responded with a tweet saying the company plans to sue Musk, setting up what may become a lengthy legal battle over the affair. 

Musk announced plans to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in April but since that time tensions have grown between Twitter and Musk amid growing signs that Musk was looking for a way out of the deal. 

Elon Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to the Securities & Exchange Commission on Friday, July 8, saying that “Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect (as that term is defined in the Merger Agreement).”

The letter from Mike Ringler at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP on behalf of Musk’s X Holdings, complained that “[fo]or nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to `make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform’” and that “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.”

Under the proposed merger, Musk would have to pay Twitter $1 billion if he backs out of the deal but Twitter seems intent on suing Musk to force the deal to be completed. 

In a tweet, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said: “The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

Twitter’s stock has declined from a peak of $51.70 on April 25 to $33.79 at 11:30 a.m. ET on July 11. 

SAN JOSE & LOS GATOS, Calif.—Rumors that Netflix might be interested in buying Roku as part of its push into advertising boosted Roku’s stock on June 8 but produced mixed reactions from analysts.

The idea prompted widespread media speculation after the Business Insider reported that talk had heated up on the possible deal among Roku employees and that Roku closed its employee trading window, which means employees could not sell vested shares.  

The combination would allow Netflix to get quickly into the advertising business as it prepares to roll-out a lower cost ad supported tier later this year. 

Both companies also face mounting pressures from investors, with Roku facing increased competition from other operating systems like Google TV and Netflix seeing its stock hammered by sub losses and increased competition in the streaming wars. 

Prior to this rumor, both Roku and Netflix are trading more than 70% lower than their peak stock prices, according to USA Today. 

Speaking on CNBC about a possible deal, Richard Greenfield, partner and media and technology analyst at LightShed Partners firmly dismissed the idea, however.

“I think this is one of the most absurd ideas I’ve heard in 27 years following media stocks,” Greenfield said. “Just think about what Roku is. It is the operating system that is built into devices and dongles as well as sticks that you plug into TVs and everybody wants to run on top of that TV operating system….Netflix owning hardware, and basically prioritizing one hardware [platform they own] over the 1000s of devices that Netflix is on, seems completely antithetical to the everything that Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos have built over the last three years. So it's very hard to understand.”

Others agreed. Innovid CTO and co-founder, Tal Chalozin noted in an email that the deal is likely to remain just a rumor: “The deal could happen but it’s not a perfect fit, necessarily. Netflix built its success being device agnostic – acquiring a device-based business seems counter to that, though Roku does feature the infrastructure Netflix will require for its ad-supported business. Netflix’s user base is also mostly saturated in North America so they’re seeking support for international distribution. But it’s early days for Roku’s [international] expansion.”

Roku stock was up 9% on the speculation to 101.88 at the end of trading on June 8 while Netflix stock was up 2% to 202.83.

NEW YORK—In the Q4 earnings results, Discovery reported notable progress in its streaming efforts, with direct-to-consumer subs hitting 22 million, and outlined some streaming strategies for the combined WarnerMedia, Discovery assets when the merger is completed. 

Overall, Discovery added about 2 million direct-to-consumer subs in Q4, 2021, mostly for its Discovery+ service. 

During the Q4 earnings call David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery noted that for Discovery+, “we expect to launch the U.K. in March with additional countries in Europe having been identified to follow thereafter.” 

Zaslav also stressed that they had revamped their tech stack in Europe so it is on the same platform as the U.S., which will help speed up future growth and international rollouts for Discovery's direct-to-consumer products. 

“Within direct-to-consumer, discovery+ plus continues to perform very well,” Zaslav said. “We end the year with 22 million total subscribers passing peak investment loss levels supported by consistent and continued strong KPIs, advertiser interest, and overall monetization efforts. As previously discussed, we've thoughtfully and tactically managed our rollout and will continue to do so while sharpening our focus and gaining perspective for the next leg of our direct-to-consumer journey with WarnerMedia and HBO.”

“[W]e achieved a significant milestone this past quarter, having replatformed our discovery+ tech stack across Europe, bringing it onto a single platform consistent with the U.S.,” Zaslav said. “We achieved this important migration quite seamlessly, enabling a more feature rich and personalized consumer experience. These efforts should ultimately drive better consumer engagement, higher retention, and ultimately lower churn, further supporting the trend we've enjoyed over the last few quarters.”

“This replatforming also enables the rolling out of an add light tier to discovery + and select international regions,” he continued. “Something as you know, that was not contemplated when we launched at the end of 2020, in which we expect will figure meaningfully in our eventual merged offering.”

During the call Zaslav also explained how the large libraries and production capabilities of the combined WarnerMedia, Discovery assets would position them for faster growth on multiple platforms. 

But he also stressed that they planned to be "careful and judicious" in their spending. 

“We have the resources,” he said, adding that “we plan on being careful and judicious. Our goal is to compete with the leading streaming services, not to win the spending war.”

“We're going to spend more on content, but you're not going to see us come in and go, all right, we're spending $5 billion more" he said. 

“We're going to continue to spend, but don't expect us to come out and go a couple of billion dollars more and off we go,” he continued. “No, we're going to be measured. We're going to be smart and we're going to be careful, but we're going to invest in the streaming platform. But that's not our only game. Our game is to create a business that generates sustainable growth, that's global in nature, that generates a lot of free cash flow."

The remarks come at a time when Wall Street has become increasingly concerned about spending on content for streaming services at companies like Netflix and Disney. 

NEW YORK & MEXICO CITY—Grupo Televisa, S.A.B and Univision Holdings II, Inc. have announced they’ve completed their $4.8 billion merger, creating a new company, TelevisaUnivision, Inc., that will reach over 100 million Spanish-language speakers every day on TV, digital and audio. 

Completing the merger comes as TelevisaUnivision is gearing up to launch a major streaming service for the Spanish speaking audiences in 2022, with free and premium tiers, and large offering of original Spanish-language entertainment, sports and news. 

The Company’s new investors include SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google and The Raine Group.

“The close of our transaction marks a historic moment for our company and our industry,” said TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis. “We are combining two iconic and market-leading companies that have a rich, shared history and an incredible portfolio of assets. This combination will create a business without comparison in the global media landscape. Over the past year both companies have transformed themselves, reaching levels of financial performance and audience resonance that has not been seen for years. The power and momentum of the transformed core business is truly unique and will be a springboard for the upcoming launch of the preeminent Spanish-language streaming service. The new trajectory of our company is supported by our new ownership group, which is well positioned to amplify the efforts of one of the best leadership teams in the world.”

“The combination of content assets from Televisa and Univision, the two leading media companies from the two largest Spanish-speaking markets in the world, has created a company with tremendous potential,” said Alfonso de Angoitia, executive chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board of Directors. “With our attractive financial profile and history of innovation, TelevisaUnivision is ready to revolutionize the industry by delivering the most comprehensive Spanish-language content offering to audiences around the world.”

The new company will combine Televisa’s four broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio, Blim TV subscription video-on-demand service, and the Televisa trademark, with Univision’s assets in the U.S., which include the Univision and UniMás broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 television stations and 57 radio stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets, and the PrendeTV AVOD platform.

It also has the largest Spanish-language content library in the world, with 300,000 hours of content, an extensive portfolio of IP and sports rights, and a large infrastructure for producing new content. 

As a result of the combination, TelevisaUnivision reaches over 60% of the respective TV audiences in both the U.S. and Mexico, the company said, putting them well positioned supply entertainment and services to the global Spanish-speaking population of nearly 600 million, which represents an aggregate GDP of approximately $7 trillion.

The company also noted that they remain on track to launch its previously announced unified global streaming service in 2022, which will include both a free and a premium subscription tier. 

Reuters is reporting that the launch will occur in the first half of the year. 

The service will have the largest offering of original Spanish-language content in the U.S. and Latin America, including dramas, comedies, docuseries, game shows, reality shows, variety programs, movies, musical and cultural events, children’s and educational programs, sports and special events, as well as news programming.

Wade Davis will lead TelevisaUnivision as CEO. Alfonso de Angoitia will serve as executive chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board and Marcelo Claure will become vice chairman of the Board.

The TelevisaUnivision Board will also be comprised of Emilio Azcárraga, Bernardo Gómez, Michel Combes, Gisel Ruiz, Oscar Muñoz, Maria Cristina “MC” Gonzalez Noguera, Eric Zinterhofer and Jeff Sine. In addition, Televisa retains the right to appoint two additional directors.

WASHINGTON—In today’s TV landscape, it is important that local news stations have the ability to provide high quality programming to strengthen localism. According to the FCC, localism may outweigh other points of consideration when determining if two stations are able to merge.

In a new FCC paper, “Market Size and Local Television News,” the commission has three policy goals when considering local TV station ownership: competition, diversity and localism. The paper analyzes how the FCC’s structural regulation of station ownership affects the achievement of its policy goals.

A 2017 FCC Reconsideration Order, as well as the commission’s 2018 Quadrennial Review Notice of media policy goals, cited that diversity (primarily referring to diversity of voice) and localism could be relevant in an evaluation of a proposed merger of top-four TV stations—a typically prohibited practice—that serves the greater public interest.

The FCC says that in a typical situation, having more stations in a market will likely increase both the diversity of voices, as well as competition and localism. However, if a market is “out of equilibrium,” then the reduction of independent newsrooms could actually increase the quantity and quality of local news because it may help reduce the high costs of news production as revenue is increased and costs are split between the stations, according to the analysis.

To help prove this, the FCC estimated market size thresholds above which a market can likely sustain two, three or four or more local news operations, based on an acceptance criterion of either 50% or 75% to determine entry threshold values. Higher acceptance criterion lead to higher threshold estimates and make it more likely that a market may not be able to sustain the targeted number of stations. In markets below the threshold, mergers may be considered more favorable.

Using data from 2019 and a 50% acceptance criterion, market sizes for two, three and four or more local news stations came out to 35,000, 175,000 and 615,000 TV households, respectively. Using a 75% acceptance criterion, the results were 70,000, 310,000 and 800,000 for two, three and four or more operations.

“We expect our findings to be useful in merger deliberations to better understand the effects of a proposed merger on the Commission’s policy goals,” the FCC wrote in the paper. “In a merger analysis, the regression results and data from the market could be used to assess the likelihood that the market will sustain the current number of local news operations. In some markets, there may be a tradeoff between localism and diversity. A merger that eliminates a source of local news may be optimal, even though it reduces viewpoint diversity, if the merged entity improves the quality or increases the quantity of local news programming, strengthening localism.”

The full FCC paper is available online. 

Boston, MA, USA — May 20, 2019—EditShare, a technology leader in intelligent scale-out storage, Automated Quality Control (AQC), editing and media management solutions, today announced it has taken on a majority investment from private equity firm ParkerGale Capital (ParkerGale). Focused on profitable founder-owned technology companies, ParkerGale’s carefully curated portfolio is a mix of software-oriented businesses that are supported by the firm’s financial investment and in-house operating team whose mission is to help portfolio businesses rapidly scale and bring to market new innovative products and services. EditShare founders, Andy Liebman and Tara Montford, will continue to lead EditShare innovation and customer success and remain the company’s largest individual shareholders. Industry veteran, Conrad Clemson, will join the leadership team as EditShare CEO.

“We have created a company that not only delivers products and solutions that appeal to the media production market, as shown by our returning customers, but also to a company such as ParkerGale, which has had the insight to see how valuable EditShare has become. ParkerGale’s deep-seated history of helping profitable companies like ours achieve their next stage growth goals will enable our team to expand and develop the EditShare product range into even better solutions for our customers in the future,” comments Tara Montford, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President Business Development, EditShare. “EditShare has always been extremely customer-focused and without our customers’ engagement, we would not be where we are today. Riding the momentum of double-digit growth over the last three years combined with the investment by ParkerGale, we will have the resources at hand to accelerate all our plans and deliver on our innovative roadmap while retaining that personal touchpoint with our customers.”

Deployed at thousands of facilities around the world, EditShare solutions are used to power the creation of many of today’s blockbuster feature films, captivating TV series, documentaries, sports programs, live events, educational programs, corporate communications and more. Its ultra-scalable distributed media management platform enables businesses of all sizes to drive media production workflows with greater ease. EditShare’s secure collaboration environment connects users to content and production tools, allowing businesses to hire the talent they require, anywhere in the world.

“We are proud to offer industry-leading solutions that enable our customers to respond to market demands with greater efficiency and ultimately take advantage of new opportunities to grow their businesses,” comments Andy Liebman, EditShare Co-Founder and newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer. “Our incredibly talented team is dialed into our customers’ needs and next steps. They are developing and delivering innovative solutions that facilitate collaboration and efficiency such as the EditShare Flow hybrid media management platform that can cut production time by as much as 50% and EFS Shared Storage Auditing, an important content security capability that helps mitigate content theft. Our innovations span all aspects of media production from an individual storyteller who is using the Emmy-award winning Lightworks to enterprise broadcasters automating productions with EditShare’s metadata-driven workflow solutions. With ParkerGale’s infusion of capital, EditShare will be able to execute much faster on the many more incredible product and workflow ideas we have for all of our customers.”

Leading the company through this next stage of growth is EditShare’s new CEO, Conrad Clemson, who recently led Cisco’s Video, Mobility, and Cloud organizations. “Andy founded EditShare in 2003 when he needed a more flexible and affordable solution for media sharing. His invention of high-performance Network Attached Storage for editing transformed the industry in a way others weren’t imagining at that time," comments Clemson. "EditShare’s history of leading the industry with groundbreaking innovations and solving customer problems before they even recognize them goes deep, and with this investment, the EditShare team will be even better positioned to continue to deliver transformative solutions to an industry that is in greater demand for it now more than ever.”

Devin Mathews, Founding Partner at ParkerGale concludes on the new partnership and expanded resources, “We couldn’t be more excited to embark on this partnership with the EditShare team. In our research, we were particularly impressed by just how much customers love the EditShare suite of products - a testament to the tremendous foundation this company has built.”

To learn more about the expanded EditShare leadership team and its solutions for media & entertainment production, please visit https://www.editshare.com/management

About EditShare

EditShare is a technology leader in networked shared storage and tapeless, end-to-end workflow solutions for the post-production, TV and film industries. Our groundbreaking products improve efficiency and workflow collaboration every step of the way. They include video capture and playout servers, high-performance EFS central shared storage, AQC, archiving and backup software, media asset management, and Lightworks – the world’s first three-platform (Windows/OS X/Linux) professional non-linear video editing application.

©2019 EditShare LLC. All rights reserved. EditShare® is a registered trademark of EditShare.

Press Contact

Alex Molina

Zazil Media Group

(e) alex@zazilmediagroup.com

(p) +1 (617) 834-9600

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Comcast has won the auction for Sky, offering £17.28 per Sky ordinary share versus Fox’s £15.67.

The two companies took part in three rounds of an auction which was overseen by the UK Takeover Panel throughout Saturday.

Both offers will now be put to shareholders, who have until 11th October to vote on them.

Should Sky shareholders accept Comcast's bid, it would end almost three decades of control of Sky by the Murdoch family.

Speaking about the auction process, analyst Paolo Pescatore said a knockout bid was the only way to settle the battle which has raged through most of the summer.

“This is unsurprising given the value that Sky will bring to the company in the future," he added.

“There are significant growth opportunities in Europe. The combined entity will be a considerable force. Expect to see other American (including the losing party) and Asian providers to make similar moves for other European content and media assets.”

“Sky and its customers will now benefit from being part of the wider group; access to more services, products and features. And financial security to some extent to bid for key costly premium content rights; in particular sports which is arguably the company’s prized asset with the Premier League," said Pescatore.

And Sky appears eager to make the merger happen.

Sky has recommended its shareholders accept Comcast's offer of £17.28 per share "immediately".

In a letter to shareholders, the broadcaster said: "As the price of the Comcast Offer is materially superior, it is in the best interests of all Sky shareholders to accept the Comcast Offer."

"Accordingly, the Independent Committee unanimously recommends that Sky shareholders accept the Comcast Offer, and in order to ensure the successful closing of the Comcast Offer, and given the possibility of a delisting of Sky in the near future, urges shareholders to accept immediately.

"Sky's board and shareholders have to decide whether to accept the offer by October 11.

Comcast must secure 50 percent acceptance for the deal to go through.

Meanwhile, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts has told the FT that he wants to maintain Sky's independence: "The consistent theme at Comcast has been letting leaders of our businesses make their own decisions, being decentralised and keeping an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.

"We’ve said this to Jeremy [Darroch, Sky's chief executive] and the rest of the Sky team…They will be able to act as an independent company but with the resources of a $150 billion company behind them.”

RICHMOND, VA--Top executives at Meredith and Media General told analysts during a conference call that the $2.4 billion merger they announced this morning has considerable upside in digital media as well as TV stations poised to benefit from 2016 election spending.

The combined entity will reach some 30% of U.S. TV households, via 88 stations in 54 markets, which would make it the No. 3 U.S. station group. In 80% of all markets where it operates, it will be No. 1 or No. 2 in terms of revenue, a point the executives returned to repeatedly during the hour-long call.

Broadcasting & Cable has the rest of the story.

WASHINGTON – The FCC has approved the merger of AT&T and DirecTV into a single entity, AT&T-DirecTV. However, the commission has also issued a set of conditions on which the merger will be required to follow.

The first condition is that AT&T-DirecTV is required to expand its deployment of high-speed, fiber-optic broadband Internet access service to 12.5 million customer locations, as well as E-rate eligible schools and libraries. AT&T-DirecTV is also prohibited from using discriminatory practices to disadvantage online video distribution services and must submit its Internet interconnection agreements for review by the FCC. Lastly, broadband services will be offered to low-income consumers at discounted rates.

These conditions will remain in effect for AT&T-DirecTV for four years after the merger closes.

AT&T announced its intentions to acquire DirecTV in May 2014 for the price of $48.5 billion.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel voted in favor of the deal; commissioner Michael O’Rielly concurred in part, and commissioner Ajit Pai dissented in part.