Turner buys majority stake in iStreamPlanet

Turner Broadcasting System has bought a majority stake in live video streaming company iStreamPlanet, a major cloud investment that will see it “develop new products and services”.

Announcing the deal, Turner said that it will use iStreamPlanet’s technology to deliver its OTT programming and shift the firm’s “core technology infrastructure to the cloud”, a move many traditional media companies have taken in recent years.

The US-based median giant added that iStreamPlanet would develop new products and services for existing and new businesses and that the deal marks “an important piece of Turner’s ongoing technology transformation”.

“We’ve worked with iStreamPlanet in the past during the PGA Championship and they have also delivered world-class events such as the Super Bowl and Olympics to millions of viewers,” said Turner chairman and chief executive officer, John Martin.

“This partnership will expand our capabilities to offer live events within and outside of the traditional ecosystem and, by bringing iStreamPlanet’s innovative technology in-house, allow us to cultivate future business opportunities on digital platforms.”

Under the deal, iStreamPlanet will remain a standalone business and continue to make deals with existing and new third-party clients, while working with Turner to explore new business opportunities.

iStreamPlanet founder and CEO Mio Babic said: “We couldn’t ask for a better partner to accelerate our growth and expand our portfolio of multiplatform OTT solutions to meet the changing needs of content owners and consumers.”

iStreamPlanet offers large-scale, live event streaming, TV Everywhere network simulcasts and OTT multiplatform solutions. Its customers to date include NBC Sports, Viacom, AMC Networks, Fox, Microsoft and Turner.

Turner said that it will enhance iStreamPlanet’s commercial offering, and that its own technology requirements range from live news, simulcast networks, video-on-demand and multiplatform-specific content.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.