TiVo’s acquisition of Cubiware is undoubtedly one of the most important industry deals so far this year in Central and Eastern Europe.
Interestingly, it involves a Polish company, as did another notable one back in March, when it was announced that Scripps Networks Interactive was to buy a majority stake in the broadcaster TVN.
Cubiware was founded in 2008 and initially focused its activities on the development of IPTV middleware. However, it then identified a gap in the market by building a hybrid DVB/IP product (CubiTV) and went to also offer OTT/multiscreen middleware and development kits. More recently – in fact at IBC last September – it unveiled a new pay-TV middleware solution known as CubiConnect that is being rolled out this year.
Although Cubiware initially served the Polish market, with its first client for CubiTV being the cable operator Toya, it quickly expanded its activities internationally. Deals ensued with a number of companies, including, interestingly, TiVo, with which Cubiware partnered on a prototype of a CubiTV and TiVo Cloud Services integration, again at IBC, in 2013.
Today, Cubiware claims relationships with around 40 customers, representing some 12 million pay-TV subscribers, in 25 countries in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. All told, its solutions have been integrated into over 4 million set-top boxes.
It is these stats that undoubtedly attracted the attention of TiVo, which is keen to strengthen its international presence. In Europe, it recently extended its agreement with the UK’s Virgin Media, while in Spain Vodafone is now promoting Ono’s TV-based next generation service. Cubiware will no doubt help TiVo expand in Europe, and indeed in Latin America, where the Polish company has deals in place with Columbus Communications, which is part of Cable & Wireless, and Televisa’s Cablemas.
The one thing we can be sure about this deal is that others involving major companies and up and coming CEE-based players, ideally with an international presence, will almost certainly follow.
