A+E Networks has joined a £5 million investment round in TVPlayer.
Its new launch Blaze will now join a bundle of over 30 mini-pay channels available for a monthly £4.99. Fox, Viacom, Discovery, Eurosport, Sony, UKTV, Turner, Scripps, ITV, Channel 4 and Five already have their channels on the TVPlayer platform. In total, over 100 channels are available across desktop, mobile, tablet, Samsung Smart TV, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
TVPlayer has acquired 4G streaming rights for all of its channels and is the first service in the UK to have done so.
Existing investors including Beringea are also a part of the funding round.
Adam Smith, Founder of TVPlayer, says: “We are very excited about the investment and the backing it provides operationally and financially for the expansion of TVPlayer. TVPlayer has already succeeded in building a first-class content delivery platform and being the first provider in the UK to launch a legal live TV streaming service carrying all of the major channels. With our investors’ support, we look forward to focusing on our efforts on customer acquisition and subscriber growth.”
TVPlayer currently holds 1 million active users.
As part of the transaction, TVPlayer has de-merged from its parent company Simplestream and now operates as a standalone company with dedicated management, marketing and technology teams.
The investment will be used to further develop the content offering and to expand distribution of the service in the UK. A sizeable marketing campaign, including TV spots on a number of free to air channels, will launch in the lead up to Christmas.
