UK's TVPlayer completes £5M investment round

TVPlayer Completes £5M Investment Round to Accelerate Growth of OTT TV Platform

LONDON — TVPlayer, the UK’s leading live streaming TV platform, has completed a £5m investment round led by A+E Networks, the US-based award-winning, global media content company.

TVPlayer is a freemium over-the-top TV service in the UK which offers all of the country’s major free to air channels together with a pay TV bundle of 30+ premium channels for £4.99 per month without a contract. As part of the free to air package, TVPlayer will offer A+E Networks’ Blaze which launched in the UK on September 20.

The startup, which already has over 1 million active users, targets millennials, mobile users and households who have not previously purchased pay TV. In doing so, TVPlayer offers broadcasters an incremental audience on top of traditional pay TV operators.

Major broadcast networks including A+E Networks, 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, in the home and on the go, via wired, WiFi, 3G and 4G. TVPlayer has acquired 4G streaming rights for all of its channels and is the first service in the UK to have done so.

The investment will be used to further develop the content offering and to expand distribution of the service in the UK. A sizable marketing campaign, including TV spots on a number of free to air channels, will launch in the lead up to Christmas. Existing investors, including venture capital firm Beringea, invested alongside A+E Networks.

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.”

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. Founder Adam Smith, and Co-Founders Lewis Arthur and Dan Finch continue to hold a significant stake in the business and will work alongside a new management team soon to be announced.