ByteDance acquires VR headset maker Pico, signaling their expanding market ambitions

Key Insights and Signals in Media and Entertainment

Mergers and Acquisitions
PicMonkey acquired by Shutterstock for USD 110 Mn
Global creative platform Shutterstock recently acquired PicMonkey, an online graphic design, and image editing platform. The transaction expands the company’s potential reach and taps into the rapidly growing USD 8 Bn market opportunity for creative software and design tools. Read More>>
Gambling firm 888 buys William Hill International in USD 2.2 Bn deal
888 confirmed it had won the race to acquire the remainder of William Hill and said it expected to complete the deal in early 2022, subject to approval from shareholders. The acquisition has signaled the intent to keep the bookmakers 1,400 shops as part of a foray into bricks-and-mortar betting. Read More>>
Microsoft acquires video-editing software startup Clipchamp
The technology lines up with Microsoft’s efforts to widen its productivity suite offerings for individual and corporate users. While Clipchamp offers a Windows app, part of the service’s power is its ability to draw on online computing resources. The Clipchamp tools are accessible via Chromium-based browsers, leveraging the computing power of a PC with graphics processing unit acceleration. Read More>>
Vox Media set to acquire Podcasting Newsletter Hot Pod
Vox Media is acquiring Hot Pod, the independent news outlet focused on the podcasting industry, as part of a bid to expand offerings from its technology site, The Verge. The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal. Read More>>
ByteDance acquired VR Headset Maker Pico-
Known for their Neo range of standalone VR headsets, Pico is estimated to be the third-largest headset producer after Facebook-owned Oculus and domestic competitor DPVR. ByteDance’s acquisition of Pico is based on optimism about the future of VR and its alignment with company goals. Read More>>

Partnerships
CSG enhances ZEE5s entertainment experiences
Using CSGs customer data platform, ZEE5 integrates its customer data with a single, unified platform that takes a data-driven approach to create what CSG describes as “exceptional customer experiences.” Easier and faster access to customer data worldwide generates comprehensive information mapping that provides ZEE5 with insights into customers’ content preferences. Read More>>

Executive Movement
Paramount Pictures appoints the next Chairman and CEO
Nickelodeon head Brian Robbins is slated to become the next chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. Robbins is expected to retain oversight of Nickelodeon. He also serves as the chief content officer of kids and family for Paramount Plus; the streaming service launched this year by ViacomCBS. Read More>>
GroupM picks OMD’s Nathan Young as Chief Growth Officer
Nathan Young, who has been at OMD for six years, is now set to be the Chief Growth Officer at GroupM. Nathan’s extensive experience in commercial strategy, business operations and transformation, exceptional client and team management skills make him ideally placed to join the GroupM team. Read More>>

Center setup and expansion
Tencent Cloud flags second Indonesian data center
The move will mark the first time Tencent Cloud has established two of its Internet Data Centre facilities in one market within the same year. Located in Jakarta, the site added to the vendors expanding infrastructure network across the world, which, at the last count, spanned 27 regions and 66 availability zones. Read More>>

Latest Industry Insights from Draup Braindesk

RPA-based workflow transformation, AI-enabled RPA applications, and 5G data wave are the major trends driving the M&E market growth and adoption.

UiPath integrated with Smartsheet to automate the management of workflows in Smartsheet projects, reports, and sheets. With this integration, UiPath with Smartsheet are enabling users and teams to accelerate digital transformation and simplify the automation of critical business processes

Media & entertainment companies are actively developing crowd simulation and content curation with high reliance on digital technologies such as AI and automation.

Facebook deployed automated content curation using AI, a detection system that identifies offensive speech more effectively and in multiple languages to remove hate speech.
Amazon introduced Amazon Translate that supports 54 languages and dialects, with 2,804 language pairs now supported. It also enables customers to translate information from one language to many languages

Emerging use cases such as automated captions, AI-based automated Ad creation, and infinite single-player games are creating vast opportunities for the M&E sector.

Havas Media introduced Automatic Ad creation using AI. Developing dynamic ad content enables Havas to automate the production of content and deliver ads in bulk.
Warner Media uses Ad Performance and Spend Optimization using AI by gaining consumer insights to attribute real-life actions to advertising efforts.
Facebook uses AI to create captions for images automatically. The tool is called Automatic Alternative Text, and it incorporates text-to-speech engines that allow blind individuals to use Facebook in other ways

Market leaders are implementing use clusters such as news broadcasting, advertising management, and subtitle management to advance their automation in the M&E industry.

France Televisions partnered with Wildmoka for Automated Subtitles for Live Sports. The solution uses AI to add the subtitles in live broadcasts automatically.
NBC Universal launched an AI-powered tool to scan TV show scripts and match advertisers to the show’s content.

Key Funding Alert

Gaming App Mobile Premier League (MPL) turns Unicorn
The Bangalore-based startup, which goes by MPL, raised capital from investors led by Legatum Capital with participation from Accrete Capital and Gaingels LLC. Existing investors, including Moore Strategic Ventures LLC and RTP Global, also participated in the round. The startup would not disclose the funding, but people familiar with the deal said MPL had raised USD 150 Mn. Read More>>

Startup Spotlight

Company – Mobalytics
Total Funding – USD 13.85 Mn
About: Mobalytics is an eSports company creating a new and more robust way for competitive gamers to analyze and improve their performance. The company is developing a Gamer Performance Index (GPI) that involves using in-game data available from game APIs and working it through ML algorithms to analyze and improve player performance. Read More>>

Latest Reports Published in Draup

Sky Deutschland Account Intelligence Report: Sky Deutschland is pushing towards digital offerings by expanding its “Sky Q” subscription service. The sky is offering content from online digital platforms such as video streaming service Netflix, music streaming service Spotify, and sports streaming service DAZN in high HDR quality as a part of its Sky Q portfolio. Read More>>

Fox Corporation Account Intelligence Report: Fox Corporation is keen on utilizing websites and apps to provide live and on-demand streaming of network-related programming primarily on an authenticated basis to allow video subscribers of the Company’s participating distribution partners to view Company content via the Internet. Read More>>

Here’s what’s new on our Sales Intelligence Platform
Compare a Target Account with its Peers

Introducing Comparison Insights in My Accounts to help you find gap areas for the Target Account compared to its peers
View the target account’s Mission and Vission information in the Account Profile to align it with your sales pitch
You can view the Digital Tech Stack usage by location in the Digital Tech Stack section
You can filter the customers using the ‘HQ Locations’ filter in the Customers section in the Account Profile

View All Updates

What you should do now

Request a Demo and see how Draup can maximize the impact of your go-to-market teams with AI-driven sales intelligence.
Read more free material about sales intelligence topics in our blog.
If you know someone who’d enjoy this page, share it with them via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.