Simplestream, a provider of ‘Over the Top’ (OTT) live streaming services for broadcast TV channels, has secured substantial funding from Beringea, the manager of the ProVen VCTs.
The investment will accelerate the expansion of TVPlayer, Simplestream’s B2C live TV streaming service, and facilitate the addition of more channel packs and multi-channel catch-up functionality.
TVPlayer is a live TV aggregator of more than 45 free-to-air channels, enabling consumers to watch their favourite channels in one place. Consumers go to tvplayer.com or download the free TVPlayer app from the Apple, Google or Amazon app store. In addition to streaming channels from the major public service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE), TVPlayer has agreements to stream popular content from a growing number of Freeview and Freesat channels, including 4Music, Heart, Food Network, Travel Channel, FashionTV, Colors, Rishtey, Al Jazeera and Euronews.
TVPlayer has been downloaded almost one million times in the UK since it launched.
Simplestream has seen 100 per cent revenue growth year on year since its Media Manager was introduced to the UK market in 2012. The company now delivers services across Europe with further international expansion planned for 2015.
Rob Hodgkinson, investment manager at Beringea, who will join the Simplestream board, says: “The success of TVPlayer to date demonstrates there is significant demand for a multi-device aggregator of live TV in the UK market. We have been impressed by the progress made by Adam Smith and his team. We are delighted to support the continued development of Simplestream and TVPlayer.”
Adam Smith, founder and CEO of Simplestream, says: “With Beringea’s support, we will be investing further in TVPlayer as we seek to build a full TV replacement app, with live streaming and on-demand capabilities for high quality content. We are particularly excited by our content acquisition pipeline as major broadcasters increasingly recognise the ability to access a younger demographic of audience through TVPlayer and Simplestream’s Media Manager platform.”
