September 8, 2008

Miniweb secures $32 million funding

Miniweb, the Interactive Service Provider that is enabling targeted, web-style advertising and interactivity on TV, announced a significant funding round, securing access to US$32 million of venture capital investment. The funding is lead by Meritage Funds in Denver , Colorado and DeGeorge Holdings III, Nevada . The capital raised will enable Miniweb to finance its international growth and drive new momentum in the interactive TV market.

Miniweb addresses industry and consumer demands for converged broadcast and broadband entertainment that offers personalized, web-style interactivity for TV viewers. The Miniweb platform provides significant opportunities to exploit the global growth in broadband enabled TV services. It delivers a richer viewing experience by providing personalized and relevant entertainment which enables new revenue streams for network operators, broadcasters, content owners and advertisers.

Andrew Carver, CEO of Miniweb said: “Miniweb answers a clear global need for interactive services using open technology that can work on existing TV devices with a remote control. The standards based platform and browser are TV device and middleware agnostic, making them easy and more cost effective to deploy than proprietary solutions across cable, satellite, terrestrial or IPTV broadband networks. We have a unique and powerful service offering with an exciting, wide ranging vision to deliver a converged broadband and broadcast entertainment experience and are already providing interactive TV capability to over 9 million homes.

”We are delighted with this round of funding and please d that experienced and successful investors such as Meritage Funds and DeGeorge Holdings share our vision and recognize our market potential. This funding will enable us to invest in the additional resources we need to deliver our interactive broadcast and broadband TV vision to our customers and partners worldwide.”

Commenting on the deal, James C Allen Chairman of the Miniweb board and Operating Partner at Meritage Funds said: “We are deeply impressed by the people, the technology and the thinking at Miniweb. We have reviewed a number of interactive TV and advertising propositions and believe that Miniweb’s offering stands out not only by delivering its innovative, standards-based technology that offers advantages to every member of the broadcast and broadband value chain but also by being globally deployable and scalable on virtually any TV distribution network or TV device. We invested in Miniweb because the company has the right technology and solutions to make interactivity on the TV a huge success, no matter how the consumer receives their broadband service. ”

With Miniweb, TV viewers benefit from a more engaging and empowering TV experience with access to personalized and relevant broadcast and broadband entertainment. Broadcasters can now make their channels more compelling by empowering viewers to interact with programs, and also leverage existing sponsorship and advertising through interactivity. TV network operators can increases ARPU and gain revenue share from broadcaster and advertiser interactive services. Advertisers can benefit from new web-style, advertising opportunities on the TV. Moreover, content owners can gain a new distribution channel to TV devices winning additional income from delivery of their current and ‘long tail’ content.
 

back