Media Distillery sold its media monitoring activities to SoundAware Group and will herewith focus entirely on the TV industry, providing international broadcasters, cable- and TV operators with its Artificial Intelligence technology, so they can analyse vast amounts of video content.
With this acquisition, SoundAware Group takes the next step to strengthen its media monitoring portfolio and further develop its European ambitions.
SoundAware Group acquired Media Distillery Monitoring BV, including the customer relationships in the Netherlands and abroad, some technology components and all employees involved. They will combine these activities with those of RTV Monitor, a company that became part of SoundAware Group in 2019. This bundling of activities will allow customers to benefit optimally from the state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure that RTV Monitor has at its disposal. In addition, they have a specialised team that is responsible for the daily real-time alerts and high-quality clips of media publications.
Media Distillery has been active in the monitoring industry since 2014, with impressive growth in recent years. They can analyse radio and TV channels in real-time, with efficient artificial intelligence algorithms like speech recognition, logo recognition and text recognition. Dozens of European media monitoring partners have integrated this data with their services so that hundreds of companies, organisations and government institutions receive real-time alerts on a daily basis. VodafoneZiggo, Albert Heijn and Heineken, educational institutions such as Hogeschool Utrecht, VU Amsterdam and the University of Groningen, and a large number of government institutions, amongst others, are some examples of clients.
Roland Sars, CEO of Media Distillery, is very pleased: ‘This acquisition proves that we have built a wonderful platform and client base, and it’s a compliment to our entire team. We are convinced that our clients and employees can continue to develop and grow under the wings of SoundAware Group. Media Distillery will focus entirely on improving the user experiences associated with their video platforms for TV Operators and broadcasters; this business is growing fast, and we are now also working for clients such as Telenet (Belgium), YouSee (Denmark), VTR (Chili) and Eutelsat (France).’
Harold de Groot, CEO of SoundAware Group, adds: ‘This acquisition enables us to accomplish our growth ambitions for RTV Monitor even faster. The dedicated team and comprehensive client portfolio are perfectly aligned with that of RTV Monitor. Together, we now provide more than 500 companies and organisations daily, via our partners, with media publications (which is growing increasingly important in daily communication strategies).’
SoundAware Group’s portfolio includes media monitoring companies that focus on monitoring the use of music (SoundAware), events (TRCKtrace), advertisements and media value (Adfact), and news and current affairs (RTV Monitor). RTV Monitor is a leader in automated monitoring of radio, TV and on-demand content and makes media content more efficiently searchable through speech. RTV Monitor supplies real-time media alerts and high-quality clips of media items to companies, organisations and government institutions. More information: www.rtvmonitor.nl.
July 3, 2020
