Tribune Media Services Acquires Internet Video Search and Indexing Company, CastTV

CHICAGO, Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Tribune Media Services (TMS), a leading provider of entertainment information databases, announced today that it has acquired CastTV, a leader in video search, indexing and data technologies for discovering TV shows, movies and other online video content.

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The acquisition will enhance TMS' entertainment metadata, widely used by 4,000 media and technology companies in 40 countries.  TMS customers will now have access to all the metadata necessary to create entertainment-discovery guides that direct consumers to programs available on linear, on-demand and online video platforms.

CastTV has developed search technology that aggregates, indexes and presents data on millions of TV shows, movies, music videos, news and sports clips, and viral videos from more than 1,000 web-video sources.

The CastTV technology automatically matches online video to professionally edited, structured databases such as TMS' TV, movie and celebrity data, allowing for deep integration with existing TMS products.  The CastTV system also allows for "device-aware" content-discovery products that can be limited or expanded to include only access to videos that address a customer's device limitations or the business needs of a video provider.

The acquisition includes all of CastTV's technology, products, intellectual property and staff, including CEO Edwin Ong and president Alex Vikati, who founded the San Francisco-based company together in 2006.

"We are thrilled to bring the best-in-class innovations that our talented team has developed to industry leader TMS," said Ong. "By combining our technology with TMS' industry-leading entertainment data, we can offer media and technology customers comprehensive, 'one stop watching' solutions for today's connected consumers," added Vikati.

Combining CastTV's capabilities with TMS' deep databases of TV shows, movies and celebrities, will give media and technology companies a one-stop solution for guiding consumers through the rapidly growing array of video platforms.  TMS will link the CastTV index of online programs to TMS metadata to enable customers to easily direct consumers to programs regardless of where they are offered.  

CastTV also operates a consumer website (www.CastTV.com), which provides more than four million consumers with a comprehensive resource to find what video they want to watch online.  TMS will operate the CastTV.com site as part of its Zap2it.com entertainment network, which currently reaches eight million Web visitors and four million mobile app users monthly.  TMS will offer advertising packages that combine the entertainment-hungry audiences of both sites.

"With over 50 million Americans watching shows online each week, online video consumption is now mainstream," said Jay Fehnel, Chief Operating Officer for TMS Entertainment Products.  "Most consumers have a hard time finding all the online content they would enjoy -- and have no way to see all their viewing options in one place.   By adding CastTV's expertise, TMS will be able to help our clients deliver one guide to all the video a consumer can view, regardless of where the program comes from and what device they are using to view it."

"The addition of CastTV provides TMS customers fully integrated capabilities that are essential to building professional, reliable and structured video-discovery experiences.  It also gives TMS significant additional data-management and technology expertise that is uniquely valuable across our increasingly complex metadata business," added John Zelenka, Senior Vice President of Business Development for TMS.  

The acquisition of CastTV caps an especially successful year for TMS Entertainment Products in which the company signed new long-term agreements for entertainment metadata with seven major cable operators. The agreements cover over 34 million subscribers in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

CastTV and TMS capabilities will be demonstrated at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 6-9, 2011.

About Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services' Entertainment Products division is an international leader in entertainment navigation.  TMS provides industry-leading databases of TV, movie and celebrity information; guides in print, online and on-screen formats; and advertising and marketing services to build audiences.  The company also produces Zap2it.com, the web site that connects engaged entertainment fanatics to popular TV shows, celebrities, movies, events and other fans. TMS metadata powers leading guide products which reach millions of consumers in 40 countries through 4,000 clients including Microsoft, Google, TiVo, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, IMDb and The New York Times.  For more information about TMS Entertainment Products visit TribuneMediaServices.com.

About Zap2it.com

Zap2it.com is the online destination for more than 8 million TV and Movie fans who want to stay connected to popular shows, films, events, celebrities and other fans.  Zap2it is a service of Tribune Media Services, a division of Tribune Company.  For more information about Zap2it, visit www.Zap2it.com/mediakit.

About CastTV

CastTV is a leading video search platform that reaches over 4 million consumers monthly.  CastTV's innovative technology enables the search and navigation of video content across the "three screens" of computer, television, and mobile.  Backed by leading Silicon Valley investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ron Conway, and Marc Andreessen, CastTV has been widely recognized as a Dow Jones Consumer Technology Editor's Pick, OnHollywood 100, and TechCrunch 40 company. Catapult Advisors LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to CastTV for this transaction.

SOURCE Tribune Media Services