ALLEN MEDIA GROUP ANNOUNCES NEXT-GEN STREAMING STRATEGY USING CLOUD-NATIVE QUICKPLAY PLATFORM POWERED BY GOOGLE CLOUD

Google Cloud Infrastructure Selected to Power U.S. Growth and Set Stage for International Expansion

LOS ANGELES and TORONTO, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Today, Allen Media Group and Quickplay announced an agreement that paves the way for Allen Media Group's direct-to-consumer (DTC) products to unlock the next phase of exponential growth in streaming, using Quickplay's cloud-native over-the-top (OTT) platform.

In an announcement at the Devoncroft Summit in advance of IBC 2022, the two companies said that the flexibility, agility, and scalability of the Google Cloud-powered platform would accelerate Allen Media Group's DTC strategy more efficiently to create streaming opportunities around existing Allen Media Group properties, and would serve as a catalyst for growth for new opportunities in the United States and globally.

Allen Media Group owns 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 220 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPAÑOL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, THEGRIO, THIS TV, and PATTRN. Allen Media Group also owns the streaming platforms HBCU GO, SPORTS.TV, THEGRIO, THE WEATHER CHANNEL STREAMING APP and LOCAL NOW.

Leveraging the Quickplay platform running on Google Cloud, Allen Media Group will accelerate engagement and monetization across its portfolio by powering the back end of:

• LOCAL NOW - A free-streaming AVOD service delivering real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, lifestyle information across 400+ Channels and 16,000 movies and television shows, documentaries, and more. Local Now carries the most local news channels of any free streaming platform.  (www.LocalNow.com)
  
  
• THE WEATHER CHANNEL STREAMING APP - A connected TV (CTV) app that includes a subscription-based live stream of The Weather Channel television network with access to the network's on-demand library of original programming and interactive features such as local forecasts, 24/7 weather alerts, real-time maps and radars. (www.streamTWC.com)
  
  
• THE GRIO STREAMING APP - A free-streaming AVOD service where Black America watches a free, 24/7 premium network bringing award-winning movies, contemporary comedy, and classic TV shows. TheGrio is the brand you trust for news and entertainment focused on the Black community, streaming the most compelling stories and perspectives with cutting edge news reports and in-depth interviews. (www.thegriotv.com)
  
  
• HBCU GO - A free-streaming AVOD service offering viewers the best in live sports, original series, documentaries, films, comedy, and edutainment programming produced by African American leading producers, directors, and students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). (www.hbcugo.tv)
  
  
• SPORTS.TV - A free-streaming AVOD service that aggregates sports, news, movies, documentaries, and entertainment networks, as well as local broadcast television stations, connecting sports fans to their favorite sports, teams, games, players, highlights, podcasts, and scores on every device for free. (www.Sports.tv)

"Allen Media Group's direct-to-consumer strategy is to create exceptional product experiences powered by world class content for users worldwide," said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. "Global audiences, along with our streaming platforms and partners, demand excellent product and content experiences. Partnering with Quickplay's platform powered by Google Cloud will accelerate our mission of achieving the highest level of product excellence."

"Allen Media Group's commitment to serving all audiences requires an OTT platform that enables rapid iteration of new opportunities and seamless management of content, user experiences, and advertising," said Paul Pastor, Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder of Quickplay. "Using the Quickplay platform, Allen Media Group can achieve rapid time to market for new services and can create new features almost instantaneously to optimize viewer satisfaction, retention, and monetization."

Quickplay will be exhibiting with strategic partners at IBC 2022 Sept. 9-12 in Amsterdam. To set up a meeting before, during, or after IBC please contact Quickplay at [email protected].

Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charleston, SC. Allen Media Group owns 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 220 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPAÑOL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, THEGRIO, THIS TV, and PATTRN. Allen Media Group also owns the streaming platforms HBCU GO, SPORTS.TV, THEGRIO, THE WEATHER CHANNEL STREAMING APP and LOCAL NOW--the free-streaming AVOD service powered by THE WEATHER CHANNEL and content partners, which delivers real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, and lifestyle information. Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 68 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. Allen Media Group International Television continues to extend its corporate branding and content around the globe.  It currently has active license agreements and programming in South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, The Bahamas, Canada and New Zealand. With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Allen Media Group provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, and multimedia digital. Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.

Quickplay is leading cloud transformations of OTT and in-home experiences for pay-TV, telcos, and MVPDs. The company's cloud-native platform leverages a transformative Gen5 architecture for unparalleled performance in delivering premium video, handling complex use cases, and scaling to millions of viewers. Founded by a team that has built and operated dozens of Tier 1 OTT services worldwide, Quickplay is powering immersive sports, live experiences and personalized entertainment on any screen. The company is headquartered in Toronto and has additional locations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Chennai, India. For more information, visit quickplay.com.

SOURCE Quickplay