Interlude Announces Strategic Investment By Sony Pictures Entertainment

NEW YORK, June 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Interlude, the parent of the Eko interactive storytelling platform, today announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has made a strategic investment in Interlude. SPE will also collaborate with Interlude on the development of entertainment content to be distributed on the Eko platform, which writer/director Will Gluck will be charged with creating and overseeing.  

New audiences have grown up with a much more active relationship with entertainment than in the past. They are used to shaping what they want to see and hear, rather than passively sitting and absorbing content.  Until now, video storytelling has only been passive. The Eko platform changes this by enabling creators to easily script and craft stories that can be shaped by the viewer based on his or her explicit or implicit preference.

"With Eko, Yoni and the team at Interlude have developed an elegant, innovative storytelling platform. We look forward to working with them, and Will Gluck, to engage audiences with completely new entertainment experiences," said Michael Lynton, CEO, Sony Entertainment.  

The Eko platform includes substantial breakthroughs in real time seamless video and audio, as well as user-response technologies.  These all have been invented by Interlude's team to serve the creative needs of artists using this new medium. Moreover, with a new, active relationship between the story and consumers, Eko enables media companies and brands to benefit from unprecedented viewer engagement.

"We are very excited to launch this partnership with Sony Pictures," said Yoni Bloch, Co-Founder and CEO of Interlude. "We look forward to introducing Eko experiences to many more viewers and to offering new business approaches to fuel the best creative and business returns for our partners."

"I'm thrilled to be working with Sony and Interlude to contribute to the evolving landscape of entertainment," said Will Gluck, whose Los Angeles-based Olive Bridge Entertainment will spearhead the endeavor.  "We look forward to working with inventive writers and directors to create compelling storytelling that will match Interlude's innovative technology."

SPE's investment follows other recent Interlude developments, which include new versions of "The Twilight Zone" and "War Games," in partnership with CBS and MGM respectively. Eko is also a partner with Warner Music Group on "Clash Up," an interactive music series that lets users create their own multi-genre mix in real time, and other music related content.  These new collaborations will join the existing and new content launched on Eko (www.helloeko.com) and will range from music to comedy, drama, mysteries, thrillers and new genres that take special advantage of the Eko medium.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com.

About Interlude
Interlude (www.interlude.fm) is a media and technology company that empowers deep emotional bonds between storytellers and consumers through a new medium that lets people shape the story as it's being told. The company's patented technology forms the basis of its consumer platform, Eko, enabling the creation and delivery of stories told in live action video that allow viewers to step into the story.  In an Eko video, the story, in effect, listens and can adapt in a multitude of ways as it unfolds.

Interlude partners with entertainment companies, independent creators, and top brands to create episodic series that are distributed on the Eko platform through a network of affiliates on the mobile web, mobile apps, and the web. Interlude investors include Sequoia Capital, NEA, Marker, and Innovation Endeavors.  Strategic investors in addition to Sony, include MGM, Intel Capital, Warner Music Group and Samsung.

SOURCE Interlude