South African on-demand solutions provider, Discover Digital International (DDI), has completed its acquisition of Turkish firm IKON Interactive’s content management solution (CMS) and source code, in a multi-million dollar deal to support its aggressive international growth strategy.
Discover Digital International provides broadcasters, telco operators and sports organisations with completed over the top (OTT) video on demand (VOD) and Linear TV managed solutions.
“We realised a year or so ago that if we simply continued the model in which we license all components of a VOD and linear TV solution we will be nothing but a licensing management entity and not build any of our own IP,” says Discover Digital International MD Stephen Watson.
“In order to expand our business globally we were very focused on finding a highly scalable, user friendly content management solution. We evaluated platforms around the world and settled on IKON’s content management solution as a world-class product built by a team with extensive VOD experience.
“We agreed to acquire the software and the source code from them in what was our first multi-million dollar acquisition. We have now concluded a 12-month skills transfer and technology handover process, upskilling a team of young developers to continue to evolve the product,” Watson adds.
“We’re taking the years of experience IKON Interactive has in managing and supporting subscription services for millions of subscribers and building on their well thought out, user-friendly solution that gives you the flexibility to change packages, manage metadata and customise user interfaces simply and effectively. Our experience has been that with many other services, such changes have been complex and costly to implement,” he says.
“IKON Interactive’s platform delivers a world class product but maintains a ‘keep it simple’ approach. We’re incredibly excited because it’s IP we can build on and continue to own. It will enable us to have greater flexibility on our own commercial offerings to customers, telco operators and broadcasters and strengthens our position squarely in the VOD technology service provider space.
“Given that our business and development overheads in both Mauritius and Africa tend to be much lower than those in Europe and the US, we are now well positioned to be very aggressive on pricing in hard currency markets across customisation, integration and management of this technology for broadcasters and operators.”
Tolga Guney, chief operating officer of IKON Interactive, says: “DDI has a proven track record and a thorough understanding of the commercial, operational and technology requirements of this fast-paced tech sector. It is well positioned to take this product to the next level, leveraging further integration and development cost advantages. As the subscription on demand (SVOD) and Linear TV markets continue to gain momentum, technology savings will become more important to operators to free up more funds for investment in content.
“In a relatively short space of time, DDI has built a very competent development team and it has been a pleasure to work with them over the last year in the evolution and handover of our CMS technology. The future plans for the product and its ancillary applications are exciting and will provide key solutions to many of the challenges faced by broadcasters and operators around the world.
“We will support DDI as technology consultants when required and we continue to facilitate introductions to European and Middle East based operators who are keen on such solutions,” Guney adds.
