Earlier this month, FAST software developer Frequency and data-driven solutions provider Wurl announced a new partnership — yes, a “strategic” one. Wurl will be Frequency’s preferred advertising monetization source, while Frequency will be Wurl’s go-to supplier of advanced FAST channel creation.

Customers will now be able to utilize Frequency’s scheduling and playing services while simultaneously taking advantage of Wurl’s monetization capabilities.

Looking to dive a little deeper into the technologists driving change in the video industry, Next TV had a phone conversation with Frequency CEO Blair Harrison on Monday, June 26 to discuss the new collaboration.

Here’s how that went:

Next TV: Tell us a bit more about the Frequency-Wurl partnership. Why Wurl? Why now?

Blair Harrison: We here at Frequency consider ourselves a product service. We don't participate in the advertising. We don't provide any monetization in terms of ad sales or backfill anything for our customers who are the content providers, nor do we do the same on the distribution side of things. So we have been singularly focused on the heart of actually creating and distributing and managing very complex distribution of channels and not on monetization. Wurl has almost sort of the inverse of that model. They have long been focused on monetizing their customers’ channels, and doing that very well. And since they are now part of a company that is pure advertising in its DNA, the shift towards monetization for them has accelerated. 

NTV: What’s the motivation behind this partnership?

BH: We certainly consider ourselves to be by far the best platform out there for creating channels to do that, because ultimately what we're trying to do is get the best possible experience on screen and do that for the viewer in a way that is as efficient for our customers as possible. Our partners, Wurl, are extremely good at monetization. So increasingly customers want both of those things and they don't always want them under one roof. They want to be able to buy the best channel creation platform and the best monetization services. And the better we work together, the better the integrations are between our services, the better opportunity we have of providing the best possible solution collaboratively to customers. Together we have a combined solution that is more valuable than the sum of the parts. 

NTV: What does this agreement look like? Is there exclusivity?

BH: The fact that this partnership exists means that we both believe that life is better when we work with each other. There are other competitors in the industry, and we believe that our alliance is going to provide a better solution for customers than the additive offerings. But there is no implied or actual exclusivity. We are now doing something that we hadn't previously done, which is that we are very explicitly introducing Wurl as our partner — before we would do some version of telling our customers, Hey, there’s loads of places you can go for monetization services — what we're now doing is explicitly involving Wurl in our deal process. 

NTV: Tell me a bit more about the content Discovery service available to Frequency customers.

BH: There are now thousands of channels and billions and billions of dollars flowing through the veins of the FAST industry. And increasingly for customers who are the content owners getting their stuff discovered, acquiring viewers one way or another was increasingly important. So, the approach to this through content discovery is that by working with the content owners, by working with the distributors, they can effectively drive viewers to that content discovery entry point, get them to watch a channel, download an app, etc. 

NTV: What would you like to tell consumers?

BH: If you want the most powerful channel creation platform with the best functionality and the lowest total cost of operation, we’ve got you. And if you want monetization services, we’ve got you too. And in an ideal world, regardless of whether that customer comes to Wurl or Frequency first, we have a collaborative approach to pursuing that. We don't have any joint marketing materials live today, but that's going to change very, very quickly.

Integrating YouTube on set-top boxes is not a new thing for cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors. Though providing integrated access to that content at the set-top can help to keep viewers engaged on the MVPD’s platform, the operator isn’t getting much in the way of payback.

Frequency, the Internet video startup that’s backed by Liberty Global, aims to change that game a bit as it continues to shift its original direct-to-consumer business to one that licenses OTT content and delivers it to via a platform for MVPDs that are looking to stitch their traditional video services to content sourced from the over-the-top world.

“We’re unbundling YouTube,” Ian Aaron, a veteran of the pay TV and digital media industries and now Frequency’s new president, explained, noting that the Los Angeles-based company is forging direct licenses with YouTube creators and other digital publishers that rely on YouTube.

“We're looking to expand our distribution. Just about every MVPD and mobile operator is looking at integrating this real-time web content,” he said. “Today when YouTube is on an operator's platform...the operator doesn't monetize [that content]. Because we're doing these licenses directly with the top MCNs and digital brands and digital networks and publishers, the operators can monetize…We’re bringing that traditional model back for the content that’s really a priority for millennials and others.”

Frequency has a deal in place with Liberty Global, which has already shown an eagerness to integrate YouTube and other OTT apps on set-tops, as well as another yet-to-be named MVPD.

Once a license is in place, Frequency’s platform ingests and transcodes that content and enhances the metadata so that operators can allow for that content to be searched alongside its traditional content. The idea is to integrate that not just at the set-top box but also the MVPD’s web services and TV Everywhere apps.

Among the angles Frequency is touting is the notion of “augmented” TV. By way of example, if a consumer happened to be watching a movie, the system would be smart enough to pull up related content associated with that title, such as trailers, studio promotions and interviews. 

Pay TV and digital media industry vet Ian Aaron has been named president of Frequency, an Internet video company that recently landed an $11 million round of funding from a group that included Liberty Global.

In his new role, Aaron will head up global distribution, content licensing and business development for the Los Angeles-based cloud-based internet video service, which aggregates and distributes content from a wide range of producers and integrates them with several platforms via a single license.

Frequency, which is working with MVPDs to integrate OTT fare with set-top boxes, allows partners to generate “personalized channels” that tap into social media and other data that can uncover their interests and provide offerings that expand and enhance traditional TV platforms. “We can look at a show you’re watching on TV — VOD or live — and automatically discover programming related to what you’re watching,” Blair Harrison, Frequency’s founder and CEO, said in a recent interview (subscription required).

Aaron is late of several companies in the telecom, media and tech sectors, including Gemstar TV Guide International (now part of  Rovi), where he was president; and was CEO of TVN Entertainment (now Vubiquity).  He was also CEO of ConnecTV, a startup that was focused on social TV apps, a director at datacasting specialist Dotcast, and was a top exec at SoftNet Systems, a broadband pioneer that once ran a subsidiary called ISP Channel that, in its heyday, provided turn-key cable modem services to MSOs.

“Ian has been an advisor to Frequency since we started the company six years ago,” Harrison said in a statement. “He brings a unique breadth of experience to us, having built and run businesses from TV to digital media. His leadership is going to be invaluable to us as we continue our rapid global expansion.”

“Frequency has built a comprehensive video platform that has been validated by some of the top MVPDs and mobile operators,” said Aaron. “With the increase in popularity and quality of content from multi-channel and digital networks, we have a unique opportunity to integrate a format of programming into the current TV bundle that attracts a new and younger audience.”

Frequency, a firm that aggregates Internet video for distribution on set-tops and mobile devices, said it has secured $11 million in equity financing from a group that includes Liberty Global, YOU On Demand and Oakmont Corp.

Frequency, a Los Angeles based company founded in 2010, said it will use the funds to fuel growth, including international distribution and on the ongoing development of its distribution platform. Frequency claims that it provides Internet video services to over 100 million subs for TV, mobile and OTT operators worldwide.

The company aggregates and distributes content from a wide range of producers and integrates them with several platforms via a single license. According to the company, it can integrate with partner video ad systems, and have those companies sell the ads. It’s already integrated with “most leading” ad platforms and exchanges and can sell, serve and deliver ads on behalf of its distribution partners. Sling TV is among the distribution partners listed on the company’s web site.

Frequency, which timed the announcement with this week’s TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco, told Varietythat Ziggo, Liberty Global’s MSO in the Netherlands, will start to offer Web videos from Frequency on set-tops in Q3 2016.

Liberty Global has been eager to fuse OTT content and apps at the set-top level, with UPC Hungary’s integration of YouTube among recent examples. Liberty Global is also pushing ahead with a next-gen cloud-based set-top box/video platform, code-named EOS, that’s expected to enter trials later this year.

Inge Smidts, chief marketing officer at Liberty Global, is joining the Frequency’s board of directors.

The financing “lets us accelerate our growth and expand the reach of our platform for both content providers and operators, globally. We’re delighted to be in business with this great combination of financial and strategic partners to help us drive that growth,” Blair Harrison, CEO of Frequency, said in a statement.

In the U.S., MVPDs have also begun to tie new forms of OTT content at the set-top. Comcast, for example, offers content from Watchable, its new ad-supported, aggregated OTT video service, on mobile devices as well as X1 set-tops.