Video platform JW Player said it has made a deal to integrate GumGum’s Verity platform, giving advertisers additional contextual and brand safety capabilities.

Verity, accredited by the Media Rating Council for content level contextual analysis, will work with JW Player’s viewability technology to analyze ads and create a private marketplace that targets JW Player’s video inventory based on contextual parameters set by brands.

“The breadth of sophistication that Verity is capable of made GumGum the ideal partner to work with to provide advanced contextual capabilities within JWP’s video inventory,” said Michael Schwalb, GM of partnerships and data at JW Player. “We’ve been pioneers of video delivery and intelligence across the web for over a decade, and GumGum has been iterating their contextual platform for a similar amount of time; together, we’re able to offer highly scalable and sophisticated targeting solutions to advertisers.”

The joint capabilities are available immediately in North America and Europe. Advertisers will work with the Verity and JWP’s team to create targeting strategies that leverage contextual relevance and brand suitability.

“Verity is the most intelligent contextual platform in the market that looks beyond a video’s metadata and analyzes the entire context of a video, including all signals like text, image, and audio,” said William Merchan, head of Verity at GumGum. “Combining Verity™ with the power and reach of JWP’s real-time viewability technology to enhance campaign performance allows our clients the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve in a quickly evolving digital advertising landscape.”

JW Player is used by over 40,000 broadcasters, publishers and other customers to stream video, engage audiences and monetize content. ■

JW Player said it raised $100 million in Series E Funding from LLR Partners.

The investment follows 200% growth in video streaming last year and an increase in live streaming delivery of over 400%.

The funds will be used to accelerate product innovation and expand its global footprint across sales, marketing and channel partnerships.

The finding follows JW Players acquisition of Vualto, a provider of live and on-demand video streaming and digital rights management.

“Video has entered into a golden age, and we now live in the Digital Video Economy. By combining our easy-to-use video platform technology with our unique consumption and contextual data insights, JW Player has a distinct advantage in helping customers grow their audiences, create world-class video experiences on any screen, and most importantly, generate more revenue,” said Dave Otten, CEO and co-founder of JW Player.

“As we enter this next phase, we are thrilled to partner with LLR. LLR’s team brings decades of unmatched support and expertise in growing industry-changing software companies and will undoubtedly help us accelerate our success as we pursue this massive market opportunity together,” Otten said.

JW Player has pivoted from an open source video player to a platform enabling customers to independently control, operate and monitor video-driven services.

“JW Player has been at the forefront of digital video innovation ever since founder Jeroen Wijering created YouTube’s original video player in 2008. Today, the company offers the most comprehensive technology, advertising and data analytics platform in the digital video ecosystem,” said David Reuter, partner at LLR Partners. “We look forward to partnering with the JW Player team as they expand their platform and continue to elevate the way brands can host, stream and monetize video.”

Las Vegas -- Here’s another snapshot of what else is making news at this week’s tech-fest in Las Vegas. Follow our continuing CES coverage at our CES news site.

-FreeCast is using CES to springboard its new Select TV Box (pictured), a broadband-connected video aggregation platform that, the company claims, will offer access to more than 350,000 TV episodes, 200,000 movies, 1,000 “web channels,” and access to local broadcast networks. The box, which will sell for $99, is paired with a $2.99 per month subscription service. 

-Quantenna Communications has teed up a 10G Wave 3 WiFi product family for a new generation of cable modems and gateways based on DOCSIS 3.1,  the new multi-gigabit broadband platform for HFC networks. To achieve that, Quantenna is pairing its True 8x8 QSR10G Wi-Fi platform with Intel Corp.’s DOCSIS 3.1-facing Puma 7 SoC. Quantenna said its WiFi platform can deliver up to 10 Gbps and deliver up to 12 simultaneous streams.

-JW Player, a digital and mobile video platform and player company, has raised a $20 million “D” round of funding led by existing investor Greycroft Growth, Greenspring Associates, Cueball Capital, and e.ventures. JW Player, which has raised $46.5 million so far, will use the new round to drive development of new data-centric SaaS products, boost international sales and marketing. The company said its flagship product, JW Player, is live on more than 2 million sites, and generates more than 1.3 billion monthly unique viewers across devices such as tablets, and desktops.

-NeuLion said Samsung Electronics will integrate its DivX CE software development kit to enable 4K live and on-demand streaming on Samsung’s lineup of 2016 Ultra HD TVs. NeuLion, which acquired video encoding/delivery specialist DivX a year ago, said its approach enables streaming up to 4Kp60 and is powered by the baseline NeuLion Digital Platform.

-MaxLinear is billing MxL3705 single-chip platform, equipped with MoCA 2.0 home networking technology, is the first to eclipse gigabit speeds on home-side coax networks. MoCA has become a go-to technology for multi-room DVRs and video gateways for the secure (and speedy) distribution of IP video over the home network. MaxLinear entered the MoCA market in earnest last year via the acquisition of Entropic Communications.

-Red Digital Cinema said Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be the first production to shoot on its 8K “Weapon” platform. Weapon 8K captures 8K video at 75 frames per second, 6K at 100 fps and 4K at 150 fps.

-Tata Elxsi is showing off its RDK Deployment Accelerator Suite running on Ultra HD-capable set-tops reference designs powered by chipsets from STMicroelectronics. The demo offers a fresh glimpse at boxes that run the Reference Design Kit, the preintegrated software platform being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global. More than 200 companies, including chipmakers, set-top vendors and pay TV operators, have licensed the RDK.

-Valtech, an independent digital technology company, is the first implementation partner to build multiscreen apps via You.i TV’s Partner Program, which is being showcased by the company here in Las Vegas at the Encore Hotel. You.i TV, which recently closed a $15 million funding round, counts customers such as Sony Crackle (for its Roku app), the TreeHouseGO app for iOS and Android, Corus Entertainment, and shomi, the multiscreen SVOD service from Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.