NeuLion Acquires Saffron Digital

Online video tech company NeuLion has acquired London-based digital video services company Saffron Digital, the companies announced June 6.

The pairing will give NeuLion the ability to expand its services to include subscription VOD, electronic sellthrough and ad-supported VOD, in addition to the live and VOD 4K offerings it currently has. Terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed.

“Saffron Digital has a blue-chip customer base that includes Carrefour, BT, Deutsche Telecom, ITV, Tribeca Shortlist, Vidity and others,” said Jason Keane, CEO for Saffron Digital. “We are excited to join NeuLion. As part of NeuLion, we can now offer our customers a compelling OTT platform for all premium digital content with support for all types of business models.”

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NeuLion — which owns the DivX video technology — expects to turn the Saffron acquisition into a way to offer quick-to-market TV Everywhere services, in addition 4K Ultra High-Def (UHD) video across services.

“The OTT video market is accelerating rapidly in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world, and represents a large and growing addressable market for the combined company,” said Roy Reichbach, president and CEO of NeuLion. “The integrated company can offer owners and rights holders of sports and entertainment a complete end to end solution for both live and on demand content that is a clear market leader.”