Vix, a Latino digital media company, acquired Pongalo, which runs ad supported video-on-demand services, and plans to launch a new one for Latino audiences called Vix TV.
Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed but it involved cash and stock worth more than than $10 million, the companies said.
The new Vix TV service will launch later this year with more than 10,000 hours of content.
“The opportunity for AVOD with Latino audiences is immense,” said Vix CEO Rafael Urbina. “Our new Vix TV AVOD service, along with Pongalo’s great existing services, will create a marketplace of Latino digital media brands, all sold under one roof by the same advertising sales team.”
Vix has lifestyle properties that are No. 1 in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, according to Comscore, and No. 3 in the U.S. Vix reaches 300 million people via Facebook. Vix.com reaches 334 million unique users in the U.S. and has 27 million U.S. Hispanic social media followers.
Pongelo’s AVOD streaming services Pongalo NovelaClub, Pongalo TV and Moovimex recently topped 1 billion minutes watched so far this year.
“We believe that Vix’s enormous audience and powerful ad sales team combined with Pongalo’s massive catalog and global distribution footprint provide an unfair advantage as the combined company seeks to dominate the Latino AVOD space on two continents.” said Pongalo founder and CEO Richard Hull.
“With the recent consolidations of media companies and studios, the market now particularly rewards scale and profitability, and this transaction provides Pongalo with both. We’re thrilled to join the Vix family in what is a great outcome for Pongalo and its investors,” Hull said.
Discovery Inc. made an investment in Vix in 2016.
Pongalo will continue as a partner with Amazon in Mexico and Latin America. Pongalo’s staff is expected to join Vix and become the company’s Los Angeles presences.
Pongalo’s investors including Canyon Creek Capital, the Carlyle Group’s Revolution Studios, and Digital Bridge Holdings.
