Google Bringing Big Media Customers To Its Cloud Platform With Anvato Acquisition

Bolstering the capabilities of its cloud to disseminate video, Google Thursday revealed plans to acquire Anvato, developer of a platform popular with media companies looking to broadcast their content online.

Anvato enables video streaming across multiple platforms and claims many media giants as customers. Those companies use the technology to deliver so-called "over-the-top" services that bypass traditional media distribution channels, such as cable or satellite providers.

"Anvato's Media Content Platform, which counts many large media companies as customers, will complement our efforts to enable scalable media processing and workflows in the cloud," said Belwadi Srikanth, a senior product manager, in a post on the Google Cloud Platform blog. "The cloud is transforming the way video content is created and distributed to an array of connected devices, as well as the way users engage with this content."

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Terms of the deal were not disclosed, nor was the expected close date of the acquisition

Like Alphabet subsidiary Google, Anvato is based in Mountain View, Calif. It lists a notable collection of media heavyweights as customers, including NBCUniversal, Fox Sports, Oprah Winfrey Network and Food Network.

For many media outlets, over-the-top broadcasting has become a desirable direct route to their viewers. And with Anvato's platform, those content creators can edit video, inserting advertisements and other content, as well as manage billing in whatever form they charge their customers for the programming they consume.

"In recent years, the adoption of over-the-top technologies has emerged as a critical platform for delivering rich audio, video and other media via the Internet," said Srikanth.

Simon Margolis, director of cloud platform at SADA Systems, a Google partner based in Los Angeles, said Google's purchase of Anvato could better position Google Cloud Platform with media and entertainment industry clients.

"This seems to be a smart move as it will enable greater performance and additional features to Google's already strong data hosting arsenal," Margolis told CRN.

David Linthicum, senior vice president of Cloud Technology Partners, a Google partner based in Boston, told CRN he believes Google likely saw Anvato as offering some missing pieces that it needs, and buying the company was the quickest path to filling those gaps.

"Anvato offers an end-to-end service for video publishing and monetization in the cloud," Cloud Technology Partners' Linthicum told CRN. "This is something Google’s own platform doesn’t currently offer, and Google needs to take their media platforms to the next level. This speeds that process."

Among Google's properties is YouTube, the world's most-popular online video platform.