RTL Group Buys Video Tech Outfit Yospace

RTL Group has sealed a deal to acquire U.K.-based Yospace, which provides solutions for ad insertion on streaming services.

RTL Group will pay up to $33 million before cash and debt adjustments in connection with the full acquisition of Yospace.

Yospace has developed technology for Server-Side Dynamic Ad Insertion (SSDAI), allowing for the replacement of existing commercials from a broadcast stream with more targeted, personalized advertising. It is currently being deployed by media companies such as BT Sport, TV4, ITV, and Seven West Media. RTL Group already owns the ad-tech company SpotX.

Bert Habets, CEO of RTL Group, noted, “The acquisition of Yospace is an important step in building out our Total Video portfolio and will help drive two strategic goals at the same time. First, we gain a competitive, fully integrated and profitable solution which is key to further grow our ad-tech business. Our goal is to continue expanding SpotX into a leading, independent monetization platform for broadcasters, video on demand services and publishers.

“Secondly, this acquisition will also help build local streaming champions in the markets where we have strong families of channels. The Yospace technology makes advertising on streaming services more personal, which means a better consumer experience for superior monetization of our premium advertising inventory.”

Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace, added, “Our clients make significant investments in their video offerings and content licenses. Yospace has proven that it can provide an unmatched quality of service even with millions of concurrent users. This new relationship with RTL Group will not only allow us to extend our customer base to all entities of the biggest European broadcast and video network, but RTL Group is also fully committed to supporting the further roll-out of our services to bring more innovative products to media owners around the world.”