Google Buys Anvato For Cloud Platform Video Services

Google has acquired Anvato, a video encoding, editing, publishing, and distribution company.

Anvato will join Google’s Cloud Platform team, and will “complement” Google’s efforts to offer scalable media processing in Google’s public cloud.

Anvato already has some large customers, with the likes of Fox Sports, NBCUniversal, CBS and numerous other local news and television networks using the company’s services to manage video workflows.

With Anvato, these customers deliver on-demand video, insert ads, manage subscriptions, and edit in the cloud.

Media infiltration

Now, while Anvato customers will likely get access to wider Google cloud services if they don’t already, Google will be able to infiltrate its public cloud into some of North America’s key broadcasters. This is a strategic move that will help the cloud provider pick up business in media companies, an area otherwise left lacking in Google’s cloud portfolio.

Google said that Anvato was acquired because adoption of over-the-top (OTT) technologies has emerged as a critical platform for delivery quality content via the Internet.

“With OTT adoption rapidly accelerating, the Cloud Platform and Anvato teams will work together to deliver cloud solutions that help businesses in the media and entertainment industry scale their video infrastructure efforts and deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device — be it their smartphone, tablet or connected television,” said Google Cloud Platform’s senior product manager Belwadi Srikanth in a blog post.

“The Google Cloud Platform team is committed to helping our customers in the media and entertainment industry manage their infrastructure more efficiently, provision servers and networks at rapid scale and remove unnecessary overhead.”

Whilst Google Cloud Platform already offered a cloud-based video encoding and distribution service, its other features like media archival and rendering for artists weren’t the complete package most broadcasters were looking for.

Both Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, two of Google’s biggest cloud rivals, offer their own media services packages.

Anvato’s CEO Alper Turgot said that the acquisition will “supercharge” Anvato’s capabilities with Google Cloud.

“Anvato will continue to deliver the full range of cutting edge video processing software solutions for pay TV operators, programmers, broadcasters and live event producers, and will do so on the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure,” he said.

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