Cloud-based encoding vendor Encoding.com is announcing today that it’s won the business of Discovery Networks to manage video encoding for a number of the media company’s cable networks and online channels. The move comes as Discovery has recently made some aggressive moves with video content online. It acquired Revision3, and has been putting more and more of its network content online. That’s taking place in a promotional sense, as Discovery makes short-form videos available, as well as putting more long-form content up through authenticated, TV Everywhere channels online. It’s also got information content from sites like HowStuffWorks.com and Petfinder.com available online as well.
The problem for Discovery to date has been that most of those different channels and divisions had their own distribution and encoding workflows. Since that can be pretty inefficient, the company is looking to consolidate under one content management platform and distribution system. Of course, one of the pieces of that is encoding — making certain that it can make future episodes of its network shows, as well as all its ad-supported short-form content available on as many devices as possible. Hence, the adoption of Encoding.com’s cloud-based encoding platform.
Encoding.com president Jeff Malkin told me via phone that the startup won the whole Discovery business after working with a few of its smaller divisions. For instance, it had been the video encoding vendor for Revision3 before the acquisition. And Petfinder.com began using Encoding.com’s Vid.ly universal URL product for its video links, allowing users to watch its videos regardless of the browser or device they were on, all with a single link. (Kind of like how Don Draper turned managing the account for Conrad Hilton’s New York properties into winning the hotelier’s whole account. Let’s hope this deal ends better than that one.)
Encoding.com has raised a total of $4.5 million since being launched in 2008. That includes $1.5 million that it picked up from existing investors to help build out its EDC Private Cloud Solution.