Google Cloud Platform is aiming to add video processing to its services through its acquisition of Anvato, a Mountain View, Calif, company that automates the encoding, editing, publishing and secure distribution of video. Google announced that Anvato “is joining the Google Cloud Platform team.”
Google and Anvato “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,” Google said in its announcement.
The use of so-called over-the-top technologies — that is, delivering video and audio directly to consumers, with no cable company or broadcaster involved — “has emerged as a critical platform for delivering audio, video and other media via the Internet,” the company said.
Anvato’s customers include Fox Sports, Media General, NBCUniversal, Scripps and Univision, wrote CEO Alper Turgut in a blog post. The company, which has six employees, has received $2.55 million in two rounds from four investors, according to startup database CrunchBase. Anvator on its website says it is funded by Oxantium Ventures, of Washington, D.C.
Update: As TechCrunch noted, Microsoft offers video tools through its Azure Media Services, while Amazon offers some digital media services and in October bought Portland, Ore.-based media-services firm Elemental. As noted in The Street, IBM over the past 18 months has bought video-streaming firm Ustream and video-services firm Clearleap and in January created a Cloud Video unit.
