Loop acquires ScreenPlay to build its streaming library – TechCrunch

Loop Media, a new streaming startup, announces its first acquisition. She bought a 30-year-old company called ScreenPlay.

Although you may not have heard of ScreenPlay, the company has licensed a library of 200,000 video and movie / game / TV video clips and trailers, which it broadcasts in thousands of locations for partners such as Hard Rock Cafe, Norwegian Cruise Line, Yard House, Buffalo Wild. Wing and Caesars Entertainment.

This announcement comes just a week after the stealthy release of Loop. In fact, co-founder and CEO Jon Niermann (previously an executive at EA and Disney) said he had always viewed Screenplay's content library as the basis of his Loop business.

It also seems to deepen an existing relationship, with Loop having previously invested equally in ScreenPlay. The idea is to preserve and even expand ScreenPlay's existing business – bringing video to outside locations – while incorporating new technology, including a mobile application for short video.

"[ScreenPlay] is a company that generates millions of dollars in sales, it is profitable, "said Niermann. "As technology evolves and is updated, we want to join our team and really help them develop it."

Many other mobile applications offering short videos, but Niermann said that Loop can now take advantage of ScreenPlay's content library and also connect the experience of the room to the application. In addition, he said that Loop is building "a very simple and rational application" that offers better curation than most video services, as well as a "strong social component".

The acquisition was for an undisclosed price, combining both cash and shares. Niermann said that "the ScreenPlay team remains intact," founder and chairman Mark Vrieling joining Loop as content manager.

He added that existing ScreenPlay customers would not experience any interruption to their services. The goal is to launch the Loop app and an improved ScreenPlay screencast system over the next six months.

"[The business] is going to be a hybrid, "he said. "We wanted to continue to have commercial roots, so to speak, but everyone is mobile, everyone looks everywhere. The question for us is how do you create something that is unique, that is truly a seamless experience? "