G-cluster Receives Investment From SFR Développement
Finnish cloud-based video and gaming service provider G-cluster has received a significant financial investment from French telecom operator SFR. SFR was one of the first companies to deploy G-cluster's gaming service in 2010 and it now joins Intel Capital as the company's financial backer. No details were released, but the deal is reportedly worth millions of euros.
G-cluster’s core business is a fully customizable, cloud-based video and gaming platform. The company’s patented technology allows high-end video games and full-length films to be distributed to a wide range of devices, including televisions, personal computers, tablets and mobile phones.
Are Telecom Providers Finally Becoming Service Aggregators?
ZilliongTV, a Sunnyvale, California based startup, is trying what everybody is talking about. They are trying to build a working model for viewing movies and TV programs over the Internet on demand. Instead of the traditional push, a functioning model for pull. There is already one, Hulu, but Hulu is very(!) much an extension of the big content owners who own the movies and does not work outside the US for this very reason. ZillionTV would be a step towards away from them, even if a small one. In effect, ZillionTV mixes Spotify, Videoplaza and Blyk models.
Just as with Spotify, ZillionTV has partnered with big content owners who are trying figure out how to monetize their content with poor results. What Spotify does for music, ZillionTV tries to do for moviews and TV programs. The vision is nothing short of Spotify's neither: To secure all the content that's ever been made in the world. Unlike many others in the IPTV industry, ZillionTV has also something to show as they have some really big companies already onboard (Warner, Universal, Fox and Disney).
