MCM: Movideo-Microsoft deal is a ‘big vindication of our strategy’
The future of MCM Entertainment Group’s loss-making online video platform Movideo is looking more secure with the news of a four-year deal with Microsoft.
The deal will see Movideo migrate to Microsoft’s cloud platform Windows Azure for a roll-out across Asia Pacific.
MCM boss Simon Joyce called the deal a “big vindication of our strategy”.
Simon Joyce
“Our decision to invest in an online video player, which sits alongside our content business MCM Media and digital agency Igloo, has always been a very deliberate strategy,” Joyce said.
“For us as a group, this was a big decision to invest in a start up, but ultimately this board is united in backing the product. The Microsoft deal is a big vindication of our strategy.”
The news comes seven months after internal ructions among MCM’s management team saw Movideo boss Tony McGinn attempt oust company chairman Julien Playoust. A disagreement between the two centred on whether to continue investing in Movideo.
McGinn said in a press release about the Microsoft deal: “We are excited about the growth prospects for Movideo in APAC, particularly since we are based in and very committed to the region. However, we are looking at the broader worldwide opportunities that now exist thanks to this new collaboration with Microsoft.”
The two year-old Movideo platform now counts Network Ten, MNC Group in Indonesia, South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Reader’s Digest in Singapore and Astro in Malaysia as customers.
