Kasenna buys ViewNow

Not content with its marketing and product integration alliance, video server vendor Kasenna will announce that it has acquired ViewNow, a service bureau that provides video-on-demand programming, management, and marketing services to telcos among other customers.

Previously, the companies had signed an agreement to market the ViewNow service as part of Kasenna’s telco offering. Almost a dozen independent broadband providers had purchased that combined product. However, in an effort to kick-start telco video, Kasenna felt it would be easier for carriers to have just one entity. Implicitly, the acquisition also takes out the potential for another video server vendor from striking an alliance with ViewNow.

"There’s two things that have been holding back the market and one is the incredibly complicated purchasing process that carriers have to go through to get a system up and running," said Tripp Rea, chief strategy officer and executive vice president of Kasenna. "Our motivation is one, to make it easier for the customer to buy, and two, to make it easier for the customer to get content."

The ViewNow business will continue operating from its locations in Bend, Ore. and Santa Monica, Calif., but as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kasenna. Steve Roberts, president of ViewNow will remain with the company as president of the ViewNow division.

Also driving the acquisition is a new concern from Hollywood over the security of VOD content. Soon, content creators may no longer view telcos and cable operators as trusted islands of aggregation. By combining the two companies, Kasenna and ViewNow will be able to deliver VOD content in encrypted form to service providers, Rea said.