• Mediamorph Raises $8 Million to Track and Measure All Digital Assets

    Mediamorph, a cloud-based service which tracks and measures all digital assets across all digital platforms, has raised an additional $8 million, from Smedvig Capital and Motorola Mobility. Co-founder and Chairman Shahid Khan told me that the funding will be used primarily to expand into Europe and to strengthen its range of service offerings. Total funding raised to date is $11 million.

    Mediamorph addresses a key pain point for content providers: as digital distribution platforms multiply, there is massive complexity in cohesively tracking and measuring viewership by platform and then determining the compensation due per contractual terms. Shahid said the company now has relationships with 350 different distributors from which it receives usage data on behalf of content provider clients such as Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, HBO, Starz and others. Mediamorph accepts either structured or unstructured data, crunches it, and then provides a cloud-based, customizable dashboard so that clients can see exactly how their assets are performing either as a whole, or with specific outlets like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, etc.

    Because Mediamorph now has integrations with many of the largest digital distribution outlets, turning on new clients mainly requires gaining authority to access their records. Mediamorph tracks usage across linear (via Nielsen feeds), VOD, digital, mobile, social and any other form of distribution. It does this for video, apps, games and e-books for any business model - ad-supported, transactional or subscription. About half of Mediamorph's current client base goes a step beyond tracking and measurement, also using its licensing and royalty management solution so that usage data is married to contract terms in order to reconcile revenue.

    Shahid believes there's no other company offering the same range of comprehensive solutions. He sees the company positioned at the intersection of three major digital media industry trends: cross-platform distribution, cloud-based services and leveraging "big data" to operate more effectively. As the company continues to penetrate content providers, it is also moving to support distributors, where complexity has also grown. Shahid said that as it expands its business with distributors, it will realize its vision of playing a role with all sides of the burgeoning digital media ecosystem.

    While there's lots of excitement among content providers about accessing new digital distribution opportunities, what hasn't changed is the key requirement that assets must be tracked and managed, with proper revenue reconciliation. If Mediamorph succeeds in becoming the leading provider of these services, it will become a mission-critical building block and create a huge amount of value for itself.