FIFE software developer Paywizard, which specialises in subscriber management for pay television, has secured £3.5 million of finance from the Scottish Loan Fund.
Paywizard, which has a customer base including BT Sport, NBC Universal, Setanta Sports and NHK Cosmomedia Europe, plans to use the funding to capitalise on the growing pay TV and video-on-demand markets by rolling out its software and services internationally.
Paywizard announced a move into the Asia-Pacific region recently. And it plans to target emerging markets in Africa and South America.
The Kirkcaldy-based company is also appointing broadcast and digital media veteran Andrew Burke, whose career has included spells as chief executive of Amino Technologies and BT Entertainment, as chairman.
The taxpayer-backed Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the cornerstone investor in the Scottish Loan Fund, which is run by Glasgow-based private equity firm Maven Capital Partners. SIB is the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.
Mr Burke will work with Paywizard's co-founders, Jonathan Guthrie and Ronnie Millar, to help pay-TV operators maximise the potential of their services through targeted subscriber management and marketing.
Paywizard and the Scottish Loan Fund noted that Mr Burke had “created and run BT Entertainment’s TV-over-broadband initiative BT Vision”.
Mr Guthrie, chief executive officer at Paywizard, said: “Our new investment, along with Andrew’s involvement, is a clear sign of confidence in Paywizard and in the role that advanced subscriber management has to play in the television market. With international deals in the pipeline, we are really showing operators how to build profitable pay-TV businesses.”
Mr Burke said: “In today’s television market, successful operators are focused on three key objectives - improving their bottom line, reaching new subscribers and retaining the customers they have. With 17 years’ experience in the pay-TV market, Paywizard’s knowledge and expertise is helping TV service providers of all sizes to meet...those objectives.”
David Milroy, investment director at Maven, said: “The Paywizard team has a strong track-record in the UK and, via its Agile platform, is well positioned to capitalise on consumers' increasing appetite for viewing video content on multiple devices. The experience and support of Andrew Burke will be of great value to the company as they target international expansion, and SLF funding will provide the necessary investment in marketing and personnel to achieve this. We are very much looking forward to working with the team.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here