Arrested Industries, Merzigo acquire from Spain’s RTVE under AVoD pact

The AVoD partnership set up between UK-based financer and distributor Arrested Industries (fka Fugitive) and Turkish digital content curation firm Merzigo last year has made its first major deal, acquiring almost 3,000 hours from Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

Merrily Ross

Arrested Industries and Merzigo linked up in November last year, with the former responsible for assessing and acquiring AVoD rights to content from around the world.

It then works with Merzigo’s facility in Istanbul to upload and manage the content, while exploring ways to optimise revenues across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Dailymotion.

Under the deal with RTVE, the partnership has acquired a range of long-running, popular scripted series like Central Market (Mercado Central) and Love in Difficult Times (Amar en Tiempos Revueltos).

Arrested Industries’ co-CEO Merrily Ross said: “Merzigo has a unique and smart business model, fantastic experience in monetising a wide range of programming on different AVoD platforms and a high-tech facility that takes the heavy lifting out of uploading and managing content.

“When you add in our industry knowledge and network of contacts, we bring a compelling offer to the marketplace, one which is becoming increasingly interesting to content owners looking to optimise revenues. Our early conversations with broadcasters and other rights owners have been extremely well-received and this first completed deal with RTVE is just the tip of the iceberg.”