56 START-UP ALLEY Promethean TV
PROMETHEAN TV Country: Canada Started: 2016
“Just like in the music industry, the business models for telecoms and content producers will be turned upside down by new technology in the next ten years,” predicts Ian Sharpe, CEO of video overlay platform Promethean TV. Already a $37 billion market, online video is predicted to become central to this sea change with video traic comprising over 80% of all consumer online traic by 2021. But monetising live-streamed video is a challenge. Ad blocking on online video is forecast to cost $35 billion in lost revenue by 2020 and while video takes up the largest percentage of traic on a CDN, it contributes the least amount of profitable revenue. To this end, Promethean TV has a unique perspective on how to make video pay in this brave new world: a product that is player agnostic and one that creates a real-time feedback loop for advertisers. “We think of it as augmented advertising,” Sharpe quips. The start-up’s core technology is an interactive layer for digital video, ‘clickable overlays’, which deliver what
INNOVATION ON SHOW Promethean TV introduced its technology to IBC attendees last year after being invited to join the Akamai booth
WE THINK OF IT AS AUGMENTED ADVERTISING
Sharpe makes sound like both the ad man and the couch potato’s dream. “Imagine watching your favourite sports team, ordering pizza, getting live fantasy updates, buying your favourite player’s jersey, all while never missing a moment of live action,” says Sharpe. Sharpe adds that the Promethean TV platform delivers overlays to the video player via a web instead of a client-side http ad request, the latter of which can be easily blocked. Promethean’s founding team, including Sharpe, all hail from eSports streaming company Azubu, where they witnessed first-hand how broadcasters were unable to monetise eectively through video, and how brands were unable to drive a measurable return from the space. Their fledgling company is named after Prometheus, the Titan who in Greek mythology stole fire from Olympus and
NEXT GENERATION TV Customers are now able to get actively involved in watching TV without missing any of the action
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