Technology group accelerates global expansion
ZOO Digital Group has dramatically expanded its South Asia operations with the launch of ZOO India.
The Sheffield-headquartered company, which provides cloud-based localisation and digital media services to the entertainment industry, has acquired the Mumbai-based media services and localisation businesses of Vista India Digitek and Vista Tanweer Studios – together referred to as “Vista”.
As part of the deal, ZOO Digital has also purchased a 35% investment in the aggregation services business Vista India Digital Media Inc, which is based in California, for a total consideration of $6m/£4.6m.
This marks the company’s second acquisition this month, having taken a 51 per cent stake in its long time partner WhatSub Pro to launch its South Korean operations, as the business looks to deliver its global growth initiative to support major content creators and streaming services, which it first highlighted in October.
Established in 2012, Vista offers media localisation, media services and digital distribution for Indian and foreign language content.
It provides end-to-end services across eight Indian languages and English, including dubbing, subtitling, artwork and metadata localisation services and a range of other media services.
ZOO Digital says its growth into India illustrates its commitment to expand its end-to-end service offering in this market.
It points out that with India’s subscription video on demand subscribers expected to more than double by 2026 to 224 million, India is an important strategic focus for ZOO and its clients.
Stuart Green, CEO, ZOO Digital
Stuart Green, chief executive officer of ZOO Digital, said: “India has a vibrant film and TV industry, and the rapid adoption of streaming makes it a high growth and strategic market for ZOO’s clients.
“Following a year of unprecedented growth for both ZOO and Vista, this is the next step to further expand both companies’ servicing capacity to meet the needs of local and international content creators in 2022 and beyond.”
Rajiv Raghunathan, managing director, ZOO India/Vista said: “Our mission has always been to help content creators reach the largest audience possible.
“By joining ZOO Digital Group and deploying their world class technologies, we have even more opportunities to do this, both for international clients bringing content to Indian streaming services, and for local content creators to take their TV shows and movies to a global, multi-language audience.”
