Ensequence, a company which enables interactive television, has raised $20 million in funding. Clay Mathile, CEO of CYMI Technologies led this latest round. The company has raised a whopping total of $110 million to date. (See related story: Raising $90 mln without VCs)
Although I haven’t seen much of this yet, since I have Comcast, Ensequence offers a technology which makes the TV experience more two-way. Basically, the potential for television content creators to offer an interactive experience for their shows. Ensequence said on its site, that it offered the first ever interactive broadcast with the popular television show, Top Chef. Subscribers of Dish Network were able to vote, as well as pull extra information from the show simply with their remotes. Other potential customers for this sort of service would be retailers and advertisers – for example, you could be watching a clothing commercial and decide to change the color of that lovely sweater during the ad, and eventually buy that sweater with the click of your remote. There’s lots of possibilities, as Ensequence’s technology works with the most popular TV distribution platforms including cable, satellite and IPTV.
Some of Ensequence’s other past clients include ESPN, MLB.TV and MTV.
New York-based, Ensequence also announced it has appointed Peter Low as CEO of the company. Low previously spent ten years as executive vice president of cable distribution and marketing for MTV and BET Networks.
Low said in a statement, “The latest round of funding allows us to build on our strong momentum – enabling us to continue offering programmers, distributors and advertisers the most compelling interactive experiences available. This funding represents an extreme vote of confidence in Ensequence in a challenging business environment.”
Ensequence isn’t the only company in this space. ActiveVideo is another interactive TV platform and has worked with shows like Lost, and brands like AMEX and Nike.
