A North East tech firm which helped pubs and other venues to monetise their TV screens has been wound up by a High Court judge.
Screenreach Interactive was launched in 2009 and developed a cloud-based platform that gave venues the opportunity to turn their TV screens into an advertising channel that used digital signage and hosted third party adverts. Via its 'Screach' app, the Newcastle firm also allowed venues to stream live sports events in HD quality to existing TVs with no need for a satellite or cable TV connection.
But late last year, a winding up petition against the firm was launched by º£½ÇÊÓƵ FF Nominees Limited - a company that holds the legal title to loans from the British Business Bank's Future Fund, which was designed to support companies facing financing difficulties during the Covid pandemic. Now, a judge in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts Manchester has issued a winding up order for the firm, which had employed 11 people in recent years.
In 2021, Screenreach had closed a $2m funding round which had included investment from several high net worth people, along with input from North East investors Hotspur Capital and the British Business Bank. The funding was used to expand overseas with the firm saying it hoped to help sports rights owners to extend their reach and to offer venues a tool to drive footfall and revenues.
Screach was available in 157 countries and subsequently signed a deal with S Sport Plus, a company which owns the rights in Turkey to broadcast the Champions League, Premier League, Formula 1 and the NBA. The sports network planned to use the technology to stream its content to an estimated 15,000 commercial venues in Turkey.
Screenreach's "freemium" model allowed customers to download the app for free and then use it to operate a free marketing and advertising channel including programmable digital signage and revenue-generating third party adverts. Venue operators used an online portal to buy any sports subscription or pay-per view event to screen.
The technology is said to have given sports rights owners a frictionless way to deliver content to venues with no up-front costs, giving them more avenues to drive subscriptions without going through conventional satellite and cable companies. The model was also touted as a way to combat piracy.
