Swedish equipment maker announces intention to acquire FYI Television as part of its strategic push into the broadcasting sector.

Iain Morris, International Editor

January 18, 2016

2 Min Read
Ericsson Scoops Up US TV-Data Business

Ericsson has announced plans to acquire a TV-data company called FYI Television as it looks to bolster its fast-expanding TV and media business.

Based in Texas, FYI Television analyzes content and scheduling data from more than 9,000 TV networks on a daily basis. It then provides the information in customized formats for clients offering TV, mobile, Internet and print services.

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) reckons consumers are feeling increasingly bewildered by the growing range of TV and video services, highlighting the need for what it calls "content discovery" technologies.

The Swedish vendor already claims to have taken a leading position in this area in Europe. By adding FYI's US-market capabilities, it hopes to develop its offering into a "global force."

"FYI Television's expertise and customer base in the US is a great complementary fit for Ericsson and will be an integral part of our growth strategy," said Magnus Mandersson, the head of global services for Ericsson, in a company statement.

Ericsson has not disclosed what it will pay for FYI but expects to close the deal by the end of March.

Staff at the company will join Ericsson's broadcast and media services business line -- itself a part of the vendor's global services business unit.

The move comes soon after Ericsson began providing closed captioning services to international broadcasters from a new broadcast media and services hub in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ericsson says it is planning to roll out video description services in the next few months.

On January 21, the company is set to unveil a new video data analysis tool during a media and analyst briefing.

TV and media forms one of Ericsson's "targeted growth areas" from which it reported year-on-year sales growth of 10% in the July-to-September quarter.

For more on Ericsson, see:

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About the Author(s)

Iain Morris

International Editor, Light Reading

Iain Morris joined Light Reading as News Editor at the start of 2015 -- and we mean, right at the start. His friends and family were still singing Auld Lang Syne as Iain started sourcing New Year's Eve UK mobile network congestion statistics. Prior to boosting Light Reading's UK-based editorial team numbers (he is based in London, south of the river), Iain was a successful freelance writer and editor who had been covering the telecoms sector for the past 15 years. His work has appeared in publications including The Economist (classy!) and The Observer, besides a variety of trade and business journals. He was previously the lead telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, and before that worked as a features editor at Telecommunications magazine. Iain started out in telecoms as an editor at consulting and market-research company Analysys (now Analysys Mason).

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