Bonded Services Acquires Inception Digital Services

Deal will allow Bonded to offer a wide range of digital management and distribution services

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/26/2012 11:19:06 AM

Bonded Services Group has announced that it has acquired a leading provider of digital services, Inception Digital Services LLC (IDS) from Inception Media Group LLC. The deal will allow Bonded to offer its clients a wide range of digital services that will help them capitalize on the burgeoning digital media and distribution business.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

IDS is a leading provider of such digital services as physical media migration, digital encoding, electronic packaging, secure high-speed content delivery services, asset management and archive data storage. As part of its services, it has a secure network for certified delivery access to all major online, broadcast media and VOD retailers and platforms.

These include iTunes as a Preferred Provider, Amazon, Netflix, Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, CinemaNow, InDemand, Comcast, Echostar, Blockbuster, Hulu and Vudu.

IDS also works with a number of international platforms and customers in such markets as Australia, India, Germany, UK, France and Italy.

"When we created the Bonded Services platform we committed to adding digital services to our current and substantial archival management services offering," said Jerry Gold, CEO of Bonded Services Limited in a statement. "IDS's digital capabilities will form the basis of a vital solution for clients who want to monetize and store their assets in the digital world. In combining IDS's direct access to the largest online entertainment retailers and VOD providers and the significant international reach of Bonded, we think we have created an offering unlike any in our industry. We believe we can help our partners to fully exploit physical and digital asset management and maximize all digital distribution revenue opportunities in the future as the growth of digital media consumption on a variety of platforms continues to explode. This deal will help us participate in the substantial growth of digital consumption of media and provide our customers with a full suite of both physical and digital asset management services around the world."

As a result of the deal, IDS is now operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bonded Services. Erik Pence continues to serve as president of IDS.

"Content distribution and exploitation is front of mind for all media industry executives and we plan to be a part of the solution not only as a service provider but also as a thought leader on best practices in actively managing the archival assets of our customers," added Pence in a statement. "The combination of Bonded and IDS puts us at the forefront of this rapidly growing segment in the media world. Bonded's global footprint is critical to our international expansion plans of providing key facilities for both our global customers and our platform partners."

(Editor's note: Bonded Services is owned by The Wicks Group, the parent company of NewBay Media, owners of Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News.)