iWorld
Planetcast expands online content streaming services acquiring Switch Media OTT, Australia
Mumbai: Planetcast Media Services, a media technology services provider in India and Southeast Asia, has announced the acquisition of one of its key partners, Switch Media, a white-label OTT platform provider deployed across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US. The transaction, which has been finalised, will transfer full control of all Switch Media’s assets to Planetcast.
Founded in 2006, the Australian headquartered Switch Media has innovated and delivered complex, multi-award-winning online streaming solutions, from ingest to delivery, for major brands and live events worldwide, including the Summer and Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and Formula 1 for customers such as Foxtel Australia and Media Prima Malaysia. Switch Media is already a strategic partner of Planetcast and has been providing cutting-edge OTT solutions to the company. The acquisition enables Planetcast to fully integrate Switch Media’s online video solutions with Planetcast’s unified platform, NexC and ensure that Switch Media’s OTT product roadmap is perfectly aligned with Planetcast’s customer requirements.
“Switch Media is the perfect acquisition for Planetcast’s NexC platform, providing us with proven world-class OTT capabilities that are a vital cornerstone of our media services and solutions portfolio and one that will help us build out our international expansion strategy,” said Planetcast’s CEO Sanjay Duda. “Battle-tested across varied customer segments such as Pay TV Operators, broadcasters and Telcos, Switch Media’s OTT platform has successfully hosted some of the most sensitive global sports and entertainment properties. We welcome the Switch Media team to the Planetcast family. We are looking forward to more tightly integrating its feature-rich OTT solutions with NexC, our cloud-first unified-service platform, to ensure that our customers can streamline content operations and drive monetisation.”
Commenting on its plans for Planetcast, Apollo Global head of India private equity Utsav Baijal said: “Because Planetcast adds significant value to its Indian and Asian customers, we are actively looking for such synergistic cross-border, global transactions such as Switch Media as the most effective way to build their international footprint and capability set.”
Developed over almost two decades, Switch Media’s modular and flexible solutions meet the media and entertainment industry’s changing requirements, through a versatile workflow engine that enables customers to ingest, manage, deliver, monetise, and analyse online video. The result is exceptional online content for viewers and a flexible suite of capabilities enabling customers to drive OTT monetisation.
Switch Media’s CEO, Mark Johns said of the acquisition: “Our journey with Planetcast promises to open up new markets and broaden our customer-base. The integration with Planetcast’s NexC platform will unlock tremendous value for Switch Media’s customers seeking to better leverage their content. Additionally, Planetcast’s large support infrastructure will further enhance agility and availability of support to Switch customers.”
eNews
Barc India, Nielsen launch Barc | Nielsen One Ads, a unified cross-media ad measurement tool
JioHotstar to deploy cross-screen measurement during T20 World Cup 2026
MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council India and Nielsen have joined forces to launch Barc | Nielsen One Ads, a cross-media measurement system designed to give advertisers a unified view of advertising performance across television and digital platforms.
The new framework combines Barc India’s linear television viewership data with digital audience measurement from Nielsen One Ads. The result is a single dataset that measures advertising reach and frequency across four screens: linear tv, connected tv, mobile and computer, while removing duplicated audiences across devices.
The move comes as India’s media landscape grows increasingly fragmented, with advertisers struggling to reconcile data from multiple platforms. The joint system aims to provide a single, deduplicated picture of campaign performance and audience reach.
“This marks a defining moment for cross-media ad measurement in India,” said Barc India chief executive Nakul Chopra. “Barc | Nielsen One Ads brings together television and digital screens in a unified system, enabling advertisers to understand their true reach and incremental impact across the entire media ecosystem.”
Nielsen chief product officer Akhil Parekh, said the collaboration addresses a long-standing challenge for advertisers. “Brands have had to stitch together fragmented data to understand how campaigns perform. A single, deduplicated view across screens is something the industry has needed for years.”
The first deployment will take place on JioHotstar, which will use the system to measure advertising during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 hosted by India and Sri Lanka. Barc India said the framework could expand to include more broadcasters and platforms if industry demand grows.
Among the system’s key features are unified four-screen reporting, advanced reach deduplication to eliminate duplicate viewers across devices, and detailed metrics including average frequency, gross rating points and demographic performance.
