JW Player Adds Top Global Media Companies to Its Expanding Customer Roster, Nearly 600 New Enterprise Customers in Q1 2016

The world’s most widely distributed digital and mobile video solutions company further expands its global footprint, adding Univision and LittleThings to its best-in-class streaming, monetization and discovery technology

New York(21 Jun 2016)

JW Player, a leading digital and mobile video solutions company, announced today it secured key first quarter customer deals with some of the world’s top content creators and media brands. Univision Communications Inc. and LittleThings have joined approximately 600 other new enterprise customers in Q1. Currently, more than 2 million global publishers use JW Player’s solutions to build audience and maximize monetization by delivering video fast to every device and screen.

Univision Communications Inc, the leading media company serving Hispanic America, recently tapped JW Player for its diverse portfolio—from television to hundreds of interactive offerings—providing a robust and flexible solution to serve its rapidly growing online and mobile audiences. “JW Player’s innovative and flexible platform differentiates it as a highly valuable solution for building customized videos for our audiences," said Mark Kortekaas, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Univision Communications Inc.

It is a significant moment for video and Univision as tens of millions of fans are tuning in and logging on to Univision across all its platforms throughout the month of June to watch the Copa America Centenario, a highly-anticipated soccer tournament being played for the first time ever in the U.S. for its centennial anniversary. The tournament will run from June 3rd to June 26th and includes a total of 32 matches featuring North and South American teams.

JW Player’s clients straddle the complete range of industry verticals such as news, entertainment, gaming, sports, education, training, music, and technology, spanning more than 193 countries. Its rapid growth comes as nearly all companies and brands turn increasingly toward online and mobile video as a strategic imperative. These companies are choosing JW Player solutions’ seamless viewer experience across platforms, particularly mobile. 

JW Player has become the go-to video platform for many top companies in need of an open video ecosystem, designed to meet the demands of modern publishers and brands. With its brand control and UX options and robust suite of monetization, audience discovery and analytics tools, the company is increasingly positioned as the industry standard for next-generation video.

“JW Player continues to be the highest performance solution driving the deepest engagement, viewer satisfaction and publisher success globally,” said Chris Mahl, President of JW Player. “As more companies implement a holistic online video strategy, we are seeing a major shift by publishers from SaaS 1.0 monolith solutions to JW Player’s modular, high-performance architecture as the premier video solution.  This shift has gradually emerged through our player first open source architecture that incorporates the collective knowledge of the world’s largest group of video developers.”

JW Player allows clients to customize the look and feel of their video player, providing a high-quality, branded experience for consumers. The company’s JW Everywhere philosophy helps publishers power their advanced video solutions across platforms and everywhere consumers watch video.

"Audiences increasingly consume video in native mobile apps, in addition to on mobile web browsers,” added Mahl. “Univision is using JW technology to drive its own native app growth and innovation. The JW Platform offers a unique a single-player experience across multiple platforms that increases audience, engagement and reach.”

Whether it’s publishers, broadcasters, universities, e-learning programs, brands, or developers building video-based solutions for their own businesses or clients, people are using JW technology to change audience growth and economics in a positive way.

"JW Player has helped us to realize massive video growth, offering us complete control over the experience and how we monetize it,” said Joe Speiser, LittleThings Co-Founder and CEO. “At the end of the day, when we shifted from revenue sharing-based platforms to JW Player we were able to take home significantly more ad revenue, in formats that were much less intrusive."

Key customer and user growth highlights include:

• JW Player technology has an average of more than 1 billion unique monthly viewers.
• Consumers watch more than 1 billion hours (That’s approximately 114,000 years!) of video each month on JW Player technology—250% growth over the same period the previous year.
• Mobile traffic overtook desktop traffic across the entire JW Player network.   

For more information about JW Player, please visit: http://www.jwplayer.com/

About JW Player

JW Player is the New York-based startup that pioneered video on the web and is now innovating for the future. Started in 2008 as the world’s first open source video player, today the company’s customers span the globe across 193 countries and range from Fortune 500 companies to individual bloggers. The company’s flagship product, JW Player, is live on more than 2 million sites with over 1 billion hours of videos watched monthly by over 1 billion monthly unique viewers across all devices — OTT, phones, tablets, and desktops. Nearly five percent of all video streams worldwide are delivered through JW Player. In addition to the player, the company’s services include video hosting and streaming, advertising, and analytics. For more information, see www.jwplayer.com.

About Univision Communications Inc.

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) is the leading media company serving Hispanic America. The Company, a leading content creator in the U.S., includes Univision Network, one of the leading networks in the U.S. regardless of language and the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the country  available in  approximately 93% of U.S. Hispanic television households; UniMás, a leading Spanish-language broadcast television network available in approximately 87% of U.S. Hispanic television households; Univision Cable Networks, including Galavisión, the most-watched U.S. Spanish-language entertainment cable network, as well as UDN (Univision Deportes Network), the most-watched U.S. Spanish-language sports cable network, Univision tlnovelas, a 24-hour Spanish-language cable network dedicated to telenovelas,  ForoTV, a 24-hour Spanish-language cable network dedicated to international news, and an additional suite of cable offerings - De Película, De Película Clásico, Bandamax, Ritmoson and Telehit; Univision Television Group, which owns 59 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; digital properties consisting of online and mobile websites and apps, including Univision.com, the most visited Spanish-language website among U.S. Hispanics, Univision Now, a direct to consumer video service, Uforia, a music application featuring multimedia music content, The Root, the leading online news, opinion, and culture destination for African-Americans and a stake in The Onion, the nation’s leading comedy and news satire brand; and Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group in the U.S. which owns and operates 67 radio stations including stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico. UCI’s assets also include a minority stake in El Rey Network, a 24-hour English-language general entertainment cable network and a joint venture with Disney/ABC Television Network for Fusion, a 24-hour English-language news and lifestyle TV and digital network. Headquartered in New York City, UCI has television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States. For more information, please visit corporate.univision.com.