Media Tech Venture Studio Participant Q&A: Transmit.Live
Earlier this year, we announced the launch of the Verizon Media Tech Venture Studio in partnership with R/GA. This is a new program focused on identifying and developing innovative growth- and early-stage companies with disruptive technologies that will shape the future of digital entertainment and media consumption.
The program, consisting of 8 innovative startups, is well under way and we wanted to catch up with some of the founders to see how things are progressing. In this participant spotlight, we sat down with Transmit.Live’s CEO Scott Young to talk about the company’s background story and experience so far.
What problem is Transmit.Live trying to solve and how did you identify this problem?
Media companies are putting more of their time, money and resources towards creating live content, but struggling to figure out how to drive real-time viewership and monetize their audiences.
Based on our previous experience working in advertising technology and video content distribution we found that established broadcasters need solutions that help them respond to rapidly changing content consumption patterns and next generation media companies need innovative solutions to support technical gaps within their existing content strategy.
As social media platforms began adopting the live video format at a rapid pace we found these market challenges were radically amplified.
Tell us how you first came up with the concept for the company.
I was previously leading video solutions for a large digital marketing company. We were working closely with some of the major broadcasters who were inquiring about our live video solutions. After realizing that solving their challenges did not fit our business model and product strategy, I collaborated with some industry leaders across ad tech and content distribution to better understand the emerging market challenge. We quickly decided to form Transit.Live and work together full time to build a broadcast marketing and distribution platform.
What drew you to this the Verizon Media Tech Venture Studio program?
Based on the broad scope of technologies Verizon owns in live streaming technology, advertising technology, content distribution and content production they represent a complementary fit with our core platform from a business development and product development perspective.
What have been the highlights of the program thus far?
Working collaboratively across Verizon ventures, VDSM, and Oath has given us a valuable inside look at the market we are building solutions for. We have learned a great deal about our product focus and how we can add incremental value to the existing ecosystem.
