By Stuart Thomson

Germany’s Splendid Medien-owned Videociety has struck an agreement with ProSiebenSat.1-Discovery joint venture streaming outfit Joyn to take over the former ProSiebenSat.1-owned Maxdome video-on-demand brand, effective October 1.

The Splendid Group outfit, which operates a direct-to-consumer offering as well as supplying video platform services to third party providers including Freenet, said it intends to tap the acquisition to further expand its VOD business.

The Splendid Group will continue to offer the transactional VOD service from Maxdome under the same brand name. it said that it would tap its own extensive film library and licence agreements to offer a wider range of content to Maxdome users.

The Splendid subsidiary Videociety operates a video-on-demand platform for end customers and also offers VOD platform solutions for business customers. Under the Videociety brand meinVoD, the company provides third-party customers with a range of content, development, operation and portal management services for their end customers, including Freenet Video, the VOD portal of the Freenet Group

“We are registering an increasing oversaturation of streaming subscription offers on the market. That is why we now see a market opportunity to strengthen our video-on-demand portfolio with selective acquisitions. Many customers want to be able to access individual films or programmes quickly and easily without having to take out a subscription right away. We can reach exactly this target group with our offer,” said CEO of Splendid Medien AG, Dirk Schweitzer.

ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery launched Joyn two years ago as a freemium service, with the launch of a premium offering, Joyn Plus+, following in November 2019. ProSiebenSat.1 then said it would integrate content from Maxdome into the new offering. However, the brand has continued to operate as an online video store.