OmniCapital
OMNICAPITAL
INVESTS IN NARROWSTEP, INTERNET TV COMPANY
Westfield, NJ, March 6
/OmniCapital Group LLC today announced that it has invested in Narrowstep(TM)
Inc, the TV on the Internet company. The
investment round totaled $7.1 million. Other
investors in the financing included Granahan McCourt Capital, which is owned by
David C. McCourt, the Company's interim CEO, and Roger L. Werner, a director of
the Company and former COO of ESPN.
Narrowstep
is the leading provider of IP-delivered video content based on its award-winning
TelVOS(TM) platform -- the most comprehensive commercial video and
audio management system on the market. Narrowstep brings the best of TV and the
best of the web to help channel owners monetize their content through a suite of
tools that allows for a long-form TV-like viewing experience, integrating social
networking and e-commerce opportunities. Narrowstep customers range from sports
organizations to government agencies, broadcasters and telecommunication
providers in Europe, the
United States
and
Asia
. The Internet television market is
forecasted by some analysts to grow to $10 billion in revenue from subscription
fees and advertising by 2010.
Arun Netravali
, Managing General Partner of OmniCapital, said,
“Narrowstep is a leading player in the rapidly-growing Internet TV market and
is led by a top industry executive in David McCourt with decades of experience
in content production and distribution. We
are very impressed with Narrowstep’s technology, business model and the team.
In the future we expect to see more advertising dollars seeking out
well-targeted television channels distributed online.
Narrowstep is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this trend.”
David McCourt, Narrowstep’s CEO and
a pioneer in the media industry, said, “I am pleased to welcome OmniCapital as
an investor in Narrowstep. Omni has a wealth of experience in video
technology and a broad network of contacts in the industry. I hope to draw
upon these resources to accelerate the growth of Narrowstep.”
Narrowstep
expects to end the year with over 500 channels. Recent launches include ITV,
the
UK
's top commercial broadcaster, Martial Arts TV, Bebin TV, London TV, Cycling.tv,
as well as the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. For a full list of channels
as well as live broadcast events, please visit http://www.narrowstep.com/.
About
Narrowstep(TM) Inc
Narrowstep(TM)
Inc (OTC: NRWS) (BULLETIN BOARD: NRWS) is a leading provider of Internet-based
video content delivery (TV on IP). Narrowstep's product and service offerings
enable customers to distribute channels of video-based content and provide
related services over the Internet. The Narrowstep system, TelVOS(TM),
enables comprehensive delivery of video content and television-like programming
to mobile, wireless, Internet, broadband and broadcast services to clients
throughout the world. To learn more, visit http://www.narrowstep.com/.
About OmniCapital
OmniCapital Group, with
offices in
New Jersey
and
Boston
, is an early-growth stage venture capital investor focusing on information
technology and with special interest in media technology, security, broadband,
home networking, convergence and vertical applications.
The firm takes a hands-on, active investing approach.
Arun Netravali
, Managing Partner of the firm, is a pioneer in digital video and co-author of
several related books: Digital Video, An introduction to MPEG-2 (2003), Digital
Pictures: Representation, Compression and Standards (1995), and Visual
Communication Systems (1989). Visit
http://www.omnivc.com