Viaccess and Orca interactive to merge

Viaccess and its middleware subsidiary Orca Interactive are merging to create a new company called Viaccess-Orca.

France Telecom-owned Viaccess acquired Orca Interactive, which specialises in content discovery and recommendation, four years ago. The new organisation, called Viaccess-Orca, will be led by Viaccess CEO Francois Moreau de Saint Martin with Orca’s co-founder Haggai Barel taking the role of deputy CEO.

Viaccess-Orca will provides a range of services to operators, including TV Everywhere solutions, HbbtV solutions, conditional access and DRM systems, content delivery and content discovery platforms, as well as companion screen applications. The new company said it would enable service providers to quickly deploy new services.

“Viaccess-Orca is building upon its longstanding relationships and trust with content service providers to help them manage content on any type of network through go-to-market solutions that enable quick deployment. This approach encompasses an ultimate unified user experience and content discovery, advanced flexible rights management and business models, plus protection against piracy,” said Moreau de Saint Martin.

The announcement comes a few months after France Telecom-Orange said that it was migrating its entire Orange IPTV installed base of 5.1 million subscribers to Viaccess and Orca’s Unified Platform.