CastTV
Users with a daily catalogue of tv shows, movies and trending videos.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
| investor investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | N/A | Acquisition | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
CastTV was an internet video search and aggregation company founded in San Francisco, California, in early 2006 by the husband and wife team, Edwin Ong and Alex Vikati. Ong, who served as the CEO, had a background that included a role as a Press Relations Contact at Creative Technology Ltd. The company developed a video search engine designed to index a wide array of online video content, including television shows, movies, news, sports, and viral videos. Its technology was notable for its ability to filter out expired links, duplicate videos, and video spam, providing users with a cleaner search experience.
The company's business model had two main facets: a consumer-facing search website and the licensing of its video search technology to other media companies. This dual approach allowed CastTV to build a user base while also generating revenue from enterprise clients. An early success came in December 2006 when CastTV secured Gemstar-TV Guide as its first major customer. This was followed by a significant milestone in April 2007, when the company raised $3.1 million in a Series A funding round led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, with additional participation from prominent angel investors like Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen. After launching its consumer beta in 2008, CastTV operated as a platform for users to find and watch videos from across the web.
In December 2010, CastTV was acquired by the Tribune Company. Following the acquisition, the public-facing consumer website, casttv.com, was shut down. The core technology developed by Ong and Vikati was repurposed by Tribune to create enterprise data products. Specifically, it became the foundation for the Online Video Data product, which powered the universal video search functionality for major technology and media companies, including Google, Roku, and TiVo. Edwin Ong later co-founded TinyData, a venture focused on data stacks for businesses.
Keywords: video search engine, online video aggregation, Edwin Ong, Alex Vikati, Tribune Company acquisition, universal video search, Online Video Data, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ron Conway, Marc Andreessen, Gemstar-TV Guide, video content index, video data licensing, enterprise data products, internet video search, video spam filtering, TV show search, movie search, San Francisco startup