You.i TV

You.i TV, established in 2008 in Ottawa, Canada, provided a specialized software development platform for global media companies. The company was founded by Jason Flick, a serial entrepreneur with a background in founding and scaling software companies, and Stuart Russell, who created the core technology. Their collaboration combined Flick's entrepreneurial drive with Russell's technical expertise to address the challenges of creating consistent user experiences in a fragmented device market.

The firm’s primary offering was the You.i Engine, an enterprise development platform that enabled developers to build video streaming applications from a single codebase. This approach significantly reduced development time and costs by allowing companies to create an application once and deploy it across a multitude of platforms, including mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs, game consoles, and set-top boxes. The platform was designed to give designers and developers the tools to create highly customized and engaging user interfaces, integrating with tools like Adobe After Effects for motion graphics. The business model initially involved a royalty-based fee per device and later shifted to supporting large media enterprises as they expanded their direct-to-consumer streaming services.

You.i TV catered to major media and entertainment brands, building a client roster that included Fox, the NBA, NFL, Twitch, and AT&T. The company's growth was fueled by over $50 million in venture capital through several funding rounds, with notable investors like Time Warner Investments (which later became WarnerMedia), Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, and Causeway Media Partners. This strategic investment from Time Warner was a precursor to a deeper relationship. In December 2020, WarnerMedia officially acquired You.i TV for a reported sum of over $100 million. The acquisition was a strategic move for WarnerMedia to enhance its technology stack, accelerate the global rollout of its HBO Max streaming service, and increase developer efficiency.

Keywords: cross-platform development, video streaming, user interface engine, application platform, media technology, OTT solutions, single codebase, Warner Bros. Discovery, Jason Flick, Stuart Russell