Ex-DAZN exec Ben King invests in Looper Insights

Connected TV intelligence outfit Looper Insights has recruited former DAZN and Apple senior executive Ben King as an investor and advisor to the board.

Ben King

King will advise the Looper board on strategy, market requirements and product development. The company said he would also help extend and deepen its relationships with the leading studios, distributors, streaming services and platform operators.

King was previously chief subscription officer at leading sports streamer DAZN, following a 12-year career in senior leadership positions at Apple across services including iTunes, the App Store and Apple Music.

Looper Insights utilises machine learning and smart image recognition technology to track where, when and how TV shows, movies and OTT apps are is being promoted across digital storefronts on smart TVs, app stores, games consoles, streaming boxes and MVPD services around the world.

Content owners and OTT services use this intelligence to ensure that content is being served to consumers in the right place at the right time, that distribution agreements are being fulfilled, to understand the correlation between content features and user acquisition and engagement, and to optimise the efficiency of their merchandising and paid advertising on connected TV platforms, according to Looper.

Early customers of the SaaS start-up include Amazon Prime Video, Disney, Sony Pictures and NBCU.

“It’s such a privilege to welcome such an experienced and senior industry executive as Ben as an investor. His astute industry insight and understanding of the challenges being faced by marketing and distribution teams as entertainment merchandising in an increasingly global and fragmented world, has already proved invaluable to myself and the board. From our first conversation, Ben immediately understood the power of the Looper Insights technology platform and our potential pathways as we aim to become the must-have provider of Connected TV intelligence services to the world’s entertainment industry”, said Looper Insights’ CEO Lucas Bertrand.

“For over two decades I have been deeply involved in the evolution of entertainment distribution around the world. As video distributors, we have access to unparalleled amounts of data and insight to understand how our marketing efforts are driving our customer and revenue growth. And yet arguably our most powerful channels of distribution – the storefronts of hundreds of Connected TV platforms – have remained a black box,” said King.

“Understanding what is driving downloads, installs, subscriber starts and views and how to grow them has largely been restricted to guess work and glossy screenshots. Until now. For the first time, Looper Insights helps marketers to understand exactly where, when and how our content is being presented to customers across thousands of storefronts in near real-time. And only now can we begin to truly understand the correlation to sales performance and revenue growth.”