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–Investors Include 3i, Amadeus, Intel Capital

Fledgling broadband TV operator, Aggregator, has secured £9 million in new funding in a Series A round that was led by 3i, Amadeus Capital Partners (which provided seed investment for the company when it was founded last year) and Intel Capital. The London-based company plans to use the funding to launch a range of broadband TV services in the UK this fall which will be accessed through the PC and which it says will target niche, underserved audiences, including hobbyists and ethnic minorities (according to the company, one of the first programming services it will offer will be targeted at Russian ex-patriots). The company then plans to launch an extended service in early 2007, which end-users will be able to access through the TV via hybrid DTT/IP set-top boxes and which (like the BT Vision service which is currently being developed by UK incumbent telco, BT) will be designed to supplement the UK’s free-to-air digital terrestrial service, Freeview (note: it says that the service will enable Freeview content providers to offer enhanced TV applications). It claims to have already aggregated around 30,000 hours of content for the service, and says that the service will include a seven-day "catch-up" facility featuring content from the UK’s major terrestrial broadcasters. "In a rapidly changing media world, Aggregator has designed a smart, TV-over-broadband platform that drives new routes to the consumer and opens up new revenue streams for content owners," Aggregator’s co-founder and director of programming, Chris Griffin, said in a prepared statement (note: Griffin was formerly director of channels at Granada Media; the company’s other co-founder, Martin Goswami, who serves as its CEO, was formerly commercial director at BSkyB; the company’s CTO, meanwhile, is ex-Liberate CTO, Raymond Drewry). "Our service ensures a high-quality viewing experience that is targeted at specific communities and available to anyone with a broadband connection. When combined with Freeview, we can offer a compelling range of TV services that will be a highly attractive alternative for UK audiences." Added Alain-Gabriel Courtines, investment director at Intel Capital: "Helping to propagate rich media over the Internet and IP networks is a critical element for driving Intel’s vision of the Digital Home. The Aggregator service is facilitating this vision of convergence between the Internet and traditional broadcast TV by offering a hybrid model between the TV and PC with niche content that is not available over traditional free-to-air and pay-TV platforms."

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