Media group Constantin Medien has forged a partnership with Indian telecommunications company Tata Communications to develop a new media hub in Germany.
The new service will offer content delivery, management, storage and computing services for businesses in sports, media, gaming and music industries across German-speaking countries in Europe.
The deal will enable Tata Communications to target media customers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria by using Constantin Medien as its preferred channel to these markets, and to offer Constantin Medien’s full service portfolio to its media customers around the world through the new media hub. In addition, Constantin Medien has chosen Tata Communications as its preferred provider for network and cloud infrastructure solutions.
Content by customers of production company Plazamedia, an affiliate of Constantin Medien, will be distributed from the media hub using Tata Communications’ Video Connect network.
Fred Kogel (pictured), chief executive of Constantin Medien, said: “This deal with Tata Communications is a fundamental cornerstone within the digital transformation of Plazamedia, enabled by global connectivity and the cloud.
“The partnership puts us in the unique position of acting as a preferred reseller of those services to other media companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It will strengthen our position as a truly indispensable partner for media companies, and open up new revenue opportunities through global content contribution and distribution.”
The Tata partnership was unveiled today (Wednesday) ahead of Constantin Medien’s annual general meeting and reports of substantial job cuts at Plazamedia. The AGM is expected to provide details over the future strategic direction of Constantin Medien, which operates German sports broadcaster Sport1, the Sport1 Media sports marketing company and the Team Marketing agency.
Constantin has also confirmed job cuts next year at Plazamedia, with the Meedia.de website reporting that this could run to as much as a quarter of the production company’s 200 staff.
“It is right that Plazamedia will have a necessary staff reduction,” a Constantin spokeswoman told Meedia.de. She added the cuts were needed due to the “expiry of the framework agreement with Sky (Deutschland) in the middle of 2017 and the planned reorientation of Plazamedia.”