Update: Google gave us the following statement:
"We were impressed by the Episodic team, the vision they have for Internet video, and the progress they have made in bringing a great video experience to the web. Online video should be engaging, entertaining, informative, and effective. Both Episodic and Google place value on creating a great experience for viewers and on delivering a powerful and flexible platform for publishers, marketers, and advertisers. In addition, Episodic has a deep understanding of the requirements of media publishers, marketers, and enterprises that create their own video-enabled sites and experiences."
Original Article: Google has acquired video monetization platform Episodic, according to an announcement from Episodic.
"The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices," Episodic Co-founders Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich say. "There will be no interruption in service for existing Episodic customers."
"At Episodic, we have always felt that these are the very early days of online video and that there is far more growth to be had. To put it in perspective, our industry is barely 15 years old. We’ve just received our learner’s permit, we still can’t drive without adult supervision and we’re certainly not old enough to buy a drink…legally," they continue. "From our earliest discussions with Google, it was clear that the teams shared this belief and together we obviously see huge potential in online video. Our product visions were also complimentary and together we will continue to produce innovative video technology for our customers and their viewers."
Episodic comes with six functional areas: video content management, content ingest and encoding, adaptive bitrate playback, monetization through advertising and credit card transaction, audience measurement and analytics, and syndication.
Terms of the acquisition are unknown at this point. We have a request out for more information from Google. We’ll update when we find out more.