Amazon has acquired Net Insight’s consumer streaming business, Sye, for approximately $37.2 million in cash.
The deal includes all of Sye’s intellectual property rights, contracts and about 30 employees and consultants who are being transferred to Amazon. Net Insight said it’s selling the division to increase focus and investments in its core B2B media networks business.
Sye represented a small fraction of Net Insight’s overall business and, as Dan Rayburn pointed out, a lot of that business was already being accounted for by Amazon, which was using Sye for its livestreaming operations.
RELATED: Amazon rolls out new features for NFL Thursday Night Football streams
For Amazon, Sye will likely play a big role in the company’s livestreaming efforts, which include NFL Thursday Night Football and Premier League soccer.
Sye’s technology was built to provide end-to-end latency of less than 3 seconds, improved sync, instant channel changes and improved quality of experience.
Amazon recently completed the second of a two-year deal streaming NFL games on its platform. Ahead of the season, the company rolled out some new features that allowed viewers to get access to stats like a quarterback’s average time to throw, a running back’s average yards after contact and a wide receiver’s average yards of separation. The features were made available for Android, iOS and Fire TV devices.
Thursday Night Football games were available on Amazon-owned Twitch as well as Prime Video. The games were co-streamed by popular streamers on the platform, which allowed viewers to chat and interact.