WideOrbit Buys Abacast

• Provides Ad Insertion for Digital Radio

WideOrbit Inc., a provider of advertising management software for media companies, has announced that it has acquired Abacast, a leading provider of streaming, live and on demand ad insertion and monetization solutions for digital radio.

This acquisition is part of an ongoing initiative to expand WideOrbit’s digital offering for major media companies.

Abacast offers end-to-end monetization platform for digital audio services of all types. Clarity, the company’s core solution, is the only complete, cloud-based digital radio solution that enables profitable online radio streaming for terrestrial broadcasters, pure play broadcasters, as well as podcasters.

Used by over 1,500 online radio stations and hundreds of podcasts, Clarity’s centralized and comprehensive solution enables digital audio services to get more out of their digital inventory and quickly maximize their profits.

The Abacast solutions will be part of an expanded WideOrbit digital product line that currently includes the recently acquired Fivia AdFront solution and WO Traffic – Internet Orders.These two frontend digital ad management solutions will incorporate Abacast’s digital streaming and monetization platform to provide a comprehensive, single-vendor, non-linear solution for WideOrbit’s media clients, allowing them to effectively and profitably manage advertising across all media platforms.

Rob Green

“The Abacast team is excited to be joining WideOrbit,” said Rob Green, CEO of Abacast. “WideOrbit is a recognized leader in the media industry with extraordinary vision and a proven record of providing superior solutions to their customers. With WideOrbit’s active initiative to provide major media clients with an end-to-end solution for managing digital ad operations, we are pleased that our employees and our synergistic technologies will play a key role in seeing the plan through to fruition. Additionally, Abacast will enhance WideOrbit’s extensive knowledgebase to ensure that we continue to provide innovative solutions and a superior level of support to our current customers.”

WideOrbit has seen a distinct rise in the demand for its digital solutions as clients have expanded increasingly into non-linear. In February, Borrell Associates forecasted a 22% rise in digital ad revenue in radio by the end of 2014.