Qube Cinema has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 100% stake in MetaMedia. With this acquisition, Qube Wire becomes the world’s largest cinema electronic delivery network with over 5,000 cinemas connected across 51 countries.
MetaMedia is North America’s largest cloud-based content delivery platform to cinemas.
In the United States, the merged network will provide coverage to 9 of the top 10 largest cinema chains. Qube will continue to execute MetaMedia’s existing deployment plans and service its customer agreements.
“The acquisition of MetaMedia is a huge move for Qube’s North American operations,” said Harsh Rohatgi, CEO of Qube Cinema. “MetaMedia’s innovative network has consistently delivered faster, more cost-effective solutions for content delivery, saving millions compared to traditional methods. At Qube, we’ve leveraged this technology to bring Indian feature films to North American cinemas with speed and precision, expanding the size and number of Indian releases by 3x in the last five years. With the addition of MetaMedia, our combined strengths will set a new standard in cinema content delivery for many more distributors and create unparalleled value for the global movie industry.”
For nearly four decades, Qube Cinema has been a trailblazer in the global filmmaking and exhibition industries. Qube is one of a handful of companies in the world that has developed a DCI certified digital cinema server. With a team of about 1,000 employees who are passionate about the domain, Qube continues to revolutionize cinema exhibition and distribution with cutting-edge, reliable, and cost-effective solutions. With technology to service the world’s greatest content creators and exhibitors, Qube continues to introduce innovations to the cinema ecosystem that are reshaping the cinematic experience for audiences worldwide.
Qube Wire has been growing consistently since launching as a global cloud-based distribution platform in early 2017. Today, Qube Wire powers the supply chain for many major content distributors, including all the major Hollywood studios. Qube Wire also delivers over 95% of all the Indian movies released around the world. With its regional partnerships and automated hard drive duplication hubs, Qube Wire provides content delivery services to cinemas in 135 countries around the world.
Notably, Qube Wire has enabled a substantial increase in the box office of Indian movies in the United States. Indian movies are often finished only days before their release, which makes Qube Wire’s fast and efficient cloud-based distribution system essential to meet nearly impossible delivery deadlines. Hollywood studios are noticing how the broadband-based delivery model embraced by MetaMedia and Qube Wire is a substantial improvement on existing satellite and hard drive fulfillment methods predominantly used in the United States.
Qube’s office in Los Angeles has a large, robust, and secure hard drive replication and shipping operation. This office will provide hard drive delivery to cinemas that are not yet connected to the electronic delivery network, as well as automatic hard drive remediation in the event of network interruptions to the connected cinemas.
Qube Wire also provides KDM management for many of its customers. Last year, Qube issued more than 2.3 million KDMs to theatres in North America. Qube has a large, well-maintained global Trusted Device List (TDL) and distributors and exhibitors have a dedicated team of more than 30 people available 24×7 to resolve issues as they arise.
Mark Waterston, Executive Vice President, Qube Wire, commented “MetaMedia has been a trusted delivery partner of Qube Wire for a long time, and I have consistently been impressed by their team. I am excited to see how our combined group can assist the distribution and exhibition communities here in the United States.”
MetaMedia Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jason Brenek said, “Each year since MetaMedia’s launch in 2020, we have expanded the size of our North American network and increased the volume of premium recorded and live content delivered to cinemas. MetaMedia’s acquisition by trusted entertainment industry leader Qube is the next logical step in our evolution. With global operations in every region around the world, Qube brings global scale and stability, end-to-end technology solutions for the digital cinema ecosystem, unparalleled in-house engineering and support teams with deep expertise in video, audio and technology across content production, post-production and distribution. We look forward to joining the Qube corporate family and continuing to support our valued studio and cinema partners.”
