VCT News
Beringea invests £400,000 in SUBtv
26 May 2004 - Beringea's funds have invested £400,000 in SUBtv, a new and innovative advertising platform targeting university students in the UK. The funding comes from two leading performing VCTs of their respective vintage; Beringea's ProVen VCT and ProVen Media VCT.
SUBtv has established a plasma screen network in 55 student union bars across the UK, reaching more than 1 million students. SUBtv has secured 10 year exclusive contracts for each location and is planning to expand its network by another 25 student union bars in 2004.
SUBtv provides advertising slots, sidebar adverts and sponsorship positions via a digital TV network, which distributes music, lifestyle and local university content programs to student union bars in the UK. The content can be localized for each location, i.e. showing the highlights of the relevant university football match on the plasma screens. The network also provides links into other features such as EPOS systems and door counters which can provide accurate, real-time quantitative research for the advertisers.
Jeff Bocan, Investment Manager at Beringea commented, "We are thrilled to be a part of this innovative and interactive advertising medium, which exploits the trend of increased fragmentation of media channels. The student market is very attractive to big advertisers, but the diverse way in which students consume media makes them a difficult and expensive audience to reach. SUBtv enables global and local advertisers to communicate with 1 million-plus students in their own comfortable environment".
SUBtv has secured advertising deals with big brands including Vodafone, Deloitte & Touche, Puma, Lynx, as well as more local advertisers such as The West Midlands Police Department. SUBtv expects a busy Autumn as a new class of "freshers" arrives to campus in September.
Trevor Hope, Investment Director at Beringea added "SUBtv's platform presents advertisers with a captive audience in an environment where students spend a significant amount of their leisure time, student union bars. With the proliferation of media, it has become more difficult to reach large audiences and. Advertisers are looking for efficient means to cut through the clutter and talk to their audience in innovative ways. SUBtv's network does just that."
The investment was completed on behalf of the Beringea funds by Jeff Bocan. ProVen and ProVen Media VCTs are private equity funds managed by Beringea's UK investment team comprising Stuart Veale, Trevor Hope and Jeff Bocan.
Beringea also manages the Global Rights Fund II fund, investor in media, brands and Intellectual Property rights. Beringea also plans to raise a new VCT, ProVen III, in the autumn of this year. Beringea continues to be a cutting edge investor in well-performing companies in the media sector. Beringea's investment in SUBTV joins Zenith Entertainment, Espotting Media and Chorion, amongst others in Beringea's media portfolio.
About Beringea
Beringea is an international venture capital firm with offices in London and Detroit. In the UK Beringea manages ProVen VCT, ProVen Health VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT and Global Rights Fund II. Beringea launched its first VCT in 1996, making it one of the most experienced VCT managers in the UK. ProVen Growth & Income and ProVen VCT are highest performing VCTs of their launch years, respectively, according to www.taxefficientreview.com. For more information please visit www.provenvcts.co.uk.