Vix Acquires Spanish-Focused AVOD Business Pongalo

Pongalo, a company that operates a mix of Spanish-focused streaming services, has been acquired by Vix, the two companies announced Tuesday morning. Specific dollar amounts were not disclosed, but the deal is estimated to be a low eight-figure cash and stock deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. Formerly known as Latin Everywhere, Pongalo runs three ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services — NovelaClub, Pongalo TV and Moovimex — which just surpassed 1 billion minutes watched so far this year, according to the company. Founded in 2014, Pongalo content catalog spans over 14,000 hours of owned, licensed and original content. The company has also partnered with U.S. studios to produce and market films with “Latino and multi-cultural feel and mainstream appeal,” such as this year’s Universal Studios film “The Public,” written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Alec Baldwin. “We believe that Vix’s enormous audience and powerful ad sales team combined with Pongalo’s massive catalog and global distribution footprint provide an unfair advantage as the combined company seeks to dominate the Latino AVOD space on two continents,” Pongalo founder and CEO Richard Hull said. “With the recent consolidations of media companies and studios, the market now particularly rewards scale and profitability, and this transaction provides Pongalo with both. We’re thrilled to join the Vix family in what is a great outcome for Pongalo and its investors.” With the new company under its control, Vix plans to launch an AVOD service later this year with over 10,000 hours of content at launch. “The opportunity for AVOD with Latino audiences is immense,” Vix Chairman and CEO Rafael Urbina said. “Our new Vix TV AVOD service, along with Pongalo’s great existing services, will create a marketplace of Latino digital media brands, all sold under one roof by the same advertising sales team.” With over 5,000 pieces of original content across English and Spanish languages produced a month, Vix reaches over 34 million U.S. Hispanic unique users on Vix.com and 27 million U.S. Hispanic social media followers on its social handles every month. The company runs several lifestyle properties which are popular in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, with a growing presence in the U.S.    It employs approximately 150 advertising sales and other professionals across multiple offices, including in Miami, Mexico, and Brazil.