CREATE MUSIC GROUP EXPANDS IN INDIA

Create Music Group has acquired content-management hub Nirvana Digital, a Mumbai-based company that is one of the largest YouTube Enterprise partners in India. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, this is the first of a planned $50 million investment Create is making in India and the broader region over the next several years.

Nirvana Digital, which delivers more than 20b minutes of video each month, has a subscriber base north of 200 million. It provides monetization, distribution and rights-management services to artists, labels, film and television concerns and other content owners.

Together, the two entities exceed 25b streams per month, making Create one of the world’s largest media companies by viewership.

Founder and CEO Jonathan Strauss commented: “We’ve been looking for the right way to build our business in India for some time now and after being introduced to Nirvana Digital’s co-founders and seeing the parallels between our two companies, we felt the right move was to acquire them and supercharge our entry into India with one of its most forward-thinking new media companies.”

As part of the acquisition, Nirvana Digital co-founders Manu Kaushish (left) and Pinakin Thakkar (right) have been named President, CMG India, and Chief Operating Officer, CMG India, respectively.