TouchTunes, PlayNetwork Announce Merger Intentions

April 5, 2017 by Dave Haynes

The digital jukebox company TouchTunes and retail music and entertainment provider PlayNetwork have announced a definitive agreement to merge their businesses.

“This agreement represents a major step forward in our global growth plan,” says Ross Honey, TouchTunes’ President and CEO. “PlayNetwork’s global reach, strong customer relationships, and approach to creating engaging music and media experiences are a perfect complement to TouchTunes, and will help us expand into new markets and offer new opportunities to our operator partners.”

“Our merger combines two best-in-class companies to become a global market leader for music and media services,” says Craig Hubbell, CEO of PlayNetwork. “Together, we have the financial strength and expertise to better serve our customers with the expanded products and service capabilities they need to increase consumer engagement, in venue and beyond.”

TouchTunes has also announced it has “bought certain assets” of El Media Group, a New York-based background music and services provider.

TouchTunes has units in more than 63,000 bars and restaurants across North America, and 74,000 globally. It also has a digital out-of-home activation platform that provides targeted advertising and promotional opportunities for consumer brands.

PlayNetwork does a bunch of things – creative strategy development, branded music curation and global licensing, original video production, messaging, audio/visual systems engineering and installation, technology and software development. The press releases says Play has 400-plus brands across 110,000-plus locations in 120-plus countries, reaching more than 100 million people every day.