Unanue:
"We are expanding internationally, but we want Agile Content's footprint to grow in the Basque Country"
The new CEO of the international digital OTT video and TV company based in Bilbao is betting on collaboration with telcos as the foundation of its future strategy.
Artificial intelligence is set to play a crucial role in the evolution of audiovisual platforms, serving as a strategic tool in the ongoing battle among telcos to attract and retain customers. Content recommendation, user behavior analytics, and personalized advertising are three opportunities presented by this technology, as highlighted by Koldo Unanue, the new CEO of Agile Content.
The company, originating from Catalonia and now headquartered in Bilbao with an international presence, provides scalable video delivery solutions, SaaS applications, and cloud-based services aimed at telecommunications and media companies. With Unanue’s appointment in April, succeeding Alfredo Redondo, Agile Content seeks to integrate his experience in the telco sector into its future strategy.
With a background in telecommunications engineering and extensive marketing experience, you began your professional career at EiTB, later served as CMO of Virgin Telco in Spain, had a long career within Euskaltel, and until recently worked as the TV director of Grupo MásMóvil. How do you face this new challenge, and what do you think you can bring to Agile Content?
– I believe my main contribution to the company will be my understanding of how telecommunications companies think, the types of products they need, and how they market them… Agile Content is a tech company, but it needs to be oriented towards collaborating with telcos, where television has the most future development. Therefore, my goal is to grow it more in connection with these companies.
Agile Content, founded in Barcelona, decided to move its main headquarters to Bilbao, centralizing the group’s R&D activity since last year. Its relationship with Bizkaia and Euskadi began in 2021 with the acquisition of Fon Labs and the decision to invest and become Euskaltel’s strategic partner in its TV service. Is there a desire for permanence?
— Yes. We have an innovation team of 15 people here, and we plan to expand the team. The idea is to keep recruiting people and growing in Euskadi, where we collaborate with various Basque companies, universities, etc. I would like Agile’s footprint to grow in Euskadi.
When settling in Euskadi, you announced a significant investment of 26 million euros in the Basque territory until 2026 for new developments.
— Yes. We are working on AI applied to television, which we expect to have a significant impact.
What are your plans in the Basque territory?
— The ecosystem in Euskadi is perfect for innovation and testing. There are universities, technology centers, and companies highly specialized in the video world. Additionally, we have alliances with Euskaltel and Guuk, with whom we share our commitment to innovative development. We also work with ETB, aiming to increase business volume to do more together, as we are fully complementary in this new ecosystem of personalized advertising. Collaborating among ourselves, we can be very well-positioned.
With 290 professionals spread across 15 countries, do you find it challenging to find talent?
— Yes, it’s a challenge, but our company’s maxim is that talent lives where it wants, connecting our team here with those in Barcelona, Portugal, Stockholm, and Brazil. We are an absolutely international company and also promote remote work in all our locations.
Expansion Plans
Among your clients, you have over 120 companies, including Euskaltel, Grupo MásMóvil, EiTB, Canal+, Sky, Televisa, A1, Foxtel, and Proximus. With more than 850,000 users on your platform, technology deployed in over 50 million broadband households, and presence in 70 countries, you are among the top three TV actors in Spain and one of the five fastest-growing platforms in the EU. What are your forecasts for the coming years in a growing but highly competitive market?
— To grow in customers, telcos offer new subscribers an OTT audiovisual content service within the same TV package where they need a super-aggregation platform for the content.
What are the market trends?
— The main trends revolve around artificial intelligence. This technology enables obtaining customer data analytics, valuable information for providing content recommendation services, and future personalized advertising, a business that will grow in the coming years.
Currently, a commercial break advertisement is common to all, but soon, new technologies will replace it with personalized ads for each customer, making advertisers pay much more if the target is their audience. Telcos do not want to miss this opportunity; they want the possibility to advertise their products and increase their revenue. At Agile, we want to partner with telcos to help them evolve in these new businesses.
How do you think the recent merger between MásMóvil and Orange will affect your business?
— This year, we are looking at the merger between MásMóvil and Orange to form MásOrange. This move will significantly influence our revenue because MásMóvil is our main client, making their merger with Orange an opportunity for us. We are already starting to activate the first customers of this new operator.
Agile Content achieved consolidated revenue of 102.6 million euros, 1.1% above the previous year. What are your expectations for the current year?
— The new management team is reviewing the strategic plan to present it to the Board for approval.
You increased EBITDA to 14.1 million euros, 21.7% above the previous year, and cash flow grew by 42.9% compared to 2022, while reducing net financial debt to 23.1 million euros.
— Yes. Last year was the first without inorganic growth, and the company focused more on improving efficiency. This led to an EBITDA improvement, debt reduction, and a revenue increase. We also gained new platform vision clients, and besides MásMóvil, Yoigo, Guuk, and Euskaltel, we began activating services in Brazil and Italy, with Finland next.
Seeking New Markets
What business volume do you expect to gain with these new markets?
— It depends on the acceptance of our services. Brazil is vast, and we reached an agreement with Superplayer & Co, a wholesaler in the country, to reach the many small operators there. In Italy, we have medium-sized operators like Tiscali, with several hundred thousand customers.
So, that’s the potential we are looking at. We’ve set a foot in and hope to grow. Our goal is to step out of the comfort zone of the operators we’ve worked with in recent years and start working in Europe and Latin America.
Will your strategy now focus more on organic growth?
— We do not rule out inorganic growth, but if it does not happen, we will grow organically and continue trying to sign new clients.
Do you want to keep expanding your business lines?
— Yes. Although some operators ask us to handle everything, our mission is not to be content providers or resellers, but to enhance our technology service, where we add value.
Also, there are products we sold individually to telcos that can generate new business lines for them and us. Telcos started with fixed lines, internet, mobile, and data, then moved to energy, alarms, and insurance, wanting to add more services to attract and retain customers. Agile Content is focusing its innovation in this direction, reorienting product lines and market approaches to be a good partner in this transformation.
Article originally published in Spanish in Crónica Vasca
