The undisclosed cash deal will see the two companies merged under the WRN banner and TSI's six staff and all of its technology moved to WRN's Vauxhall office in South London. 100% of the shareholding has been bought and no redundancies are expected.
WRN managing director David Treadway says the purchase will allow the company to offer a more comprehensive service and quicken his company's move into television, an area that he believes offers significant opportunities for growth.
“WRN is already internationally renowned in the radio sector, although traditionally less known for our TV services despite the fact that we already have a substantial TV client list,” he said. “TSI is a good fit and [the purchase] increases our experience in the television playout area and adds knowledge in encoding and transcoding that we didn't have before.”
The company will now build a new playout centre in Vauxhall accommodating TSI's Pharos and Omneon-based playout platform. The integration is expected to be completed by September at which point WRN will offer a more comprehensive ingest, playout, streaming, encoding and transcoding services.
Nick Doff, managing director of TSI said: "We were very pleased to have found a buyer that is such a great fit with the TSI ethos. WRN is highly respected in the industry, with over 16 years' experience under its belt, and I'm sure that it will make a great success of the purchase."
WRN has also made a u-turn on plans for TSI's Grape Street facility. While original plans suggested that it was surplus to requirements, after consulting with clients the building may now be used as a small studio facility for live TV and radio work.
TSI's customers will transition to the WRN network from early May.
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