News Corp Australia acquires stake in video business Visual Domain

News Corp Australia has taken a majority stake in video production company Visual Domain in a move to grow its commercial content business.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller has announced the company has taken a majority stake in Visual Domain.

News Corp has bolstered its commercial content business by taking a majority stake in the nation’s largest full service video production company, Visual Domain.

The announcement on Tuesday to acquire a significant stake in the business, founded by Renece Brewster and Daniel Goldstein in 2008, will help grow News Corp’s video production content.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the move would help deliver great offerings to the company’s growing content production.

“We are developing world-class content creation and production capabilities across the business to better serve our clients’ marketing needs,” he said.

“Video production is a significant and growing component of the content we create.

“This investment in Visual Domain with its experienced in-house team and full service offering, from livestream events to high-end television commercials and social media, provides News Corp Australia with immediate scale in video production to better serve our clients business goals and the increased demand for these capabilities.”

Since Visual Domain was founded 13 years ago it has produced more than 60,500 videos and has creative teams located across Australia.

News Corp Australia’s managing director Mike Connaghan said the acquisition would help build a high performance portfolio of marketing capabilities and deliver top content.

“We were already working with Visual Domain and were impressed by their creativity, efficiency and ability to match the pace of the news cycle while also dealing with bigger, longer form creative projects,” said Mr Connaghan.

“With the demand for video only escalating, bringing our businesses together allows us to better meet our clients’ growing digital, content and integrated marketing needs, providing us with even more opportunity to flex our creative muscle.”

Visual Domain produces about 300 videos a week and has the capacity to turn around content in just 24 hours.

The company’s chief executive officer, Ms Brewster, said she was “excited for our growth to continue both in Australia and globally as part of the News Corp Australia business”.

“Video content has taken on new context over the last 18 months playing a meaningful role in allowing brands to connect with their audiences and we’re so thrilled to be able to bring this medium to an even greater audience as a result of this deal,” she said.

“We are thrilled to be starting this new chapter with News Corp Australia.”

Visual Domain will keep its own brand and existing management structure and all staff will be retained.

Separately Nicholas Gray will take up a new role at News Corp, moving from his role as managing director of The Australian, NSW and Prestige Titles to lead the development and management of relationships with the tech companies.

Mr Gray will also head a new national team that will focus on aligning digital publishing and audience engagement expertise.