PlayJam, which distributes its own and now third-party casual games to TVs in Europe, is taking a $5 million first investment round to help it do the same in the U.S. and Asia.
The money comes from GameStop Digital Ventures, Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Ventures, Endeavour Ventures, London Venture Partners, which comprises former EA Europe and Atari chief David Gardner, former EA VP David Lau-Kee and former Sony (NYSE: SNE) president Phil Harrison.
PlayJam had long delivered games to BSkyB’s set-top boxes in the UK but is now gaining business-defining traction on the box-less new internet TVs, including *Sony* Internet TV, Samsung Smart TV, Panasonic Viera Connect and LG (SEO: 066570) Smart TV.
This year, it grew its line-up of games by introducing third-party titles through its new API and SDK. With the funding announcement, PlayJam specifically says it will aggregate Adobe Flash-based games, too.
Some stats PlayJam is claiming…
- Some internet TVs are seeing 75 percent connection rate.
- Games is the biggest TV apps category, just like on mobile, with 38 percent of all downloads.
- Half of PlayJam’s free players eventually pay for games – an average 4.8 purchases per month.
- Players play for an average 23 minutes per session.
- In September 2010, PlayJam said average revenue per user per year is £65.76.