Niche Genre Film Company’s International Growth Warrants Need for Cultural Filter
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – May 19, 2021 – ( Newswire.com )
Data and technology company Spherex announced today that they have partnered with Maverick Entertainment Group to adapt select catalog titles for international distribution. The Spherex technology solution views the film through a cultural filter that recommends ratings, key art, content, listings and compliance to suit local markets across the globe.
Maverick is an international company focused on releasing and distributing niche genre films. Maverick’s catalog contains over 400 titles that are distributed through relationships with Roku, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Redbox, Samsung, Sling, Pluto TV, Fandango, Vudu and more. With the company’s international growth and their heightened awareness of the need for cultural sensitivity, Spherex was a natural partner to help them navigate tricky overseas markets and maintain brand credibility with viewers outside of the U.S.
“Maverick has been a pioneer in entertainment distribution for over two decades, and they understand that culture matters when it comes to distributing a film to a foreign audience,” said Spherex Co-Founder and CEO Teresa Phillips. “Our solution takes the guesswork out of the process by providing concrete data and recommendations for films and TV shows so they resonate with the largest audience and don’t break with social norms in that culture.”
“Maverick Movies reflect the culture and diversity of our filmmakers both behind and in front of the lens,” said President and Founder Doug Schwab. “Aided by the expertise of Spherex, we can match our strong product line into fitting markets and into more homes worldwide.”
Spherex has built a first-of-its-kind technology that enables media and entertainment companies to adapt TV shows and films to fit every culture around the world. Working with the world’s largest media companies, movie studios, networks, distributors and streamers, Spherex helps them grow their audiences, speed up content discovery, drive more video views, generate higher revenue and ensure brand safety by culturalizing their content. Learn more at www.spherex.com .
Founded in 1997, Maverick continues to be the leading distributor of niche and Urban content. Having released more than 900 films over the past 24 years, Maverick currently controls the world’s largest library of feature-length Black Cinema. In addition to funding and producing originals, Maverick releases 85 movies a year and distributes physically and digitally worldwide.
Santa Clara, CA (September 4, 2025)— Spherex, Codemill, and Embrace today announced they will debut a joint demo at IBC 2025 in Amsterdam, highlighting a groundbreaking compliance workflow solution that streamlines how media companies prepare content for global distribution.
Modern content supply chains are complex and resource-intensive, particularly when ensuring compliance with local regulations and cultural norms across markets. The joint solution integrates SpherexAI’s automated compliance checks with Codemill’s Accurate Video platform and Embrace’s orchestration technology to deliver faster, more efficient, and more accurate compliance workflows for film, television, advertising, and social video.
How It Works The joint demo highlights a fully integrated compliance workflow designed to simplify and accelerate content preparation for global distribution:
Workflow Orchestration: Embrace streamlines content preparation and operational workflows by organizing media files, managing notifications, user jobs, and monitoring.
Automated Compliance Check: SpherexAI identifies objectionable content (including nudity, violence, and inappropriate language) and generates detailed metadata with contextual descriptions.
Metadata Review: Codemill’s Edit Suite ingests this metadata, enabling compliance teams to efficiently review flagged content and create lightweight compliance versions within an intuitive web-based UI.
By combining these technologies, global compliance checks can be completed in minutes rather than days, reducing costs while accelerating time-to-market.
Why It Matters Preparing content for international distribution has traditionally been slow and labor-intensive. SpherexAI’s advanced AI-driven compliance engine ensures unparalleled speed, depth, and accuracy. Integrated with Embrace’s orchestration and Codemill’s browser-based Edit Platform, the workflow provides content owners with multiple benefits, including:
Scalability: Seamlessly processes large content libraries.
Accuracy: Ensuring cultural sensitivity and regulatory compliance across 200+ countries and territories.
Cost-effectiveness: Cuts overhead by replacing manual compliance processes with AI-powered automation.
“Global media companies are under increasing pressure to deliver content faster while ensuring it complies with a complex web of cultural norms and regulatory standards,” said Teresa Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Spherex. “By integrating SpherexAI’s automated compliance intelligence with Codemill and Embrace’s products, we’re removing friction, improving accuracy, and empowering teams to prepare content for global distribution with greater speed and confidence.”
“With this demo we are showing how we can contribute to operational effectiveness for our customers,” said Codemill CEO Maria Hellström. “Integrating intelligent AI tools like SpherexAI, using Embrace, and being able to show the overview and the possibility to work with compliance in AV Edit, is a very strong message that we are here to support our customers in their need for efficiency.”
“Compliance shouldn’t slow great content. By orchestrating SpherexAI’s intelligence with Codemill’s Edit Suite in Pulse-IT, we turn automated flags into actionable tasks, approvals, and renders, shrinking review cycles from days to minutes while giving operations full visibility and control. This is orchestration at work: connecting people, systems, and processes so our customers can work confidently in every market,” said Julien Gachot, CEO at Embrace.
IBC attendees can see a demo of the joint compliance workflow solution at the Codemill and Embrace Stand 6.C11. Schedule a meeting here.
Attendees can also see a demo of SpherexAI at the Spherex Stand 5.A21. Schedule a meeting here.
About Spherex
Spherex is a global technology company transforming how media and entertainment enterprises create, adapt, and deliver film and television to audiences worldwide through expert-centered AI and machine learning. With unmatched expertise in culture and regulatory compliance, Spherex works with the world's largest media companies, movie studios, networks, distributors, and streamers to build larger audiences, speed up content discovery, drive more video views, and generate higher revenue. Learn more at www.spherex.com.
About Codemill
Codemill is a Swedish technology company that develops software and solutions for leading video and media companies globally. Codemill's products Accurate Player SDK, Accurate.Video, and Cantemo are used by the world's largest players in broadcast, VOD/OOT, Content Supply Chain platforms, and tools to streamline and automate media production. Customers include Paramount Global, WarnerBros Discovery, NBC Universal, BBC, ITV, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, The Telegraph, and several other leading brands. Learn more at www.codemill.se.
About Embrace
Since 2015, Embrace has been transforming content creation at scale by connecting people, systems and processes. The company develops advanced automation, orchestration and collaboration solutions for the Media & Entertainment industry and global brands. Embrace aims to unleash creativity and improve performance around video and graphics supply chains.
Our products are heavily used 24/7 by leading media groups such as AMC Networks, Arte Studio, BCE, Be tv, CANAL+, Disney-ABC News, Euronews, Eurosport, Hearst Networks EMEA, Madison Square Garden Networks, Mediawan Thematics, M6, Mercedes-AMG, Orange, Red Bee Media, RTL Group, ProSiebenSat1, Sinclair, TF1, TV5MONDE, Warner Bros. Discovery. Visit www.embrace.fr for more information.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Spherex, a global leader providing AI solutions for video compliance, announced today that VA Media, a global network of genre-based movie, TV, and creator channels on YouTube, will utilize SpherexAI for international compliance.
SpherexAI's implementation will cover VA Media's YouTube film channels, providing a consistent and reliable framework for compliance. Adopting SpherexAI is a strategic move for VA Media as it continues expanding its global reach. By automating content review to ensure compliance with YouTube guidelines, VA Media can confidently deliver high-quality, engaging content to its audience, knowing its content adheres to community standards and optimizes audience engagement and monetization.
Leveraging advanced AI and machine learning technologies, SpherexAI ensures that content meets global regulatory requirements and aligns with regional cultural norms. SpherexAI automates the review process and identifies content, including dialogue, scenes, images, sounds, and cultural references that a platform or territory may find non-compliant.
"As the consumption of long-form content continues to grow on YouTube, maintaining compliance across multiple territories is a complex and critical task. It's essential to protecting brand integrity, maximizing reach, and unlocking monetization opportunities," said Teresa Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Spherex. "We're excited to partner with VA Media to support their global compliance needs, ensuring their content adheres to platform standards while reaching diverse audiences worldwide.
"SpherexAI is an ideal partner for our extensive and rapidly expanding film catalog on YouTube. As we continue our international growth, it is crucial to maintain our brand's integrity at the highest level while navigating the complexities of global regulatory and cultural standards," said Mark Ashbridge, CEO of VA Media. "SpherexAI's intelligent platform provides the precision and efficiency necessary to ensure our content's compliance and relevance worldwide."
About VA Media
VA Media is a global media company based in Australia and Los Angeles that specializes in AVOD and social video monetization. The home for a global network of genre-based movie, TV, and creator channels on YouTube, Facebook, SNAP, and other AVOD streaming platforms, it is one of the largest entertainment partners for movies and TV for YouTube in Australia and the US. VA Media's independent network of over 21 million subscribers and 120 million views every month helps leading studios and major film and distribution businesses from around the world reach its tailored global audiences. www.vamedianetwork.com
About Spherex:
Spherex is a global technology company transforming how media and entertainment enterprises create, adapt, and deliver film and television to audiences worldwide through expert-centered AI and machine learning. With unmatched expertise in culture and regulatory compliance, Spherex works with the world's largest media companies, movie studios, networks, distributors, and streamers to build larger audiences, speed up content discovery, drive more video views, and generate higher revenue. Learn more at www.spherex.com.
Santa Clara, CA (March 24, 2025)—Spherex, a leader in video content compliance and analysis for the media and entertainment industry, has expanded its flagship product, SpherexAI, to power contextual advertising. The new feature enables advertisers to target audiences more precisely based on the cultural and emotional context surrounding the content they are viewing to maximize campaign effectiveness. Spherex will demo SpherexAI at Booth W1456 at NAB 2025 in Las Vegas.
SpherexAI’s multimodal platform analyzes streaming video by evaluating thousands of visual, audio, dialogue, and on-screen text signals to generate scene-level metadata. This scene-level intelligence helps advertisers match ads at the right moment based on the mood, theme, and tone of the content to strengthen connections with audiences.
SpherexAI further allows advertisers to deliver more relevant ads within content, ensuring cultural sensitivity and brand safety. Leveraging its patented Cultural Knowledge Graph, SpherexAI helps advertisers tailor campaigns for audiences in any market, ensuring they align with local market regulations and cultural norms across more than 200 countries and territories.
Spherex's deep understanding of regional values and local sensitivities enables advertisers to convey culturally relevant messages while avoiding ad placements in potentially controversial or offensive scenes, reducing the risk of backlash that could harm a brand's reputation.
SpherexAI uniquely enables advertisers to:
Ensure Strategic Ad Placement: Scene-level intelligence understands key moments within scenes, enabling ads to be positioned precisely when viewers are most emotionally receptive, increasing engagement and effectiveness.
Boost Engagement and Recall: By identifying context at the scene level before the break, ads seamlessly integrate into the storytelling experience, reinforcing brand messages rather than disrupting them.
Scale Across Global Markets: SpherexAI is the only platform with global cultural intelligence to accurately predict how local audiences perceive video content in over 200 countries and territories, aligning with local values, norms, and cultural expectations.
Enhance Brand Safety: SpherexAI prevents ad placement in contexts that may be inappropriate, offensive, or conflict with brand values or cultural sensitivities.
"Spherex is leveraging its expertise in video compliance to help advertisers navigate the complexities of brand safety and monetization," said Teresa Phillips, CEO of Spherex. "SpherexAI is the only solution that blends scene-level intelligence with deep cultural and emotional insights, giving advertisers a powerful tool to ensure strategic ad placement and engagement.”
Spherex will be exhibiting at NAB at Booth W1456 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. To book a meeting and demonstration, visit the Spherex Booking page.
About Spherex: Spherex is a global technology and data company transforming how media and entertainment enterprises create, adapt, and deliver film and television to audiences worldwide through expert-centered AI and machine learning. With unmatched expertise in culture and regulatory compliance, Spherex works with the world's largest media companies, movie studios, networks, distributors, and streamers to build larger audiences, speed up content discovery, drive more video views, and generate higher revenue. Learn more at www.spherex.com.
