Rest of the news w/c 28/1

SKY in New Zealand is using thePlatform for its TV Everywhere offering

SKY in New Zealand is using thePlatform for its TV Everywhere offering

SKY Television, the largest Pay TV broadcasting service in New Zealand, has chosen thePlatform to provide the back-end video management for the iSKY online TV service, which lets SKY subscribers watch their programmes and movies on their computers.

iSKY content, based on subscribers’ existing TV packages (following the ‘TV Everywhere’ model) includes live streaming channels including Sky News New Zealand, CNN and the Sky Sports channels. On-demand content is also available including catch-up TV episodes and movies. In addition to these free online services to existing SKY subscribers, the iSKY portal offers thousands of movie titles and TV episodes for rent on a pay-per-view basis.

“Our primary focus for the iSKY service is to provide a seamless entertainment experience for our subscribers,” explains John Fellet, CEO for SKY Television. “thePlatform’s proven expertise in supporting large ‘TV Everywhere’ deployments in North America made them the right choice to deliver the scale required to support our back-end video management.”

thePlatform’s, cloud-based, mpx video management system serves as the central hub for SKY TV’s content partners for publishing video to the iSKY website. SKY is using thePlatform’s ‘TV Everywhere’ solution to authenticate subscribers on iSKY and authorize online playback on individual videos based on a user’s paid TV subscription package.

Fellet adds that the mpx publishing system is easy to use and gives SKY the flexibility and reliability to ensure that every customer that logs into iSKY can watch the shows and movies of their particular SKY subscription package.

MediaCorp selects Ericsson to enable and manage OTT interactive TV services

Singapore’s MediaCorp has selected Ericsson to enable and manage its new over-the-top service that uses broadband to enhance TV programming with a range of interactive services and on-demand video. The contract is Ericsson’s first managed services deal with a media company in Asia and includes a broad range of Ericsson TV solutions that enable consumers to watch their video content where and when they want.

MediaCorp is Singapore’s foremost media organization with seven TV channels and 13 radio stations, as well as print and other interests. MediaCorp views the move as a way to diversify its business and help build direct, interactive relationships with consumers. Ericsson will supply, integrate, manage and operate the complete technical solution over a five-year period.

Lucas Chow, CEO at MediaCorp says: We are pleased to have Ericsson as our solutions provider and partner as we embark on this very important and strategic initiative. Together, we are confident in providing an unprecedented interactivity and innovation, by offering a suite of exciting services on multiple platforms to our local consumers. We will set the future direction of interactive TV in Singapore by riding on the next generation national broadband network, and herald a new era of TV experience.

Jan Wäreby, Head of Sales and Marketing at Ericsson, says the deal demonstrates his company’s leadership in the TV and managed services space. “We have the complete suite of building blocks needed to meet MediaCorp’s exact requirements regarding technology, as well as systems integration and managed services capabilities,” he comments.

Solid cable growth sets scene for Cable Congress in Lucerne

Cable Congress, Europe’s leading gathering for the cable industry, opens its doors on February 15. Figures released by Screen Digest on the eve of the show demonstrate continued growth for the industry, with the number of European cable Revenue Generating Units (an RGU is a distinct TV, internet or telephony service to which a customer subscribes) up over 4% year-on-year to 102 million in 2010.

“Europe’s cable industry is constantly investing to create the best value and user experience for its customers,” states Manuel Kohnstamm, President of Cable Europe. “Passing the 100 million RGU mark reflects the growing appetite of our customers for digital interactive television and high speed broadband. Throughout Europe, cable is fast becoming the preferred supplier of advanced communications services. ”

Cable Congress is in Lucerne, Switzerland, on February 15-17. This is the event where Europe’s major cable operators talk frankly about the challenges and opportunities facing them, and how they intend to tackle them, and Videonet will be reporting daily from the show. This year’s speakers include Mike Fries, President & CEO of Liberty Global, Adrian von Hammerstein, CEO, Kabel Deutschland, Bill Roedy, Chairman and Chief Executive of MTV Networks International, and Patrick Walker, Director of Partnerships at Google/YouTube.

Caroline Van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, comments: “Europe’s cable industry continues to lead the way with both speed and innovation. This continued growth demonstrates that European consumers are looking to cable to provide not only their TV needs, but especially our fibre-powered broadband. With the pace of investments that drive our innovation, we’re confident that this trend will continue well past 2011.”

Telekom Slovenia revealed as first operator customer for Netgem’s Internet/TV adaptor

Netgem has announced the first operator deployment of its N5000 Internet/TV adaptor. Telekom Slovenia will roll out the N5000, branded as the SiOL BOX S, from February. The N5000 set-top box was announced at IBC last year and launched to the French retail channel under the Toshiba Places brand the following month. It is built on an open platform and can be customise. It can be deployed as a secondary box, as a basic IP set-top box or as an OTT adaptor to blend Web and HDTV content.

CI Plus spec boosted by HD MHEP upgrade in v1.3

IMPALA, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance, has welcomed the launch of version 1.3 of the CI Plus standard. Among a long list of enhancements, the new version includes HD MHEG capabilities. IMPALA says this is in response to a desire from operators to enable a visually richer graphical user interface (GUI) for interactive CI Plus applications such as VOD.

Bob Lamb, Founder Member of IMPALA and Managing Director of Cabot Communications, says, “We are pleased to see these improvements to the standard as we believe – and this is backed up by huge industry support – that CI Plus is important for the industry. Introducing HD capabilities to the MHEG part of the spec allows a significant advance to the GUI and is more reflective of MHEG’s capabilities.”

The MHEG-based CI Plus Browser allows a range of interactive services to be delivered direct to the TV, including VOD and universal Electronic Programme Guides (EPG). The standard allows operators and broadcasters to secure video content via a small CI Plus Conditional Access Module (CAM) inserted into the Common Interface (CI) slot included in all iDTVs above 30cm sold in Europe, plus a growing number of CI Plus-ready set-top boxes.

Testing of the MHEG-based CI Plus Browser is carried out by the CI Plus-approved test facility, therefore helping to ensure interoperability of interactive MHEG applications across all conformant receivers.

IMPALA points out that under the CI Plus Licence Agreement there is an 18-month period before the new version becomes mandatory. CI Plus v1.3 conformance will therefore become mandatory for new receivers no later than the August 1, 2012. However, compliant receivers may be available on the market before then if driven by operators.

French publishing giant expands video interest with Brightcove

Online video platform Brightcove has added L’Express and Le Figaro Group in France to its growing list of EMEA customers. L’Express is a popular French weekly news magazine and Le Figaro Group is one of the leading media groups in France. Le Figaro is using the Brightcove platform across its digital brands, including www.lefigaro.fr, the biggest news website in France. Le Figaro Group will roll out Brightcove on additional sites in the coming months, including TVMag.com, JournalDesFinances.com, Sport24.com and Evene.fr.

Print publishers are increasingly looking to video to enhance their products and Videonet expects the most ambitious of them to exploit connected TVs to reach a wider audience in due course.

Insight Communications selects ARRIS ServAssure Advanced for DOCSIS services

Insight Communications has chosen ARRIS ServAssure Advanced Performance Management Software to improve its subscribers’ experience with DOCSIS based network services. Insight is the ninth largest cable MSO in the US with over 760,000 subscribers. ServAssure Advanced provides customer experience monitoring and performance tools to optimize the quality and capacity of DOCSIS networks.

RGB highlights multi-screen delivery and advertising at MWC

At Mobile World Congress (February 14-17, Barcelona), RGB will demonstrate its award-winning Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG), which the company claims is the industry’s only carrier-class platform for multi-screen video delivery, as well as its TransAct Packager, which enables the formatting and delivery of high-quality video content on any IP-capable device.

At the show, the company will highlight the ability of its VMG/TransAct Packager solution to deliver video to multiple mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Tab, as well as a laptop PC and a large-screen HDTV. The company says the demonstration will illustrate the ease with which video service providers can deliver premium content, in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, simultaneously to any device.

The demonstration will also showcase the VMG’s ad insertion capabilities, showing how providers can extend their existing advertising strategies to incorporate any type of video-enabled device.

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