UKTV extends broadcast services contract with Ericsson

Thursday 21 July 2016

Multi-year contract includes playout services for UKTVs award-winning portfolio of 10 channels, and media management for video on demand services including UKTV Play

Additionally Ericsson will continue to provide subtitling and audio description services

Contract further strengthens long-term partnership between Ericsson and UKTV, the biggest multichannel broadcaster in the UK

Ericsson today announced that it has extended its playout, video on demand (VOD) and access services contracts with UKTV, the biggest multichannel broadcaster in the UK.

Ericsson will continue to deliver playout services for UKTVs award-winning portfolio of 10 channels including Dave, the UKs most watched non-public service broadcasting channel; premium entertainment channel W; free-to-air channels Really, Yesterday and Home; and Gold, Alibi, Drama, Eden and Good Food.

Ericsson will also continue to provide media management services for UKTVs on-demand services including UKTV Play, as well as the delivery of VOD content to other TV platforms and VOD aggregation services such as Sky, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk.

As part of the new multi-year contract, Ericsson will migrate UKTVs VOD preparation services to Ericssons end-to-end Package and Deliver managed service, which is powered by Ericssons cloud media processing service platform. Designed as a smart resource engine, the service platform utilizes cloud-based tools to deliver highly resilient, secure and flexible non-linear contribution, archiving and media processing. These services can deliver unparalleled scalability, flexibility and elasticity to broadcasters, TV platforms and content owners, while minimizing the upfront costs often associated with traditional on-premise hardware infrastructure.

Ericsson has also extended its access services contract with UKTV, which includes the provision of subtitling and audio description services across UKTVs portfolio of content.

Sinead Greenaway, Director of Technology and Operations, UKTV, says,

We are delighted to be continuing our long-standing relationship with Ericsson and look forward to working closely with them as we develop new services to harness opportunities offered through IP and cloud-based service provision. The imminent migration to Package and Deliver VOD services is testament to our successful partnership with Ericsson and our shared commitment to innovation.

Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson, says,

We are proud that UKTV has chosen to continue working with Ericsson on these critical broadcast services. This is an important contract for Ericsson and underlines our ability to provide world-class broadcast and media services, as well as the quality and expertise of our talented team. We look forward to strengthening our relationship further and helping UKTV to provide their audiences with the very best TV experience anytime, anywhere for years to come.

Ericsson is one of the leading global providers of broadcast and media services, and has worked with some of the worlds most well-known broadcasters, platforms and content producers, including BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT Sport, ITV, FOX, DreamWorks, Liberty Global, NPO, Canal+, NOS, Bonnier Group, Sky, HBO, TV5 Monde and France 24.

Every year, Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services distributes more than 2.7 million hours of programming in more than 90 languages for more than 500 TV channels worldwide. Ericssons global content discovery portfolio spans more than 10 million movies and program titles covering over 35 languages. Globally more than 200 million people interact with Ericssons rich metadata each week. In addition, Ericsson provides over 230,000 hours of subtitling each year - more than 100,000 hours of which is live.

UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS About UKTV UKTV is the biggest multichannel broadcaster in the UK.

The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for 9.31% of the British commercial TV market. The companys most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £319m and EBITDA of £82m. It invested £148m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.

Now celebrating its 23rd year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.

corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press

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