NHK WORLD-JAPAN debuts on Freeview UK

NHK WORLD-JAPAN debuts on Freeview UK

NHK WORLD-JAPAN debuts on Freeview UK

NHK WORLD-JAPAN launches on Freeview channel 271 via the Channelbox platform.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN, the international English-language channel from Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, delivers to the world the latest information about Japan and Asia. This channel reaches over 380 million households in 160 countries and regions via local satellite and cable TV providers.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN is available in the UK on Sky and Freesat and now became available also on Freeview, channel 271 bolstering the Channelbox news category which includes Bloomberg, Euronews, France24, TVP World and many other international news channels.

“NHK is a window to Japan and Asia and this TV channel is a perfect addition to the Channelbox and Freeview lineup of news channels”, said Tanya Kronfli, Head of Channelbox content and business development.

Channelbox is a multi-channel platform available on connected Freeview, channel 271, and Channelbox mobile applications.

Channelbox is free-to-air and has over 60 TV channels including Euronews, Fashion TV, NTD, France24, Fuel and many others.

France 24 strengthens its presence in Italy

France 24 strengthens its presence in Italy

France 24 strengthens its presence in Italy

The French international news channel France 24 has strengthened its presence in Italy with a new distribution agreement with Tivù, an Italian television operator. France 24’s OTT App, which enable users to access the four channels’ live broadcast (in English, French, Arabic and Spanish), as well as a large offer of on-demand programmes, is now available in Tivù’s service programme guide named tivùlink. 

France 24 is already carried on tivùsat, the Italian free-to-air satellite platform, and this new agreement makes the channel available to the users of Tivù’s interactive application. 

Already available in a range of cable, satellite and IPTV offers throughout the country, France 24 reaches 18.6 million Italian households (95% of television households).  

Arabsat TV Everywhere launches with Globecast

Globecast,  global content contribution, management and distribution provider, and Arabsat have today announced the launch of Arabsat TV Everywhere, a new multi-platform OTT TV service with live streams of the best Arabic channels.

 

Powered by Globecast’s OTT Live solution, Arabsat TV Everywhere is an expansion of the already popular Global Arabic Bouquet (GAB), a grouping of premium Arabic channels from the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU). The new service, which is available to watch for free from almost anywhere in the world on PC as well as iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, will enable more people to enjoy the great content the GAB has to offer at home and on the move.

 

Globecast, which has been ARABSAT and ASBU’s partner for the worldwide distribution of the GAB since 2004, designed and developed the complete TV everywhere service. The end-to-end solution, which includes content preparation; content management; application design and development; delivery and a player, will enable Arabsat to deliver a seamless experience across all devices.

 

Giorgio Giacomini, Managing Director Globecast Middle East said, “This is a very exciting development in our relationship with Arabsat and the ASBU. Arabsat’s decision to make many channels of the GAB available on smartphones and tablets reflects the growing desire of audiences around the world to consume content when and where they want. Because of this we have carefully designed our solutions to provide both technical and business acumen allowing our customers to easily expand with innovative new OTT services while concentrating on what they do best: create and develop world class content.”

 

Khalid Balkheyour, ARABSAT President and CEO, added, “The world of OTT service delivery is one that’s growing rapidly. You only have to look at the growth in the sale of connected devices to see why. Globecast has always provided us with excellent distribution services and we are very pleased to announce the extension of our partnership.”

 

Since the launch of their partnership, Globecast, ARABSAT and ASBU have expanded the Global Arabic Bouquet’s potential viewership and footprint, offering a single global coverage to ASBU members. Arabic language channels are now able to join the bouquet and reach viewers on all five continents free to air. It reflects Arabsat’s commitment to help Arabic viewers stay connected with their roots and culture from anywhere in the world.

 

Globecast goes multiscreen with Anevia

Anevia, a leader in video streaming and infrastructure solutions for OTT, live TV and Video on Demand (VoD), today announced that global content management company Globecast has chosen Anevia’s ViaMotion solutions suite – Packager, Origin and Edge – to support its new Over-The-Top (OTT) modular solutions. The new platform pairs high-performance with massive scalability, enabling Globecast customers to accelerate the delivery of live, VoD and live-to-VoD TV services to audiences worldwide.

Given the large number of transcoders shaping its ecosystem, it was critical for Globecast to bring an agnostic platform on board; hence the decision to deploy the Viamotion Plus which interoperates with all transcoders out there. Viamotion also met two more requirements outlined by Globecast as high priority for their Live TV infrastructure: massive scalability to support future service delivery and the support of new format like MPEG Dash.

Viamotion Plus was also deployed to enable non-linear service delivery through the new multiscreen platform. Globecast can now provide full content management services to broadcasters and pay-TV operators willing to push new VoD features such as start-over, catch-up or nPVR to their audiences. The fact that Viamotion’s flexible APIs also enabled a smooth integration with Kaltura workflow solutions proved an added benefit to this project.

“Anevia precisely understood our OTT vision and it provided a comprehensive suite of solutions required to make it come true,” says Sonia Missul, OTT product manager at Globecast. “With ViaMotion on board, we are now well positioned to deliver innovation to broadcasters and pay-TV operators for years to come without being hindered by performance limitations.”

“Globecast is a great example of a visionary media management company enabling its customers to monetise video delivery now and in the long run,” explains Anevia co-founder and executive vice president Damien Lucas explains. “We are extremely proud to be the innovation fuel behind such a strategic move.” (Source: press release)

Globecast creates managed OTT services using market-leading technologies

Globecast has today announced details of its multiple OTT service delivery packages, developing three distinct packages to ensure high quality deployment, cost-effectively: OTT Live; OTT VoD; and OTT Live-to-VoD. Globecast provides either end-to-end or modular solutions, both of which can be easily and quickly deployed.

OTT – over-the-top – video delivery is a dominant industry trend and Globecast has structured its packages and modularity to reflect industry requirements. OTT Live is for simulcast delivery of linear channels; OTT VoD ingests individual programme assets into the online video platform for VOD services and delivers the content over the Internet; and OTT Live-to-VoD creates a VOD package from entire linear channels.

Depending on the precise nature of the service and the broadcaster’s commercial aims, content can be viewed on iOS and Android devices, connected TVs and PCs. Live content can be monetised with advertisements with support for any VAST or VPAID server. In-player content payment is also available as an option, supported by an easy-to-use subscriber management console.

Sonia Missul, OTT Product Manager, Globecast, says, “We are able to target all kinds of customers: big broadcasters with complex requirements where we can integrate our technology with existing infrastructure if required; to smaller customers who need end-to-end solutions that can be quickly deployed. Our customers can then satisfy audience demand for content when they want it, where they want it. Our OTT services allow broadcasters to increase their audience and monetise that reach. Our OTT solutions benefit from our powerful heritage across the broadcast market.”

As well as deploying its own expertise and existing infrastructure, Globecast has selected leading technology suppliers to create these premium quality, cost-effective OTT distribution packages. Globecast has partnered with Akamai as its preferred CDN supplier. Akamai is a leading provider of cloud services for delivering, optimising and securing online content and business applications. At the core of the company’s solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach across the world.

Kaltura is supplying its OVP and app technologies as well as providing the video management (metadata, catalogue creation) layer of the solution. Anevia is supplying its Viamotion Plus solutions suite that interoperates with all transcoders currently available. Globecast is deploying technology from Thomson Video Networks and Elemental to provide transcoding solutions for linear and non-linear content.

This combination of equipment also meets two further requirements outlined by Globecast as high priority for its OTT infrastructure: massive scalability to support future service delivery and the support of new formats like HEVC and Dash.

Missul says, “Globecast has looked very closely at the rapidly expanding OTT market developing a clear understanding of the deployment challenges. The technical and business solutions that we’ve created allow broadcasters and other content providers to concentrate on what they do best: develop quality content and strong brands.” (Source: Press release)