thePlatform Selected by SKY Television for Video Publishing and Management of Online TV Service for SKY Subscribers in New Zealand
SKY Relies on thePlatform “TV Everywhere” Solution to Manage Subscriber Authentication and Playback Authorization of Premium Shows for Paid Subscribers
SEATTLE and AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Feb. 1, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced that it was selected by SKY Television, the largest pay television broadcasting service in New Zealand, to provide the back-end video management for the iSKY online TV service. The new iSKY service is currently available to SKY subscribers and provides the opportunity to view their favorite programs and movies on their computers.
iSKY content is based on subscribers’ existing TV packages and features live streaming channels including: Sky News New Zealand, CNN and 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,” said 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. The mpx publishing system is easy to use and allows us the flexibility and reliability to ensure that each of our customers logging into iSKY are able to watch the shows and movies of their particular SKY subscription package.”
“SKY Television is at the forefront of innovation by bringing their subscribers a vast library of premium video into a unified customer experience,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “We are very proud to have been selected to provide the central back-end logistics necessary to make iSKY easy for SKY Television and for their customers, and we look forward to supporting their future endeavors.”
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.
SKY Television’s broadband partnerships thus far include Vodafone, Orcon, Slingshot, Farmside, Xnet, Woosh, Snap and WIZwireless. SKY subscribers who have one of these internet service providers (ISPs) will be able to take advantage of unmetered plans – iSKY viewing will not count toward users’ monthly data allowance on these ISPs. For more information on iSKY, visit www.isky.co.nz.
thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. thePlatform currently provides online video management services to numerous programmers, leading media companies, and five of the top cable TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments. For additional information about thePlatform, visit www.thePlatform.com.
