thePlatform Simplifies Live Event Publishing for TV Broadcasters and Programmers Across Web, Tablets

- mpx enables centralized video management for live sporting events, award shows, news and political speeches, live reality programs, and more –

SEATTLE – May 7, 2013 – Historically, media companies have needed to juggle separate back-end systems for managing live online events and the rest of their premium video assets. Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, introduced a single Web-based console to schedule and manage live signal acquisition and encoding, handle dynamic advertising insertion and metadata creation, and automatically archive live video broadcasts to create rapid video-on-demand (VOD) clips or replays.

The enhanced live video service will be offered as an integrated component of thePlatform’s award-winning mpx video publishing system. As part of mpx, TV broadcasters and service providers, cable programmers, and other media companies can centrally manage on-demand and live video content for playback across computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices.

“Delivering quality, live online video broadcasts of major events is more technologically and economically feasible than ever before,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Given the rise in popularity of online viewing for events, especially sports, companies are looking to mpx for a scalable, enterprise-class system that seamlessly manages live events, as part of their broader video portfolio. We’re now making everything simpler—one console for simplified management, one feed to enable content discovery, one player to watch across screens, and a rapid transition of the event into VOD files.”

Streamlined Workflow: Managed with One Console

For years, thePlatform has supported live video for major TV sports networks, and others, by embedding URLs to specific video streams that were scheduled and managed via third-party systems. Now, with mpx, companies can manage live events in real-time, from a single Web console, and use thePlatform’s Player Service to view live events on computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices.

The new service will enable customers to take advantage of unique features offered by a variety of innovative hardware and cloud-based transcoding partners. mpx’s initial embedded console implementation is with Elemental Live, and thePlatform plans similar integrations with other partners throughout the year.

Cue Points and Dynamic Ad Insertion

Lacking predictable triggers or breakpoints, live events require manual, operator-directed insertion of ads, graphics, or alternative programming within a video broadcast. mpx provides the means to do so, and takes advantage of the brief time delay inherent in online broadcasts to enable customers to insert ads, statistics or other graphics at given cue points in the video.

Leveraging thePlatform’s existing advertising partner integrations, such as FreeWheel, customers can insert dynamic ads in-stream to maintain high-quality, TV-like viewing experiences on the Web and other devices. During the live event, customers can also easily insert metadata and accompanying graphics in real-time—such as stats for the player who just scored a goal, or biographical information for the celebrity who just received an award. mpx also enables customers to model content rights obligations in advance (i.e. set geo-restrictions ahead of the live feed, or insert alternate programming during a restricted half-time concert performance).

Auto-Archiving for VOD

While the live event is airing, the media file and its associated cue points for ads, chapter breaks, and associated metadata are automatically saved and archived within mpx for VOD. This added functionality enables programmers and broadcasters to rapidly publish or syndicate the video to third-party sites or their own websites, and make the footage easily discoverable for search and recommendations.

Second-screen CTO Vendor Roundtable

CED’s CTO roundtable has mined the thoughts of cable operator executives for years now, but this is the first iteration of a vendor CTO roundtable. CED narrowed the field to chief technical officers, or the equivalent, that play a part in the multi-screen ecosystem. While some of the vendors, such as Comcast-owned thePlatform, are well known, others are just starting to make their mark in the TV Everywhere world.

Each vendor was asked the same five questions, and then answered a sixth “wild card” question that was unique to each company’s business. The second-screen CTO roundtable was comprised of the following: Alan Ramaley, CTO, thePlatform; Gemini Waghmare, CEO, UXP Systems; Bob Myers, CTO, SeaWell Networks; and Jim Tanner, Chief Architect, Clearleap.

Read the full CED Magazine’s article here.

The Cloud and the Digital Locker - Who Will Own the Consumer?

What

Simon McGrath, General Manager Europe, thePlatform, to speak on panel The Cloud and the Digital Locker – Who Will Own the Consumer?

The rise of connected devices, combined with new methods of content distribution and consumption, is driving the public’s desire for access to content anywhere and at any time. As cloud-based storage systems and digital lockers fulfill the needs of a growing segment of the population – for music and movies in addition to being used as a backup facility – a new battleground has been created. In this session, companies at the forefront of cloud storage discuss the challenges, opportunities and business models behind its move towards the mainstream, as well as exploring the future opportunities for engagement and monetisation.

Learn more about this event here.

When

July 4, 2013

Where

Grange Hotel St Pauls
London

Who

Simon McGrath, General Manager Europe, thePlatform
Patrice Slupowski, VP, Digital Innovation & Communities, Orange

Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2013

What

thePlatform will be exhibiting at this year’s Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2013.

The 9th annual IRCE, the world’s largest e-commerce event, will analyze the social, mobile, global, personal, interactive and managerial changes that e-commerce players are bringing to the new retail economy. This is a major educational event that offers online retailing and wholesaling professionals and consumer marketers the insights and analysis they need to give their businesses a competitive advantage in this expanded world of possibilities.

thePlatform will be exhibiting at booth 449. If you’d like to set up a time to meet with us, please contact us. Or locate us at the event on the following interactive map.

For more information about this event click here.

When

June 4-7, 2013.

Where

McCormick Place West Convention Center
Chicago, IL

Integrating Drupal 7 with thePlatform’s mpx video management tool

What

In this webinar, learn how to integrate Drupal 7 with thePlatform’s mpx video management tool. This tool powers sites like Xfinity, NBC Sports, A&E Networks, Lifetime, Travel Channel and British Telecom. You’ll learn strategies and best practices for incorporating Media into your Drupal site including custom implementations that can integrate external media providers.

Learn more about the event here.

This webinar is now closed. However, you can still register and download a copy of the full presentation. Just click here.

When

Thursday, May 09, 2013 01:00 PM EDT

Don’t worry if you missed the live event, simply register to receive a link to view the entire presentation.

Who

Tim Sale, Director of Technical Sales, thePlatform
Brian Short, Senior Manager, NorthPoint

View from the Top: TV Everywhere Leaders Frame the Threats and Opportunities for Everyone

What

Marty Roberts, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, to speak on panel View from the Top: TV Everywhere Leaders Frame the Threats and Opportunities for Everyone

The content industry is fueled by pay TV subscriber dollars and advertising dollars. With the proliferation of online video and mobile and tablet viewing, pay TV subscribers have more and more options of where and when to get their content. Over the past three years Pay TV providers from across the globe have addressed this issue by rolling out TV Everywhere services. TV Everywhere services enables pay TV subscribers to access premium pay TV programming across multiple devices.

Learn more about the event here.

When

June 11, 2013, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM MST

Where

Alhambra Room

Who

Marty Roberts, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, thePlatform
Paul Burns, VP Digital Media, Shaw Communications Inc.
Blair Miller, VP Content, Telus
David Purdy, Vice President and General Manager, Television Products, Rogers Cable

thePlatform Selected by BT as Central Video Logistics System for Next-Generation TV Initiatives

thePlatform Selected by BT as Central Video Logistics System for Next-Generation TV Initiatives in the UK

thePlatform Brings Cloud-based Video Management to BT Vision and YouView from BT.

LONDON and SEATTLE – March 14, 2013 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, today disclosed that its cloud-based video publishing system, mpx, is serving as the central logistics system for BT’s newest IP-based TV services in the UK, including BT Vision and YouView from BT.

Major media and entertainment companies around the globe, including five of the largest TV service providers in North America, use thePlatform’s mpx video publishing system for managing video across devices. BT, one of the UK’s leading providers of TV, broadband, and telephony services, is now deploying its next-generation TV services using mpx. The services deliver an enhanced user experience with live, catch-up, and on-demand TV on new IP-connected set-top boxes.

“thePlatform has a history of success managing video on behalf of some of the largest pay-TV operators and media companies in the world,” said Alex Green, director of TV for BT. “thePlatform enables us to simplify many of our back-end processes by providing a centralized video logistics system capable of publishing video to our new set-top boxes, and other IP-connected devices in the future.”

“BT is adopting the best aspects of cloud-based video architecture to transform the TV itself,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “For customers like BT, mpx has raised the bar significantly for the OVP (online video platform) category by demonstrating that it can manage actual TV – where the stakes, volumes, and expectations are far higher than on any other screen. Today’s announcement with BT is further testament to the scalability of mpx as a comprehensive video management system.”

mpx’s Role

thePlatform’s mpx video management system provides several key functions for BT. Specifically, mpx eases video workflow, coordinates playback data with recommendations engines, and enforces the viewing rights for each subscribing household. mpx’s open architecture integrates with a variety of BT’s internal systems and technology from other vendors for content delivery, set-top boxes, and user interface software. More information about BT’s TV services can be found at www.bt.com. Additional information about thePlatform can be found at www.theplatform.com.

About thePlatform

thePlatform™ is the leading white-label video management and publishing company. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing, and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s services provide unmatched versatility for designing and supporting video businesses on PCs, mobile, and TV. Customers include: A+E Networks, BT, Cablevision, CBC, Comcast, Cox Communications, E!, the Golf Channel, HIT Entertainment, Liberty Global, NBC Local Media, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Outdoor Channel, Oxygen, Rogers, Shaw Media, Style, Syfy, Time Warner Cable, Travel Channel Media, truTV, USA Network, and numerous others. With more than decade history of service, thePlatform is an independent subsidiary of Comcast based in Seattle, Wash. For more information: www.thePlatform.com.

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Press Contact: Jeremy Pemble of JLM Partners for thePlatform, Jeremy@jlmpartners.com, (206) 381-3600

nScreenMedia: thePlatform adds subscription support. Are U.S. operators ready?

thePlatform has long supported the ad and rent models. In August 2012, the company added the ability to purchase single shows and complete seasons. Today, thePlatform announced the addition of the fourth method, subscription, to its mpx video commerce engine.

The mpx platform allows users to define the subscription library, set availability windows and create access policies. Using this system it is possible to define a set of content packages, to rotate content in and out of the packages each month and also restrict access based on things like show rating. As well, an mpx user can allow free month subscriptions, rollover to a paid account, automatic renewals and upgrades.

Read the full nScreenMedia’s article here.

You can also learn more about thePlatform’s Advanced Subscription Services here.

The Movie Network GO Launches in Canada with thePlatform

thePlatform’s mpx Video Management System to Provide Centralized Publishing for TMN GO in Canada

The Movie Network to Use thePlatform’s TV Everywhere Solution for Authenticating Subscribers with Access to TMN GO

SEATTLE – February 27, 2013 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced that it has been selected to provide the back-end video management for Astral Television Networks’ newly launched The Movie Network (TMN) GO, HBO GO® Canada and TMN Encore GO streaming service in Eastern Canada. TMN GO will use thePlatform’s “TV Everywhere” (TVE) solution to enable subscribers to catch-up and watch more of their favorite premium television programming across PCs, tablets and smartphones.

The Movie Network is a pay television service that offers Eastern Canadians premiere access to Hollywood hit movies, new and exclusive HBO® content, critically acclaimed Showtime® series and first-rate Canadian programming. Subscribers can now stream on-demand this popular content to their iOS devices via the newly launched TMN GO service. The TMN GO service will carry programs seen on The Movie Network and multiplex offerings HBO Canada and TMN Encore.

thePlatform’s cloud-based, mpx video management system will serve as the central aggregation hub for collecting, protecting, and publishing video to TMN GO across devices. The system will also authorize TMN GO access, based on a user’s paid TV subscription through participating Canadian cable or satellite providers.

“The new TMN GO service reinforces our commitment to providing subscribers with even greater access to exclusive, first-run programming, offered in a centralized destination,” said Domenic Vivolo, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Astral Television Networks. “Empowered by thePlatform’s video management and TVE solutions, authorized users can login and access high-quality pay-TV programming when they want it, and on the device of their choice.”

“As testament to the robust scalability of our solutions, we’re honored to help The Movie Network extend the TMN GO service into Canada,” said Marty Roberts, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, thePlatform. “As the Canadian pay-TV market continues to evolve, thePlatform will play a critical role in supporting The Movie Network`s initiative to enhance subscribers’ subscription value beyond the TV screen.”

thePlatform publishes video to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest TV Everywhere deployments.

Additional information can be found at: www.theplatform.com. For more information about The Movie Network, visit: The Movie Network.

About thePlatform
thePlatform™ is the leading white-label video management and publishing company. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing, and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s services provide unmatched versatility for designing and supporting video businesses on PCs, mobile, and TV. Customers include: A+E Networks, Cablevision, CBC, Comcast, Cox Communications, E!, the Golf Channel, HIT Entertainment, Liberty Global, NBC Local Media, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Outdoor Channel, Oxygen, Rogers, Shaw Media, Style, Syfy, Time Warner Cable, Travel Channel Media, truTV, USA Network, and numerous others. With more than decade history of service, thePlatform is an independent subsidiary of Comcast based in Seattle, Wash. For more information: www.theplatform.com.

All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

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thePlatform Press Contact:
Jeremy Pemble of JLM Partners, Inc. for thePlatform, 206-381-3600, jeremy@jlmpartners.com

The Movie Network Press Contact:
Scott Campbell, Communications Manager, 416-956-8648 scampbell@astral.com

thePlatform Creates Universal Video Player Service Across iOS, Android™, and Windows®-based Devices

thePlatform to Lead with HTML5 in 2013 to Deliver Faster Load Times and Lower Development Costs

SEATTLE, WA – January 29, 2013 – Media and entertainment companies have historically faced a challenge creating a common video player that can be rendered across different browsers and devices, due to continued market fragmentation and a lack of cross-platform standards. Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, unveiled an enhanced video Player Service to address this issue, and has placed HTML5 at the forefront of its efforts.

thePlatform’s enhanced Player Service provides a simple to use console, so even non-technical users can build their own video players – choosing from a variety of layout templates, skins, color schemes, and more. In 2013, thePlatform’s Player Service will now default to HTML5 players to render video quickly, but seamlessly switch to Flash® if needed, allowing consistent playback on websites, iOS devices, Android™ devices, Windows® 8 devices, and more. By leading with HTML5, customers can experience faster load times for video playback, and lower development costs. Unlike other market alternatives, there is also no need for companies to manage duplicate systems for individual players, since thePlatform’s mpx publishing system automatically associates all the metadata and business policies for each video across both HTML5 and Flash players.

“We’ve always supported HTML5, but the technology has matured over the past 18 months, and it’s now ready for primetime,” said Marty Roberts, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, thePlatform. “Companies are being swamped by the combination of devices and browsers needed to ensure their videos render well on their customers’ device of choice. Our new Player Service alleviates that challenge in an incredibly simple and cost-efficient way. HTML5 has become the lead technology that we recommend to our customers for publishing video across devices, and it has replaced Flash as the default setting in our mpx Player Service.”

iPads® and iPhones® Top List of Portable Video Consumption Devices

Companies, including major media companies, TV networks, and five of the largest TV service providers in North America currently rely on thePlatform as their central logistics system for publishing premium video. As such, thePlatform predominately manages premium ad-supported or subscription videos, such as full-length episodes and clips of TV shows and movies, on computers, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and other IP-connected devices. During the month of December 2012, thePlatform analyzed video views managed through its mpx publishing system across thousands of specific device “profiles”, or unique combinations of device models, operating systems, and browsers. Outside of computers, iPads accounted for the most video views in December, followed by iPhones, followed by Android smartphones and tablets. thePlatform introduced its new Player Service to reduce the complexity for customers trying to manage video playback across a growing number of devices.

Key Benefits of Player Service

Better Viewing Experience:
• Leading with HTML5 enables faster video playback than traditional Flash-based players.
• Dynamic switching between HTML5 and Flash allows videos to quickly render on iOS, Android, Windows 8 devices, and more.
• The players select the optimal video format and bitrate based on the device, browser and operating system.
• A simple-to-use console enables companies to create beautiful, customized HTML5 players, in which skins, layout and controls are easily configured, ensuring a consistent experience for all viewers.
• Sharing features and social media integration allow videos to be distributed instantly across leading social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and many others.

Easy and Low-Cost Player Management
• HTML5-based players enable companies to dedicate less development resources for producing and managing video players than has been traditionally required.
• mpx automatically associates all the metadata and business policies for content across both HTML5 and Flash players. This means there is no need to create duplicate systems for individual players, unlike other solutions in the market.
• The Player Service automatically updates with iOS, Android and Windows 8 releases, ensuring that videos are always available.
• Closed captioning persistence saves and applies your language settings to both HTML5 and Flash, ensuring policy compliance.

Flexible Integration
• The players enable optimization of advertising for both video on-demand (VOD) and live ad insertion through advertising partners such as FreeWheel, Adobe Auditude, and DoubleClick by Google.
• Companies can monitor the quality of their players with real-time and historical reporting tools, and access data on usage, quality of service, and audience engagement through partnerships with Conviva, Google
Analytics, Omniture, Comscore, Nielsen, and more.
• The players are also compatible with video recommendations engines that can increase time on-site by suggesting what to watch after each video completion.
• Companies can also utilize an extensive list of hosted plug-ins through the Player Service or build their own custom JavaScript® plug-in with thePlatform’s PDK.

Accedo announces integrated TV Everywhere solution with thePlatform mpx

Las Vegas, 8 January 2013 – Accedo, the global market leader in TV application solutions, today announced the pre-integration of its TV Everywhere (TVE) solution with thePlatform’s mpx publishing system.

Accedo’s TVE Solution enables Pay TV Operators and Media Companies to launch new premium multi screen services across a range of connected devices more quickly than ever before. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually.

Accedo’s TVE Reference Apps provide a best-in-class experience for consumption of premium video, both On Demand TV and Live TV. With a pre-integration to thePlatform’s mpx, Accedo’s TVE Reference Apps enable joint customers a faster time to market, a full-featured integration and better reliability for their TVE services across any connected device.

“We have worked with thePlatform in numerous successful deployments previously and we’re excited to now bring a pre-integrated solution to our customers. Accedo’s unparalleled application experience and thePlatform’s proven content management and distribution solution offers a best of breed combined offering to the market.” commented Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo.

“Enabling TV Everywhere services in native applications on mobile devices, tablets, and smart TVs requires a well-orchestrated set of technologies,” said Marty Roberts, senior vice president of sales and marketing, thePlatform. “We are pleased to work with Accedo to provide a tightly integrated TVE solution for our mutual customers

Accedo will be demonstrating the integrated TV Everywhere solution at CES in its suite at the Venetian in Las Vegas from 8th-11th January.

thePlatform Delivers Smart Workflow for Video Publishing Across Formats and Devices

- mpx provides customers with scalable choices to integrate next-generation transcoding, ingest, and file transfer technologies –

SEATTLE, WA – December 18, 2012 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced a suite of new “smart workflow” features to simplify video preparation and publishing across multiple formats and devices. The new smart workflow features enable customers to adopt highly-scalable technologies for transcoding, and other services, from best-in-class solutions providers as part of thePlatform’s open mpx video publishing system .

Many media and entertainment companies remain reliant on inefficient or manual processes for creating the various types of video formats, aspect ratios, bitrates and encryption rules needed to reach a growing number of devices. Some use old transcoding technology that creates one file at a time, and others must still place phone calls to their vendors just to set up new device publishing profiles. With thePlatform’s smart workflow capabilities, customers can now use the latest cloud, hardware and software transcoding technologies to create multiple files from one source file in real-time, easily set up new publishing profiles themselves online, and leverage the most modern innovations in fast file transfers, video ingest technology, and more.

“Multiscreen video publishing has never been more complex, and coordinating the workflow is the key to success,” said Marty Roberts, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for thePlatform. “Companies face divergent technical and business requirements, an ever-expanding number of devices, and new technology choices on a daily basis. Our smart workflow is designed to alleviate much of this complexity for customers, while providing the flexibility to take advantage of the latest innovations to improve efficiency and scale. Next-generation transcoding, fast file transfers, and smart ingest services are just some of the latest capabilities mpx now supports.”

Partners and Features of Smart Workflow

thePlatform’s open and flexible architecture enables customers to choose from a wide range of integrated partners in order to design a tailored video solution for their unique business needs. The new smart workflow capabilities are made possible by integrations with leading companies such as: Elemental and Harmonic for next-generation transcoding; Aspera for fast file transfer, and Akamai for its latest HTTP ingest technology supported as part of Akamai’s new Sola Media Solutions. Benefits of mpx’s smart workflow include:

• Scale & Smart Delivery
  • Simultaneously create multiple transcoded files from one source file, increasing efficiency and speed;
  • Provides smart multi-file transcoding, so if one file fails, only that file is transcoded again;
  • Automatically analyze the number of files that have been, or need to be, generated for all formats or devices in order to eliminate duplications, and reduce the number of managed files.

• Simpler Administrative Control
  • Encoding profiles can be configured quickly to reach new devices and outlets;
  • Create new publishing profiles within the mpx console, without needing to contact thePlatform for support.

Continuous Product Innovation

In addition to smart workflow announced today, thePlatform made significant product enhancements in 2012 and received multiple industry honors for its product innovation. Most notably this year, thePlatform launched advanced video analytics; next-gen video commerce solutions; new TV Everywhere features including subscription packages and subscriber groups, and introduced mpx Essentials to serve mid-size businesses and organizations. thePlatform also received prestigious industry accolades this year including: the IMS Research TV Innovation Award, TelcoTV Vision Award for Best Innovation in Content Management Systems, Liberty Global Innovation Breakthrough Vendor Award, and thePlatform was named one of the 10 Best Large Companies to Work For in 2012 by Seattle Business Magazine.

Comcast’s thePlatform Unit Sees Growth in TV Everywhere, Live Programming

TV Everywhere has gained traction in the media business in the last year, and video technology provider thePlatform expects more growth in this area as operators and programmers embrace the new business.

Read the rest of the article and watch the interview at Beet.tv.

thePlatform and Conviva Bring Advanced Video Analytics to Customers

Conviva Viewer Insights(SM) now integrated into thePlatform’s mpx publishing system

SEATTLE, WA – November 6, 2012 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, and Conviva, Inc., the leader in real-time viewer experience optimization and advanced analytics, today announced a partnership to provide Conviva’s patented video analytics capabilities to customers of thePlatform. Conviva Viewer Insights will be offered as an integrated component of thePlatform’s award-winning mpx video publishing system, providing an additional layer of dynamic reporting within the mpx console.

With this new capability, publishers can quickly access real-time statistics related to the consumer experience, engagement, and the relationship between high quality viewing and audiences within players and across devices. Streaming quality, content trending, and video player performance are just some of the enhanced reports available. This new analytics component is fully integrated and available, at no additional cost, for customers of mpx and mpx Essentials. Customers can also work with Conviva to seamlessly incorporate additional analytics and stream optimization services from Conviva.

“We continually strive to deliver added value and innovations to our customers by working with best-in-class partners,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “With Conviva, we now provide customers with a seamless set of advanced monitoring and reporting features to help them drive their business forward.”

“This partnership with thePlatform is a great pairing of technologies. Conviva adds a unique capability to thePlatform’s video management system through the unparalleled business benefits our viewer-specific intelligence brings to content owners,” said Darren Feher, CEO of Conviva. “The joint solution will allow thePlatform’s customers to see exactly what every single viewer experiences, at the precise moment it happens—providing actionable intelligence to enhance people’s viewing experiences and ultimately improve online video for both viewers and publishers.”

The companies also noted that today’s announcement goes beyond product integration. thePlatform and Conviva will also work to identify and collaborate on joint sales opportunities for their mutual customers.

Features and Benefits

Conviva Viewer Insights in mpx will provide current, cross-platform audience measurement to determine video performance and its impact on viewer engagement. Features include:

• Quality and Engagement Insights: Complete audience-based quantification of video quality on viewer engagement;
• Real-Time Delivery Insights: In-depth diagnostics into video quality issues across CDNs, CDN regions, ISPs, and viewer host machines; and
• Cross-Platform Support: Support across video players, CDNs and video protocols.

thePlatform publishes video to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest TV Everywhere deployments.

Conviva optimizes the experience and economics of online video by preemptively improving the picture quality of each and every viewer. Additionally, Conviva is able to provide content owners with real-time, viewer-specific insights that help companies take action to improve the video quality and make more informed business decisions. Conviva’s viewer experience optimization technology eliminates choppy, stalled video, boosts bitrates to improve picture quality and simultaneously balances traffic across multiple delivery networks for efficient quality and cost.

Additional information about thePlatform can be found at: www.thePlatform.com. For more information about Conviva, visit: http://www.Conviva.com/.

About thePlatform
thePlatform™ is the leading white-label video management and publishing company. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing, and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s services provide unmatched versatility for designing and supporting video businesses on PCs, mobile, and TV. Customers include: A+E Networks, Cablevision, CBC, Comcast, Cox Communications, E!, the Golf Channel, HIT Entertainment, Liberty Global, NBC Local Media, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Outdoor Channel, Oxygen, Rogers, Shaw Media, Style, Syfy, Time Warner Cable, Travel Channel Media, truTV, USA Network, and numerous others. With more than decade history of service, thePlatform is an independent subsidiary of Comcast based in Seattle, Wash. For more information: www.thePlatform.com.

About Conviva

Conviva is a viewer experience optimization company that makes streaming businesses more profitable through the increased audience engagement that comes from a buffer-free, personalized HD experience. Today, network-independent Conviva works with major media brands to improve over two billion streams a month through preemptive, seamless stream adjustments for every individual viewer. Conviva’s online video solutions greatly improve the viewing experience for every audience member, watching on any device, anywhere. Conviva also monitors every single person’s stream for customers and records what the viewer sees at every second, creating the industry’s most advanced, viewer-specific analytics tool. Conviva is based in San Mateo, Calif., with offices in New York and London. For more information visit www.conviva.com.

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thePlatform Press Contact:
Jeremy Pemble of JLM Partners, Inc. for thePlatform, 206-381-3600, jeremy@jlmpartners.com

Conviva Press Contact:
Emilee McConkie of Radi8 Creative for Conviva, 801-305-1447, emilee@radi8creative.com

thePlatform’s mpx Essentials Wins TelcoTV Vision Award for Best Innovation in Content Management Systems

thePlatform today announced that its mpx Essentials video platform was named the Best Innovation in Content Management Systems in the fifth annual TelcoTV Vision Awards. Winners were announced at Telco TV, the largest conference and expo focused on the U.S. broadband service provider market, taking place this week in Las Vegas.

mpx Essentials provides mid-sized businesses and agencies with access to a specialized version of the same cloud-based platform used by many of the largest professional media and entertainment companies in the world. mpx Essentials provides a simple Web-based console for managing video, highly customizable video players, optimized video playlists to increase video views, enterprise-grade reliability, and more. It enables organizations to upload, store, and distribute videos to their own websites, other sites, mobile phones, tablets, and more.

The TelcoTV Vision Awards recognize companies that are leaders in driving innovation in the broadband service provider industry. The awards program includes a wide range of categories and was open to all members of the industry’s ecosystem. All submissions were reviewed by an independent panel of distinguished judges, comprised of the industry’s leading analysts and executives.

“TelcoTV Vision Award winners are among the industry’s leading video service providers, technology manufactures and equipment vendors,“ says Carolyn Herr, Show Director, TelcoTV. “thePlatform has demonstrated outstanding innovation and leadership with their mpx Essentials, and we congratulate them on winning the top honors in this year’s awards.”

For more information about thePlatform’s award-winning mpx Essentials, visit our website.

Oklahoma State University launches dynamic online video system, OStateTV

STILLWATER, Okla., September 25, 2012 — Oklahoma State University is making it easier than ever to view video that showcases its events, people, expertise and spirit with the launch today of OStateTV, available at http://OState.TV.

OStateTV is the one-stop source for OSU video, bringing together all OSU campuses, colleges and organizations, as well as students, employees and alumni, through a variety of online channels on one platform. Content is available across all devices: personal computers, tablets and smart phones.

“We’re excited to launch OStateTV, a digital video network which will enable us to showcase our great work here at Oklahoma State and to fulfill our land-grant mission of instruction, research and outreach,” said OSU President Burns Hargis.

“Video is a very effective way of us telling our story, and it’s a special story. It’s a special story of transforming lives all over this planet,” Hargis said. “Video enables us to connect with the OSU family; whether they’re students, or alumni, or donors or just friends of the university.”

Oklahoma State has partnered with thePlatform, an independent subsidiary of Comcast, and Hemisphere Interactive, leaders in online video, to develop OStateTV.

”Oklahoma State is at the forefront of innovation with the launch of OStateTV,” said Marty Roberts, senior vice president of sales and marketing of thePlatform. “Through thePlatform, OSU is leveraging the same high-quality video publishing system used by many of the most prominent media and entertainment companies in the world, in order to create a compelling custom video experience for their students, alumni, and fans.”

“Universities are creating more valuable content across more areas of study and interest than most major media companies,” said Ken Ruck, president of Hemisphere Interactive. “This partnership with Oklahoma State is creating the most powerful video distribution system for the university space.”

OStateTV also will serve as a valuable laboratory for OSU School of Media and Strategic Communications students, who will provide content, including regular video projects for classroom work and a regular student-produced sports show.

“OStateTV provides our students a broad, leading-edge outlet for their work, but just as importantly, it offers hands-on, day-to-day experience in the latest form of video production and distribution,” said Derina Holtzhausen, department head, OSU School of Media and Strategic Communications.

With today’s launch, OStateTV is introducing more than 30 online channels of content. Users can access content via topics — such as Arts, Humanities; Education, Learning; Human Health, Wellness; Research; Sports, Leisure — or through the various OSU campuses and colleges. Most of the channels feature an elegant preview video. Hargis provides an introduction to the system on the main OStateTV page.

OStateTV offers a unique video experience, utilizing social media, user generated content and feedback capabilities for advanced interaction and sharing. Users are encouraged to use the register link to sign up and fully engage with the OStateTV community.

OStateTV will feature many events live, beginning with a town hall meeting with Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on the campus of OSU-Tulsa Wednesday. Go to OState.TV for the town hall, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26.

The university will broadcast its Oct. 20 homecoming parade and its Nov. 1 OStateTEDx event live. It also will carry live athletic events, musical concerts, featured speakers and more.

thePlatform Unveils Next-Generation Video Commerce System

- Maximizes video monetization windows with advanced transactional capabilities –

SEATTLE, WA – August 28, 2012 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, unveiled its next-generation video commerce system built to address the need for increasingly sophisticated, transactional video business models. As content libraries grow, and windows of availability fluctuate, media and entertainment companies are seeking creative new approaches to monetize their premium video libraries complimenting pay walls, advertising, or authenticated subscriptions.

thePlatform’s mpx’s video commerce system provides a robust ecommerce engine to power next-generation digital video storefronts across computers, tablets, and mobile phones. It enables better merchandizing of video by giving consumers new ways to purchase highly-customized video packages and promotions. The new video commerce system includes an automated workflow, applying pricing templates to videos as they are ingested and published.

“The premium video marketplace is maturing beyond traditional monetization vehicles,” said Marty Roberts, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for thePlatform. “Companies are seeking a unified platform, like mpx, that brings together advertising, subscriptions, rentals, and purchases in one central place. Our new video commerce system will enable customers to differentiate and sell highly-customized video packages and promotions across screens.”

Beyond Advertising and Subscriptions: Transactional Video

thePlatform’s mpx system currently provides robust advertising-supported and subscription-based video offerings. For example, its next-generation TV Everywhere suite delivers tailored channel and content packages designed to extend the value of consumers’ TV subscriptions. With today’s introduction of its video commerce system, thePlatform is providing that same kind of industry-leading customization for single purchases of shows, seasons, and more.

With mpx, companies can leverage extensive metadata to set dynamic new business policies that take advantage of their content libraries, and create better online storefronts for consumers. Beyond basic pay-per-view or download-to-own, thePlatform can configure season passes for TV shows, movie bundles for sequels and trilogies, or create promotions based on actors, directors, specific content categories and more. In categories like news, for example, companies can use mpx to automatically set policies that make the news video free (ad supported) for a short window, then subscription-based during the pay wall window, and finally moved into a transactional, pay-per view archive.

Next-Gen Video Commerce System

Key benefits of mpx’s new video commerce system enable customers to:

• Create and apply pricing templates for transactional video business, including pay-per-view, season passes, download-to-own, and movie bundles for sequels and trilogies;
• Design custom content packages based on categories, such as action films, audience groups such as kids, and fan-favorites including actors and directors;
• Utilize advanced product tagging capabilities to connect media to the storefront, enforce pricing tiers, and allow deep search capability for consumers;
• Build in discount windows and special promotions that can be easily applied and retired to multiple products with one click;
• Support internationalization features including multi-currency price scheduling and support for multiple localized product descriptions;
• View purchase history, credit users with extra video views, issue refunds and order reports:
• Use all, or some, of the modular commerce components including a payment gateway, taxation engine integration, ledger, and fulfillment via thePlatform’s entitlement service; and
• Leverage mpx’s open APIs, secure content protection and delivery, and enterprise-class reliability to power custom storefront UIs.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest TV Everywhere deployments.

NBCU Selects thePlatform as Central Video Publishing System for Leading Programming Networks

USA Network, Syfy, and Oxygen Become Newest Programmers to Use thePlatform’s mpx System

SEATTLE – June 21, 2012 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced it has signed a new multi-year agreement to serve as the back-end video management system for several of NBCUniversal’s most popular programming networks.

Specifically, USA Network, Syfy, and Oxygen will be the newest programmers within NBCU to use thePlatform’s cloud-based mpx video management system to reach viewers on PCs, tablets, and other IP-connected devices. thePlatform was selected after a rigorous evaluation of online video platforms. Other NBCU programming networks that also currently rely on thePlatform include: E!, NBC Local Media, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Sprout, Style, and the Golf Channel.

“NBCU is committed to staying at the forefront of innovation and providing our customers the best entertainment options across any screen, both of which are enabled by thePlatform,” said Marc Siry, Senior Vice President of Digital Products and Services at NBCUniversal. “Given the independent needs of our programmers, thePlatform provides us with proven flexibility and enterprise-grade reliability that will benefit us across our organization.”

“We’re very proud to have been selected to play such a key role in the new digital efforts of USA Network, Oxygen, and Syfy,” said Ian Blaine, co-founder and CEO of thePlatform. “Our video management system provides leading programmers across NBCU with the efficiency, scalability and versatility they require. We look forward to helping them address their evolving video needs and opportunities.”

Popular NBCU Networks Tune to mpx

Implementations of mpx will vary across each of the programming networks based on their specific business needs. Information about these programmers and their websites includes the following:

• USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 115 million U.S. homes
• Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment and is currently in more than 99 million homes
• Oxygen Media is a multiplatform lifestyle brand that delivers relevant and engaging content to young women who like to “live out loud” and is available in 80 million homes

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 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. Additional details are available at www.thePlatform.com.

Marty Roberts discusses RCN’s new TV Everywhere Service

Viodi TV recently caught up with thePlatform’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Marty Roberts at Parks Associates’ Connections Summit 2012. Watch the interview and gain insight into what RCN’s new TV Everywhere initiative and its collaboration with TiVo and thePlatform will mean for the media industry.

Watch the video here.

thePlatform Launches mpx Essentials: Online Video Publishing Made Easy

SEATTLE, WA – June 6, 2012 – Today, thePlatform, an independent subsidiary of Comcast and a leading white-label video publishing company, is making it easy and affordable for any organization to publish and distribute video on the Web and beyond. For the first time, with the launch of mpx Essentials, any mid-sized business or agency has access to a specialized version of the same cloud-based platform used by many of the largest professional media and television companies in the world.

With mpx Essentials, organizations can upload, store, and distribute videos to their own Web sites, other sites, mobile phones, tablets, and more. mpx Essentials provides a simple Web-based console for managing video, highly customizable video players, optimized video playlists to increase video views, enterprise-grade reliability, and more.

“With mpx Essentials, we’re making our premium video platform broadly available for the first time,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “More and more organizations are using video to communicate with their customers, employees, and stakeholders, and their needs are rapidly evolving. With mpx Essentials, customers can grow with us, and benefit from an easy, affordable, and reliable system – trusted by many of the most prominent media companies in the world.”

“Online video is not just the purview of TV and entertainment companies, although media and entertainment companies certainly account for a large percentage of the revenue in the online video platform (OVP) market today,” said Melissa Webster, Program Vice President, Content and Digital Media Technologies at IDC. “We see a tremendous and rapidly growing opportunity among organizations and agencies of all kinds that want use video to communicate with their key constituencies and build customer loyalty and engagement. thePlatform’s launch of its new self-service offering is designed to address this opportunity.”

Key Features and Benefits

mpx Essentials provides many of the same features of thePlatform’s award-winning mpx system, in a simple, affordable, and convenient package. Key features include:

• Easy to Use: A highly-intuitive Web-based console, with consistent blade-based navigation and customizable shortcuts, makes uploading and publishing video easy;

• Increased Video Views: Mix and match hand-picked play-lists with dynamically generated video lineups; Improve search and discoverability with metadata toolset and other features; Search-optimized feeds for Google and Bing, as well as a Connector for auto-publishing to a YouTube account;

• Custom Video Player Designs: Choose dimensions, skins, colors, layers, social media integration (such as Facebook and Twitter), closed captioning support, and other third-party plugins;

• Playback Across Devices: Smart video players provide optimal video playback on PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, and other internet-connected devices;

• Enterprise Class Support: 24X7 customer support and best-in class content delivery network (CDN) services for storage and multi-bitrate streaming.

mpx Essentials Pricing
mpx Essentials is available in two different pricing packages, “mpx Essentials 499” for $499 per month, and “mpx Essentials 1499” for $1,499 per month. mpx Essentials 1499 includes added platform functionality and discounted pricing.

mpx Essentials 499

$499 Base Package Price Points

Setup Fee: $499
Monthly License Fee: $499
Videos: 500
GB Streamed: 350
GB Stored: 500
Addl Price Per Video: 10 cents
Addl Price Per GB Streamed: 40 cents
Addl Price Per GB Stored: 65 cents

mpx Essentials 1499

$1499 Base Package Price Points

Setup Fee: $499
Monthly License Fee: $1499
Videos: 2000
GB Streamed: 1500
GB Stored: 2000
Addl Price Per Video: 10 cents
Addl Price Per GB Streamed: 30 cents
Addl Price Per GB Stored: 60 cents

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest TV Everywhere deployments.

Additional details about thePlatform can be found at www.theplatform.com

About thePlatform
thePlatform™ is a leading white-label video management and publishing company. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing, and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s services provide proven versatility for designing and supporting video businesses on PCs, mobile, and TV. Customers include: A+E Networks, Cablevision, CBC, Comcast, Cox Communications, HIT Entertainment, Liberty Global, NBC Local Media, Outdoor Channel, PBS, PBS KIDS Sprout, Rogers, Shaw Media, Sky Television Network, Time Warner Cable, Travel Channel Media, truTV and numerous others. With more than a decade history of service, thePlatform is an independent subsidiary of Comcast, based in Seattle, Wash. For more information: www.theplatform.com

###

Press Contacts:
Jeremy Pemble, JLM Partners, Inc. for thePlatform, 206-381-3600, jeremy@jlmpartners.com or Renee Burch, JLM Partners Inc. for thePlatform, renee@jlmpartners.com, 206-381-3600

TiVo and thePlatform Tapped by RCN for TV Everywhere Solution

ALVISO, CA; SEATTLE, WA; and PRINCETON, NJ – May 30, 2012 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), for consumers, content distributors and consumer electronics manufacturers, and thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced that they have been selected by RCN Telecom Services, LLC, a leading provider of all-digital and high definition video, high-speed internet, and premium voice services, to create RCN’s forthcoming TV Everywhere portal.

The new TV Everywhere portal will feature the ability to watch video over an Internet connection, plus seamless integration with RCN’s linear television and On Demand offering, all accessible through the rich TiVo user experience. thePlatform’s cloud-based, mpx management system will collect, protect, and publish online video to RCN’s TV Everywhere portal across IP-connected devices. The new solution will ensure there is a common, simple user interface across all the devices that authenticated RCN subscribers use to access their TV content in and out of the home.

The new offering will enable RCN video households access to the renowned TiVo user experience, including universal search, browse, recommendations, personalization, playback and much more. The RCN TV Everywhere portal will go beyond traditional TV Everywhere offerings by unifying linear, operator VOD, and RCN TV Everywhere content. The seamless experience will include a single sign on, embedded playback, and integration with DVR features where a TiVo DVR is present including remote scheduling and set-top box management.

RCN plans to initially offer thousands of free on-demand titles including a broad range of movies and TV episodes and plans to rapidly scale the number of titles, and programs.

Jim Holanda, CEO of RCN, stated, “We’ve experienced tremendous success with the TiVo user experience with both our DVR and whole-home offerings, and are excited about extending that proposition to our entire video subscriber base.  Coupled with thePlatform’s back-end expertise, we’re building a compelling new experience to extend the subscription value for our customers.  With our new TV Everywhere offering RCN will continue to lead the industry with advanced television solutions and meet our subscriber demand for access to content anywhere, anytime at no additional cost.”

David Sandford, Vice President and General Manager of TiVo’s Service Provider Business, said, “RCN is one of our most innovative partners and we are excited to expand TiVo’s current suite of services to now enable access to content across multiple screens both in and out of the home.  This solution will provide unparalleled integration with TiVo’s set-top box, tablet and smart-phone interfaces for those subscribers utilizing the RCN-TiVo whole-home solution, making the television viewing experience that much easier and enjoyable.”

“RCN is a leader in providing advanced TV and communications services, and we’re very proud that they have selected mpx to help extend their efforts online and beyond,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “We look forward to working with RCN and TiVo to deliver a compelling new class of video services to RCN’s customers.”  
 
RCN’s TV Everywhere portal will be deployed in phases beginning later this year. Additional details about the implementation or financial terms were not disclosed.

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR).  TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.tivo.com and through third-party retailers.  TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today.  TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.tivo.com.  
 
TiVo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2012 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 
About thePlatform
thePlatform™ is a leading white-label video management and publishing company. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing, and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s services provide proven versatility for designing and supporting video businesses on PCs, mobile, and TV. Customers include: A+E Networks, Cablevision, CBC, Comcast, Cox Communications, HIT Entertainment, Liberty Global, NBC Local Media, Outdoor Channel, PBS, PBS KIDS Sprout, Rogers, Shaw Media, Sky Television Network, Time Warner Cable, Travel Channel Media, truTV and numerous others. With more than a decade history of service, thePlatform is an independent subsidiary of Comcast, based in Seattle, Wash. For more information: www.thePlatform.com.  
 
About RCN
About RCN Telecom Services, LLC is a privately-held competitive broadband services provider delivering all-digital and high-definition video, high-speed internet and premium phone services to residential and small-medium business customers. RCN’s primary service areas include Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley (PA), New York City, Boston and Chicago.
For more information on RCN, please visit www.rcn.com.

Ian Blaine Explains What’s In Store for TV Everywhere with Light Reading Cable

Light Reading Cable Editor Jeff Baumgartner recently caught up with Ian Blaine at the Cable Show 2012.

Ian discusses Comcast’s new X1 platform and shares his thoughts on what the cable industry needs to do to get TV Everywhere to the next level.

Watch the interview here.

thePlatform fuels the rise of “Social TV”

According to an article just released in Smart Planet, today’s consumers are surrounded by a “swarm of devices” that are increasingly interacting and overlapping one another. Lately, tablets have been serving as the second screen of choice, and the race is on to capture big pieces of this vast new real estate.

That’s the gist of a new report by Stowe Boyd of Work Talk Research. He refers to this trend as “second screening,” but it means a lot more than simply having another screen present while watching television. It opens up a new era of interaction — the rise of “Social TV.”

thePlatform is happy to report that it’s listed as one of 13 companies who is helping fuel this new era of television.

Find out why. Read the full article here.

Marty Roberts Named to Multichannel News’ ‘40 Under Forty’ list.

Marty Roberts, thePlatform’s SVP of Sales and Marketing, has been named in Multichannel News’ “40 under Forty” list of the most influential young executives in the cable industry! The award honors “movers and shakers” who are fundamentally shaping the future of the multichannel video and telecommunications industry.

Multichannel News’ profile of Marty:

Marty Roberts
Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing
thePlatform
Age: 39

Marty Roberts’s diverse leadership background includes more than 15 years of product management and marketing. His experience developing strategy, building relationships with development organizations and creating new products and services has helped to increase the customer base and profitability for numerous organizations.

Roberts leads worldwide sales and account management for Comcast’s independent online video subsidiary, overseeing all revenue generation, business development, product management, marketing, public relations and thePlatform’s extensive partner program. He previously served as vice president of sales and marketing and as VP of marketing.

His contributions to the company’s success include repositioning the company and its products; increasing brand awareness through advertising, PR and the company’s website; building an ecosystem with 80 partners; and driving the product strategy for initiatives such as TV Everywhere. Prior to joining thePlatform, Roberts was an executive at GiftCertificates.com and at RealNetworks.

Looking ahead, one of Roberts’s main initiatives is to continue expanding thePlatform’s worldwide customer base and specifically to help content providers and IPTV/pay TV providers continue the transition to multiscreen publishing across TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

Learn more

Read the full article here.

Note: Multichannel News is a paid subscription.

Comcast Unit Targets Synacor’s Turf

thePlatform Inc. , the Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)-owned media publishing firm, has teamed up with Empathy Lab LLC to develop a fast way for independent MSOs to build and launch TV Everywhere portals.

Under the partnership, thePlatform will match its mpx publishing system with Empathy Lab’s user interface design modules, which amount to TV Everywhere plug-ins for Web browsers. The pitch is to offer a “turnkey” system that can get Tier 2/3 operators up and running with TV Everywhere rapidly and for less money than they can on their own.

Read the rest of this article on LightReading.com.

thePlatform Unveils Next-Generation TV Everywhere Suite for TV Service Providers

Extends value of subscriptions by leveraging metadata to create tailored content packages, promotions, and upselling options via tablets, PCs, and other devices

SEATTLE, WA – March 8, 2012 – Television operators are implementing their initial “TV Everywhere” (TVE) deployments, which provide paid TV subscribers access to their favorite shows on tablets, PCs, phones and other IP-connected devices. thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and pioneer in TVE services, today announced an advanced new suite of features, enabling operators to create new and highly tailored content packages and promotions. The new features enable pay TV providers to reinforce and extend the value of their current TV subscription packages across more devices.

“TV operators are seeking ways to unlock the potential of larger content libraries, extend the value of their subscriptions, and create tailored viewing experiences for their customers,” said Ian Blaine, CEO and co-founder of thePlatform. “Our new TV Everywhere features provide powerful tools to make that possible. With the challenge of authentication largely behind us, and more content available than ever before, the industry can shift to creating even more customized entertainment packages. These dynamic new mpx tools enable operators to create their own criteria for grouping content and subscribers – from history buffs to fans of a particular series – and will create innovative marketing opportunities.”

Subscription Packages and Subscriber Groups

At the core of today’s announcement are two new features of thePlatform’s mpx video publishing system, Subscription Packages and Subscriber Groups, which can be variously combined to create entirely new entertainment experiences for consumers. Subscription Packages are collections of content, defined by the operators, such as those that mirror their basic, extended, or premium channel TV line ups, which can be viewed on devices beyond TVs. thePlatform’s new TVE features allow operators to easily and dynamically create highly customized extras or subgroups of content packages around genres, TV series, actors, holidays, and much more. These extra content packages can draw from much larger content catalogs than are currently available on linear TV or video-on-demand (VOD) catalogs, in order to be viewed on tablets, PCs, or other IP-connected devices.

Subscriber Groups enable operators to segment customers, based on a wide range of operator-defined filters, such as their paid TV subscription package, geography, acceptable content rating, device type, content viewing preferences, and more. Within thePlatform’s system, subscribers can belong to multiple Subscriber Groups, and can be offered a variety of Subscription Packages to create highly tailored offerings. Both new features are now available for free to mpx customers, and are in early trials with multiple TV operators around the globe.

Metadata: Beyond Content Discovery

The key technical underpinning for today’s announcement stem from thePlatform’s advancements with metadata management. Metadata has historically been used to enable better content discovery, search and recommendations. Now, operators will be able to leverage metadata to set new business policies that take advantage of their vast content libraries, to create better services for their subscribers.

thePlatform’s mpx system includes a central repository for metadata surrounding a video including categories, keywords, tags, asset types and more. This collection of data enables operators to easily create dynamic filters via mpx’s intuitive console to create any combination of Subscription Package. Once a package is defined, specific viewing rights can be assigned with enforcement by stream encryption or a DRM such as Microsoft PlayReady or Adobe Flash Access. This same repository enabled thePlatform to improve the efficiency of its previous TVE solutions for operators. For example, thePlatform’s TVE solutions previously relied on a series of manual channel mapping exercises with linear TV channels, which can now be streamlined within mpx using metadata policies.

More Choices and Tailored Experiences

Potential use cases that could be enabled by thePlatform’s new TV Everywhere features include:

Kids Programming: A family that subscribes to premium TV packages could receive an extra bundle of free online viewing for all past episodes of their kids’ favorite shows, to watch on their tablets or game consoles.

History Buff: A subscriber that loves history-oriented programming could be provided a new online bundle of documentaries, offered during specific time windows, such as significant dates in U.S. or World History.

Holiday Promotions: Operators can create video collections of TV shows or movies with holiday themes, like Valentine’s Day or Halloween, tailored for different generations, and offer them at various times throughout the year.

Teenage/Premium Movie Channel: A teenager whose household subscribes to a premium movie channel, could receive restricted online viewing based on ratings, but could be offered an alternative set of more content choices based on personal interests, like an affinity for wizards, superheroes or vampires.

Sports: A subscriber to premium sports programming, with an affinity toward boxing or mixed martial arts, could be provided video collections of specific athletes’ bouts online.

Movies: Subscribers to basic TV packages who regularly order pay-per view movies on TV, could be given a free pass to view multiple premium movie channels on their home PC for two weeks, as an incentive to upgrade to a premium subscription package.

thePlatform’s mpx system provides operators with the flexibility to create and combine groups and packages in highly tailored ways to add value, upsell, or promote their services across devices. mpx also serves as the critical enforcement mechanism to ensure the business policies and financial obligations between programmers and TV service providers are maintained, while managing user authentication and video playback authorization.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

thePlatform Announces Executive Advancements

Alex Glass promoted to CIO, Marty Roberts promoted to SVP of Sales and Marketing worldwide, Michael Horwitz named as SVP of Engineering

SEATTLE, WA – February 13, 2012 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced a number of executive advancements to enhance the company’s focus on metrics-driven customer experience, streamline sales activities, and scale the business globally.

Alex Glass, who currently serves as vice president of global operations, will now serve in the newly created role of chief information officer (CIO). Marty Roberts, who previously served as vice president of sales and marketing, has been promoted to senior vice president of sales and marketing worldwide. Michael (Mike) Horwitz, formerly vice president of engineering, has been promoted to senior vice president of engineering.

“Alex, Marty and Mike have made invaluable contributions to thePlatform, our customers, and to the overall video market,” said Ian Blaine, co-founder and CEO of thePlatform. “At a time of significant growth and opportunities domestically and internationally, I am confident their proven expertise will enable us to accelerate our business, as we further expand our partner ecosystem, customers, and geographic deployments worldwide.”

As CIO, Mr. Glass will manage business intelligence, security, service availability, and worldwide system performance. He previously served as vice president of global operations. He also served as vice president of client services, director of customer service, and as a solutions architect with thePlatform. Prior to joining thePlatform, Glass was with Digeo, Inc. where he worked as both a project and program manager. Glass will continue to report to Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform.

Mr. Roberts now leads worldwide sales and account management, overseeing all revenue generation, business development, product management, marketing, public relations, and thePlatform’s extensive partner program. Mr. Roberts previously served as vice president of sales and marketing, and as vice president of marketing at thePlatform. Prior to joining thePlatform, Roberts was an executive at GiftCertificates.com, and was a pioneer in the development of online video and digital media services at RealNetworks. Roberts will continue to report to Blaine.

Mr. Horwitz will add development operations (DevOps) to his existing responsibilities for the company’s core product development, testing and deployment, and operational business intelligence, including capacity planning and metrics monitoring. Previously, Horwitz held numerous senior-level engineering positions at Comcast Corp. Most recently, he served as senior director, engineering for Comcast Converged Products. Before that, he was senior manager of engineering and principal engineer, both for Comcast Interactive Media. Horwitz will continue to report to Blaine.

The other members of Ian Blaine’s senior management team at thePlatform remain unchanged, with Jamie Miller serving as COO & CFO, Alan Ramaley as CTO, Simon McGrath as GM of Europe, and Tina Santos as chief legal counsel.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

thePlatform introduces one HTML5 player to rule them all

Written By: Ryan Lawler, GigaOm

thePlatform is pushing cross-platform compatibility with a new offering that will let its customers create one video player that can be delivered to any device or browser that is trying to access it. That capability is being rolled out due to increased demand for HTML5 video, despite a lack of real standards across browsers for the display and rendering of video players.

Read the rest of the article here.

thePlatform Receives 2012 TV Innovation Award from IMS Research

As 2012 kicks off, thePlatform is very pleased to announce that we received a major industry accolade for our mpx video management and publishing system.

IMS Research, a leading global electronics market research company with over 80 analysts worldwide, awarded thePlatform with its prestigious 2012 TV Innovation Award for mpx at an award ceremony during CES 2012. Now in its third year, the TV Innovation Awards recognize the most forward-thinking companies creating products and services that are changing the way people watch television, and have grown to become one of the premier endorsements of innovation in television.

According to IMS Research President, Ian Weightman: “One of the main reasons that the TV Innovation Awards have become so sought after is that each entry is judged on a completely level playing field. This ensures that companies, ranging from the biggest names in consumer electronics to innovative start-ups, can measure objectively how their products stack-up against those of their competitors.”

thePlatform is proud of this accomplishment, and we look forward to providing our customers and partners with continued innovation throughout 2012 and beyond.

thePlatform Appoints Two New Senior Executives

Michael Horwitz Joins thePlatform as Vice President of Engineering – Tina Santos Named In-House General Counsel

SEATTLE, WA – October 3, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced the appointment of Michael (Mike) Horwitz as Vice President of Engineering and Tina Santos as the Chief Legal Counsel. Mr. Horwitz will lead thePlatform’s core product development, testing and deployment, and oversee the company’s operational business intelligence, including capacity planning and metrics monitoring. Ms. Santos will direct all legal and compliance matters for thePlatform. Both will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Seattle.

“Mike and Tina both have a tremendous record of accomplishment, and I am confident that their respective areas of expertise will strengthen our team,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Mike brings a wealth of knowledge to the company, in both technology management and product development functions. Tina brings extensive international experience and a strong background in corporate governance for technology companies. Both Mike and Tina will be valuable assets to thePlatform, as we continue to innovate and expand our business.”

Horwitz comes to thePlatform after spending more than five years in senior-level engineering positions at Comcast, building technology teams from the ground-up, managing backend data system development, and executing on the company’s online and next-generation product lines. Most recently, Horwitz served as Senior Director, Engineering for Comcast Converged Products. Before that, he was Senior Manager of Engineering and Principal Engineer, both for Comcast Interactive Media. Prior to Comcast, Horwitz was a technology manager and development lead for a number of network management start-ups in the greater Philadelphia area. Horwitz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. He will report to Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform.

Santos joins thePlatform after serving as the General Counsel for StreamServe – a global software company based in Boston – for the past six years, where she managed all legal aspects relating to the company’s internal and external operations in the U.S. and 13 jurisdictions in Europe and Asia. Previously, Santos was a Senior Associate at the London office of Coudert Brothers, LLP, and served as an Associate in the corporate securities and finance group of Perkins Coie, LLP. Prior to attending law school, she worked for Lone Wolf Technologies, a Seattle-based start-up company, where she managed all financing related activities, investor relations and was Corporate Secretary to the Board of Directors. Santos received her J.D. with honors from Seattle University’s School of Law, and graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Santos will report to Jamie Miller, COO and CFO of thePlatform.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TVs. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

thePlatform Selected by Liberty Global as World-Wide Online Video Management System

thePlatform’s mpx Video Management System to Provide Centralized Aggregation and Publishing to Support Web Portals Across Liberty Global’s Footprint – Liberty Global to Use thePlatform’s TV Everywhere (TVE) Solution to Enable Online Catch-Up of Shows for Paid Subscribers

AMSTERDAM – Sept. 8, 2011 – At the IBC conference, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, announced today that it was selected by Liberty Global, Inc., the leading international cable operator with operations in 14 countries, to provide the back-end video management system across its online video properties. Liberty Global will use thePlatform’s “TV Everywhere” solution to enable subscribers to catch-up and watch more of their favorite programs and movies on their computers.

thePlatform’s, cloud-based, mpx video management system will serve as the central aggregation hub for collecting, protecting, and publishing online video to Liberty Global’s various web portals. The system will also manage the authorization of online video watching based on a user’s paid TV subscription package.

“We’re committed to providing our subscribers even greater access to their favorite shows, and enhancing the value of their subscriptions beyond the TV screen,” said Ryc Brownrigg, Vice President of Digital Technology for Liberty Global. “By integrating with thePlatform’s mpx system, we’re gaining a powerful logistics hub that makes it easier for our subscribers to watch premium shows online, while preserving the content rights obligations we have with our content providers.”

“Liberty Global is unquestionably one of the preeminent leaders in television services around the world, and we’re extremely proud that they have selected mpx to help expand their efforts online,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Our role is to simplify the back-end complexity of online video management, enabling Liberty Global to bring new and innovative video services to market in an efficient and scalable way.”
thePlatform’s mpx system will be phased in to support various online efforts in select regions and then expanded globally. Additional details about the implementation and financial terms of the agreement between thePlatform and Liberty Global were not disclosed.

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 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.

Real Life Venture and thePlatform Announce Reseller Agreement for Online Video and Publishing

First Swedish Deployment of mpx with ATG Vision

SEATTLE and STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Aug. 11, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, and Real Life Venture AB, a digital media consulting company based in Sweden, today announced a reseller agreement to extend video publishing, management and development solutions across the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The first joint customer is AB TRAV OCH GALOPP (ATG) with their ATG Vision initiative, the official international website of the Swedish Horse Racing Totalisator Board, which is using mpx to publish and manage video content for Swedish Racing including race replays, coverage, jockey profiles and introductory videos on racing and betting.

The joint solution gives content providers across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden the ability to publish video to PCs, mobile devices and TV using mpx, an enterprise class video publishing platform with additional customization and system integration services from Real Life. With local and specialized support from Real Life, mpx will serve the growing media market in Nordic countries helping content providers extend video across multiple screens and destinations.

“Real Life has a great deal of experience in helping content providers architect and execute business models and technology solutions that extend their business,” said Simon McGrath, general manager of Europe for thePlatform. “As an authorized reseller of mpx we look forward to working with them as they offer local support and build custom solutions for customers across the Nordic countries.”

“Content providers with large video libraries like ATG, benefit from the combination of custom integration services and a scalable video platform to maximize their multi-screen distribution strategies,” said Bo Klevenstedt, president and founder, Real Life Venture. “mpx gives us the robust platform we need to offer our customers a full set of products to build out their digital media strategies.”

“Our business is at the center of an entertainment industry that grows each year globally via close collaborations with international partners. It was important that our online platform could keep up with the pace of change in this area and give us the ability to continue to grow and expand our presence,” said Magnus Tuononen, international project manager of ATG. “By working with Real Life to deploy mpx we were able to extend our business and bring the race track experience online with the flexibility to adapt our international strategy going forward.”

Real Life Venture offers strategic consulting services for content providers, helping them use technology to create business value for today, and step-function growth for tomorrow. The company specializes in helping customers to create online and digital destinations in the new media landscape.

Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s mpx media publishing system is an enterprise class online video platform that offers a streamlined workflow and support for a wide range of online business models. 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.

More information about Real Life Venture AB can be found at www.reallife-venture.com. More information about thePlatform can be found at www.thePlatform.com.

Hemisphere Interactive Connects with thePlatform on Video Publishing and Management

Hemisphere Named as Authorized Reseller of mpx in Australia and New Zealand

SEATTLE and AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Aug. 11, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, and Hemisphere Interactive, a provider of multi-platform product development, today announced a reseller agreement to extend video publishing, management and development solutions in Australia and New Zealand. Under the new agreement, Hemisphere will become a preferred developer and authorized reseller of thePlatform’s mpx media publishing system, offering local support for customers across the Oceania region.

“We’ve enjoyed a good working relationship with thePlatform over the years, collaborating on online video projects with major media companies around the world,” said Glyn Beaumont, managing director, Hemisphere Interactive. “We look forward to offering our customers here in New Zealand and Australia an enterprise caliber publishing and management system that can help them achieve their business goals.”

“We think Hemisphere is the right fit for thePlatform in the region given their experience with major media companies,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing for thePlatform. “They understand both the business and technical requirements of online video in the local market and we look forward to working with them.”

Hemisphere Interactive provides multi-platform product development of large and small scale cloud-based applications and social media, applications, video distribution and data integration work for large media companies around the world. Customers include Turner Broadcasting, CNN, Comcast, Liberty Media, News Corp., HIT Entertainment and Lockerz.com.

Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. The company’s mpx media publishing system is an enterprise class online video platform that offers a streamlined workflow and support for a wide range of online business models. 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.

More information about Hemisphere Interactive can be found at www.hemisphereinteractive.com. More information about thePlatform can be found at www.thePlatform.com.

Elemental and thePlatform Collaborate To Deliver Premium Video to Multiple Screens

Elemental™ Server and thePlatform’s mpx video management system integrate to handle large volumes of high-quality video for multi-screen services – Supports Comcast’s XfinityTV.com and Xfinity TV App for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Portland, Ore. and Seattle – July 25, 2011 – Elemental Technologies, the leading provider of video processing solutions that enable multi-screen content delivery, and thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced a joint solution for processing and management of large, dynamic video content libraries for IP-connected devices. The integration, designed for service providers and media companies, combines the Elemental Server file-based video transcoding solution with thePlatform’s mpx video management system for multi-screen video delivery.

As part of today’s announcement, Elemental Technologies joins thePlatform’s premier partner program, and the two companies will jointly market each other’s solutions to customers. The first company to use the combined offering is Comcast, which relies on the technology to support its online and mobile initiatives.

“Elemental is at the forefront of providing robust and cost-effective transcoding solutions,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “As online video libraries continue to expand, our customers need scalable means to ingest, transcode and distribute video. We look forward to working with Elemental to serve our mutual customers, and addressing new market opportunities together.”

“Elemental is excited to work with thePlatform to accelerate the management and processing of Comcast’s streaming assets to PCs, tablets and mobile devices,” said Sam Blackman, CEO and chairman of Elemental Technologies. “Comcast, and MSOs in general, are seeking solutions that allow them to cost-effectively scale their operations with minimal impact to existing operations. We’re proud to be ahead of the curve in this area.”
“Comcast is leveraging innovative new technologies that provide cost-effective performance enhancements as we bring more viewing choices to our customers online and on mobile devices,” said Charlie Herrin, senior vice president of product development and technology for Comcast Interactive Media. “Elemental has a highly reliable transcoding solution that coupled with thePlatform’s cloud-based video management, is helping us deliver compelling services to our subscribers.”

Today, Elemental Server’s integration with thePlatform’s mpx allows Comcast to deliver On Demand video to XfinityTV.com, and to the Xfinity TV app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Elemental Server also provides the capability to support other IP-devices.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

Elemental will exhibit its solutions for multi-screen video delivery at the CableLabs 2011 Summer Conference, August 7-10, in Keystone Colorado. Additional information about thePlatform is available at www.thePlatform.com. Additional information about Elemental is available at www.elementaltechnologies.com.

thePlatform Appoints Simon McGrath General Manager of Europe

Darren Grimstead Promoted to Director of European Sales – Executives Based in UK as thePlatform Expands Efforts to Serve Customers in the Region

SEATTLE and LONDON – July 6, 2011 – thePlatform, an independent subsidiary of Comcast and leading white-label video publishing company, today announced the appointment of Simon McGrath as General Manager of Europe. Simon will lead thePlatform’s European go-to-market strategies and operations and will report to Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. Additionally, the company announced that Darren Grimstead has been promoted to Director of European sales.

“Simon is joining thePlatform at a key inflection point in the history of thePlatform and the overall video market,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “European content owners, TV service providers, and other video aggregators are seeking efficient and scalable means to deliver video across multiple screens. We’re confident that Simon’s operational, marketing and sales leadership will play a key role in serving the European market.”

Mr. McGrath has more than 20 years of experience leading strategic operational, marketing, sales and engineering initiatives at global organizations. Most recently, he served as Chief Marketing Officer and Commercial Director of EMEA at SeaChange International Inc., a global leader in the delivery of multi-screen video, which provides back-end solutions to companies such as AT&T, DISH Network, Hutchison Whampoa, Virgin Media, and many others. At SeaChange, McGrath led the acquisition of Mobix Interactive Ltd as well as held responsibility for all EMEA accounts, technology alliances and go-to-market strategies.

Prior to SeaChange, McGrath served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Director of Strategy, Development and Technology of On Demand Group Ltd., a subsidiary of SeaChange since September 2005. He joined On Demand Group in 2002 as its first Chief Technology Officer, leading the development and launch of ntl (now Virgin Media) Video On Demand, as well as building On Demand’s Content Preparation Centre in London. Previously, McGrathserved as Chief Sales and Communication Officer and Executive Board Member of Lysis SA, a software company specializing in advanced content management solutions for digital television based in Switzerland. McGrath joined Lysis in November 1999 through the acquisition of Concision Limited, a company he founded. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from Cambridge University.

Darren Grimstead has spent the last eight years leading thePlatform’s media and entertainment sales channel as Director, Media & Entertainment Sales. His clients include: PBS, Starz Play, NBC Local Media, truTV, News Digital Media, HIT Entertainment and other top media company accounts. In his new role, he will report to McGrath. Before joining thePlatform, Grimstead held executive sales positions at NetReflector and Loudeye, online media and technology companies, where he led strategic sales, market development, business development and customer acquisition initiatives.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform’s mpx system 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 TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

Both McGrath and Grimstead will be based out of London.

Cable companies think outside the box - Ian Blaine interview with The Financial Times

Cable companies think outside the box

Written By: David Gelles in New York

Television is learning some lessons from the web.

At the Cable Show, the television industry gathering in Chicago last week, technology buzzwords like “apps”, “cloud” and “social” were bandied about with much excitement.

But it wasn’t Apple, Google or Facebook showing off their latest wares. Instead, it was stalwart cable television companies such as Comcast, Time Warner and ESPN seeking to exploit advances in mobile communications, remote storage and software design in a bid to stay relevant to today’s consumer. “The users’ expectation of how to consume video is changing,” said Imran Shah, managing partner at IBB Consulting. The way viewers search for programmes is shifting, and “social recommendations are an integral part of that”.

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thePlatform Serves as Central Video Logistics System for Comcast’s Next-Generation TV Initiative

thePlatform Brings Cloud-based Video Management to TV – mpx Evolves from Managing Online Video to Managing TV Content for Leading Service Provider in US

SEATTLE – June 14, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, today confirmed that its cloud-based video publishing system, mpx, serves as the central management hub for Comcast’s next-generation Xfinity TV service.

Now in a market trial in Augusta, GA, the Xfinity TV service offers a new personalized user experience on the television, making it easier to navigate, search and select from tens of thousands of choices. thePlatform worked closely with teams across Comcast to design a system that provides greater flexibility and versatility for managing live TV or video-on-demand. This deployment also showcases the ability of mpx to deliver pay-TV services on a vast scale with enterprise-grade reliability for one of the largest TV service providers in North America.

“TV services have historically been defined by infrastructure equipment, but that’s changing,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform and senior vice president in Comcast Converged Products. “Moving forward, cloud computing will play a defining role in enabling TV service providers to innovate and differentiate. We’re very proud to support this initiative with Comcast, and it’s a testament to the robustness and scalability of our capabilities.”

“Comcast is leveraging the best aspects of web-based video architecture to reshape the television experience itself,” said Sam Schwartz, president of Comcast Converged Products. “We acquired thePlatform five years ago in order to bring some of the brightest minds in video systems design and management into our senior planning teams. thePlatform has been instrumental in our efforts to date and is playing a strategic role in the development of our next-generation services.”

TV programming networks and content providers delivering video to Comcast customers who subscribe to the next-generation Xfinity TV service utilize thePlatform’s mpx system to prepare and manage that video using its intuitive web-based console. mpx manages video ingest and aggregation from multiple sources. It also provides the technical foundation for metadata aggregation, normalization, and search capabilities for live-linear channels and video on demand.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts to Unveil Next Generation Television Experience and New Broadband Speeds

Comcast Taps Industry Leaders Facebook, Intel Corporation, Pace plc and thePlatform – New Xfinity TV Experience Delivers Advanced Search, Personalization and Interactivity

Philadelphia, PA and Chicago, IL – June 14, 2011, Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) today announced that it is working with leading technology and content providers to deliver the company’s next-generation Xfinity® TV experience. This new experience transforms the way consumers watch television with a new guide and user interface that makes the TV screen more interactive, personal and social. Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts will demonstrate this new service and new speeds at the 2011 NCTA show in Chicago on Thursday, June 16 during the General Session that begins at 9 am CT.

Now available in a market trial in Augusta, GA, Xfinity TV brings an entirely new user experience to television that makes it easier to search and select from tens of thousands of choices. Through this experience, customers enjoy:

• Fast, intuitive search that lets users find what they want to watch in seconds from thousands of choices on TV, On Demand, on their DVR, or from a selection of additional content.
• A more personalized TV experience called MyTV® where users can see and access all of their recordings, favorites and recommendations in one place that reflects their interests, favorite series, sports teams, movies and music.
• Interactive apps that are easy to access and enhanced for TV, like traffic and weather, and social apps like Facebook® that let users share and discover what to watch with their friends.

“We’ve made great progress on providing better tools – first on the web, then on tablets and mobile devices – to make it easier to find what you want to watch, when you want it from thousands of choices. We’re excited to bring those advanced capabilities to the TV set to enable a richer, more personalized experience,” said Sam Schwartz, President of Comcast Converged Products. “This is a new platform for continuous innovation and new product development. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible and we look forward to working with industry leaders like these as we continue to evolve what it means to watch TV.”

Xfinity TV integrates technology, content and applications from industry leaders including:

• Integrating with Facebook to bring social apps to TV, making it easy for people to share their TV experience with friends, wherever they may be.
• Intel Corporation provided the Intel® Architecture-based CE SoC for the new set-top boxes, delivering the CPU and graphics performance required for the service’s advanced user interface, fast responsive performance and new interactive applications.
• Pace plc, a leader in digital TV technology, developed the powerful hybrid set-top box with tru2way and IP capability that enables the new television experience.
• thePlatform®, a leading video publishing company wholly owned by Comcast, is bringing its cloud-based video publishing system, mpx, as the content management infrastructure for the service.

This is the first of a series of products made possible by Xcalibur, an advanced application and video platform that uses cloud computing services in the Comcast network to bring new, more innovative television services to consumers, faster.

Mr. Roberts’ demonstration will be live streamed on June 16 beginning at 9 am CT/10 am ET at http://2011.thecableshow.com/live and on http://blog.comcast.com/. Video replays will be available on both sites following the June 16th presentation. Demos of this next generation Xfinity TV experience will also be available in the Comcast Cable booth (Booth #1201) at The Cable Show 2011 at McCormick Place in Chicago on June 16th.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers. Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.

Alcatel-Lucent and thePlatform™ team up to help TV Providers take any video to any screen, anywhere

Jointly-developed multiscreen video platform unifies video management and delivery for scheduled and on-demand video services

Paris, France/ Seattle, WA – June 13, 2011 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) and thePlatform, a leading online video management and publishing company, today announced a strategic alliance to help cable and IPTV providers deliver a new generation of video services to their subscriber’s TVs, PCs, tablets, mobile phones and more.

The companies have jointly-developed a multiscreen video platform that supports the delivery of live scheduled TV, Video-on-Demand (VOD) and “TV Everywhere” services to a variety of screens, allowing pay-TV subscribers to access their video content in the home or on the go, on whichever device is most convenient to them at the time.

The solution offers advanced video management capabilities together with optimized video distribution through a content delivery network (CDN) deployed by the service provider. It also brings the security and reliability found today on TV set-top boxes to a broader range of devices.

Derrick Frost, SVP, Global IP Video Solutions at Alcatel-Lucent said: “Consumer demand for anywhere, anytime video services is exploding and our customers are looking for an edge. Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership in IPTV and content delivery networks, coupled with our strategic alliance with thePlatform provides a unique suite of capabilities that allow service providers to offer the best of traditional pay-TV and online video worlds to their customers.”

Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform observed: “In recent years, we’ve seen tremendous growth and innovation with online video, which is reshaping the future of TV. Our alliance with Alcatel-Lucent allows us to address the new opportunities and challenges facing TV service providers today. Expanding the use of our capabilities beyond online and mobile video to manage TV itself represents a significant new business opportunity for thePlatform. Alcatel-Lucent’s strong customer relationships and experience in the service provider space will help us reach a broader set of customers than was possible previously. Our joint solution will enable pay-TV providers to create groundbreaking consumer services that unify content delivery across any screen.”

The Alcatel-Lucent Multiscreen Video Platform is made up of three main components – Cloud, Content Delivery Network and Clients – each of which can be deployed individually, in combination, or as part of a comprehensive solution:

• Multiscreen Cloud — A central element of this component is thePlatform’s cloud-based mpx video management system which provides the central logistics system for multi-screen video publishing. It provides video and metadata management, rights enforcement and business policy modelling between TV providers and content owners, and automated publishing capabilities in the cloud as opposed to in the TV provider’s data center. In addition, customers can benefit from both companies’ subscriber management services which maintain a detailed subscriber profile for each customer, supporting authentication, payments, preferences, audience measurement, advertising, and customer service needs.

• Multiscreen CDN — The Multiscreen Content Delivery Network – based on Alcatel-Lucent’s Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform – enables service providers to build and operate their own dedicated CDN as an alternative to shared third-party CDNs. It also improves video quality, offers faster file downloads at significantly reduced costs, and – when integrated with thePlatform’s mpx video management system — assures seamless delivery of video. Security concerns about illegal content sharing are addressed with encryption functionality that allows pay-TV providers to implement robust set-top box-like content protection for virtually any device.

• Multiscreen Clients — The Multiscreen Clients are a suite of subscriber applications, each designed to support video playback on either a PC, tablet or mobile device. Service providers have the option to customize the user experience to meet their specific requirements, or select an out-of-the-box Multiscreen Client application. The Multiscreen Clients can seamlessly pre-integrate the Interactive Program Guide (IPG) with search and personalization features, making it easy for users to discover and watch live TV and VOD services on a wide variety of devices in an intuitive fashion comparable to a typical TV experience.

The two companies are currently working with a number of leading TV service providers on deployments. Additional information about thePlatform can be found at www.thePlatform.com. Additional information about Alcatel-Lucent’s Multiscreen Video Platform can be found at http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/multiscreen-video-platform.

thePlatform Selected by Cox Communications for Cox TV Online

thePlatform’s mpx System Enables Cox Subscribers to Watch More Premium Shows and Movies Online

SEATTLE –– May 10, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, today announced that it was selected by Cox Communications, the third-largest U.S. cable TV company, to provide the back-end video management for Cox’s new video initiative, Cox TV Online.

Cox is using thePlatform’s mpx video publishing system, expanding upon thePlatform’s history of managing Cox’s video for Cox.com since 2008. This unique implementation enables programming networks to maintain the integrity of embedded custom video players on Cox’s website, while providing Cox subscribers with a unified search and discovery experience.

“Cox is committed to delivering our customers the best online video experience,” said Steve Gorman, vice president, converged services and user experience. “We are very pleased to have thePlatform play a key role in Cox’s TV Online offering.”

“thePlatform developed a smart media management platform that allows each of our customers to approach ‘TV Everywhere’ initiatives in their own way,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “One of the exciting aspects of this deployment is the ability to present unified content search and discovery across a variety of programmers’ video players. With mpx, Cox subscribers can watch premium video instantly, while the business policies and financial obligations between Cox and programmers are maintained.”

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.

Microsoft and thePlatform Enable Delivery of Protected, High-Quality, Premium Online Video

thePlatform’s video management system, mpx, now integrates Microsoft PlayReady DRM and adaptive streaming technologies; first joint deployment with Xfinity TV Online

REDMOND, Wash., and SEATTLE — April 8, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. and thePlatform today announced that the companies have integrated Microsoft’s leading digital media technologies, including Microsoft PlayReady and Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming, into thePlatform’s mpx video management system. With this integration, premium video providers can deliver protected, high-definition (HD) Web video for both in-home and remote viewing experiences. The solution provides full offline and streaming capabilities across a broad ecosystem of devices spanning Windows-based PCs and Macs.

“Media companies and TV service providers are seeking protected, scalable, cross-platform solutions for publishing premium video,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing at thePlatform. “We’re very proud to work with Microsoft, which has established itself as a leader in the delivery of smooth, high-quality streaming and advanced content protection. Together, our integrated solution can offer our mutual customers a robust, high-quality viewing experience for their viewers around the world.”

“thePlatform is one of the leading online video management and publishing companies, and it offers us the ability to extend the reach of Microsoft technology to more network operators and content creators,” said Austen Mulinder, corporate vice president, Communications Sector at Microsoft. “At Microsoft, we seek out relationships with companies such as thePlatform to create opportunities for media and entertainment companies to innovate, differentiate and create new revenue streams and experiences across the PC, TV, phone and beyond.”

Bringing HD Media Experiences Online

By implementing IIS Smooth Streaming, a feature of IIS Media Services, thePlatform’s customers can present optimal experiences based on available network bandwidth and device capabilities. IIS Smooth Streaming is a form of dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP for delivering live and on-demand content that adjusts video quality automatically and scales massively on content distribution networks. It provides a high-quality viewing experience, which can lead to longer engagement times and makes possible the delivery of full HD 1080p media experiences. thePlatform is also using Transform Manager, which is a server-side transformation engine built into IIS Media Services, to streamline production workflow for content companies by enabling solutions such as encoding once and simultaneously delivering multiple formats.

Microsoft PlayReady DRM Technology Enables Seamless Access to Premium Content

Microsoft PlayReady technology is widely supported in the industry and draws on the experience gained from more than a decade of investment that Microsoft has made in the development of digital rights management (DRM) technology. By offering Microsoft PlayReady, thePlatform offers content protection technology for publishers on Windows-based PCs and Macs. thePlatform’s support of Microsoft PlayReady underscores its benefits as a flexible, reliable and scalable content protection technology.

Comcast’s Xfinity TV Online Adopts thePlatform and Microsoft Technology

Comcast Interactive Media LLC is the first company to combine Microsoft PlayReady and IIS Smooth Streaming technology with thePlatform’s video management services, as part of Comcast’s Xfinity® TV service, which is available online through the company’s popular Xfinity TV app. The technologies are integrated as part of the On Demand video streaming feature on the iPad.

“We’re always looking at technologies that will help us deliver high-quality, premium video to a broad range of IP-connected devices,” said Charlie Herrin, senior vice president of product development and technology for Comcast Interactive Media. “This new, integrated solution from Microsoft and thePlatform supports our ongoing efforts to deliver great entertainment experiences for our customers on all screens and devices.”

Additional information about thePlatform is available at http://www.thePlatform.com. Additional information about Microsoft is available at http://www.microsoft.com.

“TV Everywhere is Taking Over TV,” Marty Roberts, of Comcast’s thePlatform

Introduced in late 2009 by Comcast as a means for subcribers to get a selection of their cable offerings on PC’s and mobile devices, there are new, significant opportunities emerging around the technology.

According to Marty Roberts, VP of thePlatform, the Seattle-based Comcast unit, a leading onilne video platform company which is deeply involved with “TV Everywhere,” this will soon allow broadcasters to stream content directly to digital devices.

Read the rest of this article, and watch the interview on beet.tv.

Comcast Unit Shares Cisco’s Video Spotlight

Remember when Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) insisted that it would play nice with others when it comes to Videoscape, and that its new cloud-based platform wouldn’t give it license to get its Borg on and take over a service provider’s entire TV ecosystem? (See CES 2011: Cisco Wants Videoscape to Play Nice.)

That position is being taken to task in Cisco’s first-ever Videoscape deployment. Telstra Corp. Ltd. (ASX: TLS; NZK: TLS) of Australia has tapped thePlatform Inc. , Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)‘s media publishing unit, to provide the video-management layer for the operator’s newly expanded TV Everywhere (TVE) initiative.

Read the rest of the article here.

Telstra’s BigPond® TV Service to Use thePlatform As Cloud-Based Video Publishing System Across TVs, Set-Top Boxes, and Web

Telstra Customers to Benefit from Seamless Viewing Experience on Connected Devices

thePlatform’s mpx Video Management System to Manage Telstra’s BigPond Video for T-Box® Set-Top Box, Connected-TVs and Blu-ray players from LG Electronics and Samsung, and BigPond Web Portal

SEATTLE – Feb. 24, 2011 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, today announced that it was selected by Telstra to serve as the central video management system for Telstra’s BigPond TV service across IP-connected devices.

Telstra is using thePlatform’s mpx video management system to enable Australian consumers to easily access and enjoy high quality movies and television content across a broad range of devices.
With thePlatform providing a unified system for aggregating both linear and on-demand video from various content sources, formatting video content to different device specifications and centrally managing and publishing this content for multiple purposes, Telstra customers are able to effortlessly access and enjoy the highest quality content on the T-Box hybrid set-top box, connected-TVs and Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and the Web.

Furthermore, thePlatform’s solution will allow Telstra to continue to innovate its leading services over time as new business models, devices and consumer experiences evolve. The new multi-year deal significantly expands on a previous agreement between the two companies that was limited to BigPond’s Web-only movie service.

“BigPond TV gives Telstra customers across Australia the ability to watch a great range of content including sport, entertainment, movies and more on a wide range of devices and thePlatform’s mpx system provides us with the reliability, scalability, and flexibility that will help Telstra continue to deliver the next-generation of IPTV services to our customers,” Telstra’s Head of IPTV, Ben Kinealy said.

“Telstra is at the forefront of an emerging global trend among TV service providers,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Service providers are looking for a more efficient means to manage and deliver premium video content across any screen. One of the key differences when delivering IP video to the TV, rather than a computer, is that consumers will have a higher expectation for reliability and quality. So, we are extremely proud that Telstra has selected mpx to play such a central role in managing video for Telstra’s advanced set-top boxes and beyond.”

thePlatform’s mpx video management and publishing system enables Telstra to deliver a hybrid live/on-demand IPTV service featuring BigPond TV (music videos, sports and news) and BigPond Movies (including pay-per-view). Channels available on the BigPond TV service include BigPond News, BigPond Sport News, V8 Supercars (motor racing channel), BigPond Music, with more sports and racing content through TVN, AFL and NRL.

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.

The Multiplatform Vendor Bender

Multi-device delivery represents a major shift for manufacturers

By George Winslow — Broadcasting & Cable, 2/14/2011 12:00:00 AM

If the push to offer more content on more devices promises to fundamentally change the networks used by multichannel providers to deliver TV programming into the home, it is an even bigger deal for equipment and software vendors.

The deployment of TV Everywhere services opens up a huge new sales opportunity. But it could also significantly change the mix of products and equipment those vendors will be supplying, making software and cloud-based services more important and potentially reducing the central place that set-top boxes have long had in cable operations.

Read the rest of the article here.

thePlatform Selected by SKY Television for Video Publishing and Management of Online TV Service for SKY Subscribers in New Zealand

thePlatform’s mpx Video Management System Publishes Video to iSKY Online Portal

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.

Adobe and thePlatform Announce Alliance to Advance the Delivery of Premium Online Video Content

Companies Collaborate to Enhance Secure Video Management and Publishing Solutions for the Flash Platform

SAN JOSE, Calif. and SEATTLE, Wash. — Jan. 25, 2011 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and thePlatform today announced a new alliance aimed at providing enhanced solutions for the delivery of online and mobile content with secure video management and publishing services for media publishers utilizing the Adobe® Flash® Platform. As part of the alliance, the companies will integrate the power of thePlatform’s mpx video management system with the Adobe Flash Platform leveraging Adobe Flash Access software – a content protection and monetization solution for online video, HTTP Dynamic Streaming for expanded content delivery options, and a simplified video management interface providing a complete toolset to publish secure premium video online and to mobile devices.

“People are clamoring to watch content on their favorite device, whenever and wherever they want,” said Ian Blaine, chief executive officer, thePlatform. “However, media companies have to enforce content rights, business polices, and monetization models, while making it appear seamless to consumers. Adobe is a global leader in online video, and our new alliance will deliver a comprehensive set of tools to address the issues and opportunities facing our mutual customers.”

“At Adobe, we are committed to working with partners to develop solutions that enhance video workflows across a wide range of devices and platforms,” said Pritham Shetty, vice president of video solutions, Adobe. “The alliance with thePlatform, a leading video management and publishing services provider, is consistent with our strategy of helping video professionals extend the Flash Platform and make the most of their premium content.”

“The alliance of thePlatform and Adobe will result in a significant upgrade of the video management and distribution capabilities for our online video products,” said John Vartanian, chief technology officer, iN DEMAND. “With the addition of these cutting-edge technologies, iN DEMAND will be able to provide our affiliates with secure, high-quality streaming video delivery.”

Extending Video Workflows with Joint Collaborations

The top 10 video sites in the United States use Adobe Flash technology, making it the number one format for viewing video on the Web*. By leveraging thePlatform’s video management system, which serves numerous media companies and five of the largest TV service providers in the North America, publishers utilizing Flash Access can take advantage of new integrated features that provide a robust and flexible solution for protecting premium content that supports a variety of business models, including video-on-demand, subscription, electronic sell-through and rental. Integrated with HTTP dynamic streaming, this solution also enables an optimized user experience by adapting delivery to the available bandwidth.

For mobile publishing, the companies have collaborated to provide significant integration so users can have an easy-to-use experience on touch screen devices. Utilizing support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, thePlatform’s solution detects when consumers are accessing video from mobile devices running Google’s Android 2.2 “Froyo” and reconfigures thePlatform’s video player.

The joint collaboration also includes integration with thePlatform’s mpx video management and publishing system so customers can use the Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) with thePlatform’s Feeds Service to deliver video into various playback environments.

Additionally, thePlatform’s mpx video management console is built using Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 software and includes an Adobe AIR® client for file uploads allowing customers to upload, manage, and publish video with a simple and intuitive Web-based interface.

From CES: Wireless Video, Tablets, and TV Everywhere

LAS VEGAS – A clear message that anytime, anywhere video content is destined for delivery over multiple platforms, most notably smartphones and tablets, buzzed the halls during early sessions of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Buoyed by Cisco’s announcement of its five-part Videoscape media suite, which includes Media Gateway, IP set-top boxes, software clients, Media Suite and Conductor, panelists at three key sessions concluded that smartphones and tablets are gaining momentum as video delivery systems.

Read the rest of the article here.

TV Everywhere: more than one aggregation model

One of the major challenges for Pay TV operators today is to develop TV Everywhere services that provide their subscribers with access to programming online and especially on-demand. Two models have developed for how the video is aggregated online: one where a service provider ingests, aggregates, stores and plays out the content provided by its content partners, and the other where a programmer manages its own online video portal and subscribers are effectively referred to that site from the Pay TV operator.

Read the rest of the article here.

Marty Roberts talks Video Distribution with Light Reading’s Jeff Baumgartner

Read Marty’s comments on web video distribution in Light Reading’s latest piece, “Time Warner Cable Hints at Video CDN Plan”.

NEW ORLEANS — CTAM Summit 2010 — Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is developing a video-optimized content distribution network (CDN) that will store all the MSO’s on-demand content in two master locations before pushing titles out to regional and division locations.

Read the rest of this article here.

thePlatform Releases MPX - Improved video management system designed to handle more devices, content

Online video publishing company thePlatform has taken its mpx video management system out of beta testing and formally released it. The move is notable mpx will make it easier to deliver more content to more devices and because thePlatform, which is an independent subsidiary of Comcast, plays a key role in the TV Everywhere initiatives of a number of major MSOs.

Read the rest of the article here.

CED OPEN MIC - Lessons Learned from TV Everywhere Deployments

A glimpse at some of the most interesting lessons learned so far.

For nearly a year now, thePlatform has been supporting some of the largest TV Everywhere initiatives to date. In that time, we’ve encountered some surprising – as well as anticipated – challenges while helping our customers architect TV Everywhere. The following is a glimpse at some of the most interesting lessons learned so far in working with programmers and service providers to bring their TV Everywhere initiatives to market.

Read the rest of the article here.

thePlatform Unveils New Capabilities to Support Online Video Businesses

Enhancements to mpx Beta Publishing System Include New Tools for Creating and Managing Video Feeds, Advertising Policies, and Advanced Content Restrictions

Company Publishes New Security White Paper on Best-case Practices, Including Securing Content Assets Through the Entire Video Management Lifecycle, From Ingest to Playback

SEATTLE – Aug. 3, 2010 – Media companies and content owners face an expanding challenge trying to publish their video assets across multiple devices with varying rights restrictions and advertising obligations. Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, launched a suite of new features to enhance its customers’ ability to enforce video business policies, monetization models, and content restrictions using the company’s mpx Beta video management system.

Specifically, mpx Beta now includes new tools for creating and managing curated video feeds, integrated support for applying advertising policies, and additional capabilities to enforce viewing restrictions for TV shows, live events, movies, clips, and more. In addition, the company published a new security white paper on best- practices, including methods of securing content between storage and the CDN (content delivery network), and in various playback scenarios.

“Today’s fractured video environment requires content owners to juggle an expanding list of requirements to deliver and protect their assets,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing for thePlatform. “The new enhancements to mpx Beta provide our customers with robust, flexible, and secure tools to protect and monetize their growing premium video libraries across a multitude of devices and platforms.”

Introduced by thePlatform earlier this year, mpx Beta offers features to make managing large content libraries easier; versatile tools to enable more business models across an ever-expanding number of websites, mobile devices, and set-top-boxes; and a continuing commitment to enterprise class performance. The new enhancements to mpx Beta features include:

Curated Feeds Drive More Video Views

Feeds provide instant presentations of the playable content catalog, including metadata such as title, descriptions, and thumbnails. The new Feeds service in mpx Beta provides additional capabilities to give content owners more power and flexibility over how content is presented. Specifically, mpx Beta customers can set editorially and dynamic playlists within the feed. Customers can increase their video views by pinning popular content to the top of the playlist and promoting additional videos based on what’s new or a content category.

Customers using Feeds to syndicate their video to partners can also use mpx Beta to apply advertising policies and restrictions to all the content in the feed. This ensures the right ads are played for partners and that content delivery requests are limited to the syndication partner.

Advanced Restrictions

Many shows, especially sporting events, have specific, location-based viewing restrictions associated with them that content owners need to manage online in order to comply with content rights obligations. Previously, thePlatform enabled customers to set broad geo-restrictions, but the new mpx Beta enables customers to set much more granular policies.

For example, with mpx Beta customers can now restrict content viewing by country, region, metro code, city, area code, postal code, and set blackout areas for specific audiences within those regions. mpx Beta also gives customers the ability to restrict content by expiration date, referring domain, IP address, and keys. Customers can apply restrictions on content as a global account default, within feeds or on individual videos.

Integrated Advertising Policy Management

Advertising policies establish a set of rules, settings, and connections to advertising sources to ensure video content is monetized properly. mpx Beta enables customers to create and manage multiple advertising policies within the mpx Beta console, streamlining and simplifying the workflow.

With mpx Beta, customers can set policies to call primary and secondary (failover) advertising providers, providing access to a larger selection of ad inventory for any given show or video clip. mpx Beta enables customers to configure specific ad policy settings for advertising bumpers, pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and post-rolls. Customers can also use the console to set the number of ads to appear in any video, the frequency of ads, and whether users can skip ads or not. thePlatform’s new advertising policy management features are integrated with a wide variety of advertising company partners.

thePlatform also added additional capabilities to mpx Beta today, with full details available at www.thePlatform.com.

New Media Security White Paper

Concurrent with today’s announcement, thePlatform published a free, new white paper outlining best practices to secure content at both the media file and playback levels. The white paper discusses security considerations for storage, content delivery, feeds, URL tokens, availability windows, IP addresses, geo-restrictions, domain referrals, device identification, digital rights management (DRM), and entitlements.

Separately, thePlatform also announced today that it was selected by the Outdoor Channel to manage the programmer’s online video publishing efforts. Additional details about that announcement can be found here.

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.
In order to support the increasingly complex needs of customers to manage cross-platform video publishing, thePlatform provides robust customer support, including professional services, account management, and industry-leading 24/7 technical support.

thePlatform Selected by Outdoor Channel for Online Video Publishing

America’s Leader in Outdoor TV Utilizes thePlatform’s New mpx Beta System to Manage Video and Video Player Technology to Create Custom Viewing Experiences for Consumers on OutdoorChannel.com

SEATTLE – Aug. 3, 2010 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, announced that its mpx Beta video management system has been chosen to manage and publish online video for Outdoor Channel’s popular website, OutdoorChannel.com. In addition, the network is using thePlatform’s video player technology, including features for sharing video across social networks.

Outdoor Channel, America’s leader in outdoor TV, broadcasts prominent outdoor programs focused on hunting, fishing, shooting, off-roading, adventure, and conservation. The network is available through a multitude of cable, satellite and telco providers across the United States, reaching 36 million homes, according to Nielsen Media Research. OutdoorChannel.com, Outdoor Channel’s comprehensive online platform, is the premier digital destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering in-depth show and host pages, useful information on state hunting and fishing licenses and destinations, and an interactive community section where fans can connect and share their passion. The centerpiece of OutdoorChannel.com is a state-of-the-art broadband video player that enables users to watch an extensive library of thousands of videos – the majority in an HD viewing experience.

“Our website is an established community hub for our fans, where they can view clips of their favorite outdoor shows, like Savage Wild, Duck Commander, or Jim Zumbo Outdoors, and discover new shows, such as Buck Commander, Field & Stream’s Gun Nuts, and Dream Season Celebrity,” said Todd Merkow, president of digital media at Outdoor Channel. “OutdoorChannel.com is currently attracting approximately one million unique visitors per month. thePlatform’s proven video publishing system will provide us with a simpler, scalable and robust back-end to serve our viewers’ appetite for our authentic outdoor content.”

“Outdoor Channel is a recognized leader in creating and delivering video content for outdoor enthusiasts,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing at thePlatform. “mpx Beta will serve as an efficient online video platform as their content library grows and their audience increases.”

In addition to using thePlatform’s centralized video management system, mpx Beta, Outdoor Channel is also utilizing the social media capabilities of thePlatform’s video player. The player includes 10 integrations with leading social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, and provides Outdoor Channel with the flexibility to add more.

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.

Cross-Platform Apps Still Growing on the Vine

TV Everywhere is out of the starting blocks, but there are more miles to cover for cross-platform applications.

With the proliferation of TV Everywhere type services, phase one of cross-platform application development is well underway. Throw in mobile services and applications, such as this summer’s World Cup coverage, and there seems to be momentum building toward the “any content, anywhere, on any device” mantra we’ve been hearing about over the past few years.

Read the rest of the article here.

Full Length Shows: Shifting the Dynamics of Online Video Viewing

The popularity of user-generated video remains one of the most profound phenomena of the digital age — but not necessarily of the digital economy. Consumers are demanding, and media companies are providing, access to more premium video content online than ever before. After several years of experimentation, it’s clear that the real money in online video remains where it always has been historically — with professionally produced content created by leading media and entertainment companies.

Read the rest of Ian’s article here.

Why a cable subsidiary likes over-the-top

When thePlatform for Media Inc. announced recently that it was expanding its offerings to work with a number of over-the-top devices and services, the obvious question was: Why would a Comcast Corp. subsidiary support any kind of over-the-top delivery model?

Read the rest of the article here.

FierceIPTV eBook Report “The Promise and Problems of TV Everywhere”

TV Everywhere (TVE) is on every- body’s lips but in a lot fewer living rooms—at least officially—than might have been expected a year ago when Time Warner inc. and Comcast execs announced it was on its way. While pay- TV execs have excitedly talked about what it should be and what it could be, few operators have jumped feet-first into the fire, creating a void that content owners, programmers and even apple and Google are edging in on.

Read the rest of the report here.

thePlatform Expands Video Publishing Support for Wide Range of “Over-the-Top” Services

Enables Customers to Publish Video to IP-Connected Set-Top Boxes, TVs, Blu-ray Players and Online Services From Companies Including Boxee, DivX, Free Stream Media, Mitsubishi, LG, Roku, Samsung, Syabas, TiVo, Toshiba, VUDU, VIZIO and Others

Company to Provide Support for Google TV When New Service Launches

SEATTLE – June 23, 2010 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, announced today that its video publishing system can enable customers to publish video across a wider range of popular over-the-top (OTT) services and IP-connected set-top boxes, TVs and Blu-ray Players. With a decade of experience managing cross-platform video publishing initiatives for leading media and entertainment companies, thePlatform outlined its intent to help customers leverage the expanding number of IP-connected home entertainment systems, including the upcoming Google TV platform.

According to The Diffusion Group’s (TDG) report, Broadband-Enabled TV: Evolution of OTT Hardware Platforms, more than 360 million households worldwide will own the components necessary to enjoy OTT video services on their TVs by 2014 – across games consoles, Blu-ray Players, hybrid set-top boxes, Internet set-top boxes, media-centric PCs, and networked digital TVs. Today, thePlatform enables hundreds of media companies to publish and monetize billions of professionally produced video views annually across PCs, TVs and mobile phones. While the majority of the video managed by thePlatform is now delivered to PCs, thePlatform expects that mix to shift dramatically in the coming years with the advancement of more IP-connected devices in the home and more video-centric mobile devices.

“Media and entertainment companies are looking well beyond today’s PCs and conventional set-top-boxes to reach their audiences,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “At the end of the day, our customers produce and distribute compelling video that they want to monetize, and it’s our job to alleviate the complexity to make that happen across any device or platform. Our support for these OTT services is just the beginning, and we look forward to assisting our customers’ efforts across any number of next-generation, IP-connected devices.”

“Boxee’s mission is to create the best experience for enjoying TV shows, movies, and video from the Internet on a TV, no matter what the source,” said Avner Ronen, CEO and co-founder, Boxee. “This new relationship with thePlatform means that media and entertainment companies can now easily add Boxee as a distribution point to expand their audiences and generate more revenue from advertising and rentals/purchases.”

mpx Beta Publishing Profiles, Feeds Service, and Player Development Kit: Support for OTT

Unlike other video management systems, thePlatform’s mpx Beta allows customers to upload multiple media files simultaneously and easily distribute video to websites, mobile phones and other IP-connected devices with a few simple clicks. For example, thePlatform was the first online video publishing company to introduce a profile for the newly released Apple® iPad™ back in February of this year. Today, the company unveiled publishing profiles for several new OTT platforms and stated its readiness to support publishing profiles for Google TV when that service launches.

mpx Beta uses a unique and highly efficient, non-linear “publishing profile” approach that considers a video’s destination point first – in effect, reversing the common workflow for video publishing. Once configured, this “smart publishing” methodology automates the required steps for video management, including file creation, transcoding, thumbnail generation and more. In the end, this intuitive design eases video publishing requirements, simplifies the process, and makes the system more accessible to a broader set of users.

In addition, customers can use thePlatform’s Feeds Service to deliver video into various playback environments and thePlatform’s Player Development Kit (PDK) to build their own HTML5- or Flash-based experiences for consumers.

With today’s announcement, thePlatform has enabled premium video management and publishing to the following OTT services, catering to the varying software and hardware offerings by each:

• Boxee, Inc. (video service and upcoming Boxee Box by D-Link) with details at www.boxee.tv;
• DivX, Inc. (IP-connected consoles, TVs, Blu-ray Players and more) with details at www.divx.com;
• Free Stream Media Inc.’s FlingoTV™ (upcoming video service) with details at www.flingo.tv;
• Roku, Inc. (line of Roku players) with details at www.roku.com;
• Syabas Technologies (upcoming popbox) with details at www.popbox.com;
• TiVo Inc. (line of IP-connected boxes including the TiVo Premiere) with details at www.tivo.com;
• VUDU Inc. (line of VUDU-enabled TVs and Blu-ray Players from LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Toshiba, and VIZIO) with details at www.vudu.com.

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. In order to support the increasingly complex needs of customers to manage cross-platform video publishing, thePlatform provides robust customer support, including professional services, account management, and industry-leading 24/7 technical support.

Comcast Media Center and thePlatform Announce Validation of Their Online Video Publishing Capabilities in Preserving Nielsen’s Audio Watermarks

New Capability is Ideal for “TV Everywhere” Deployments by Cable Programmers and Television Service Providers

SEATTLE – May 20, 2010 – Comcast Media Center and thePlatform today announced that they have collaborated with Nielsen to validate that their online video publishing solutions successfully preserve Nielsen’s audio watermarks, allowing online publishing of premium, ad-supported video content. Nielsen’s ratings system uses these watermarks to measure audiences for both video programming and commercials. This system provides the C3 ratings, which are the basis for the majority of television advertising negotiations, and will be extended to video viewing on the Internet this fall. This validation is the next logical step in advancing longer-term efforts to provide multi-platform audience measurement for media and entertainment companies served by thePlatform and Comcast Media Center.

thePlatform’s mpx video management and publishing system will allow networks interested in participating in “TV Everywhere” initiatives to distribute their content online, so that Nielsen can measure eligible cable, telco, and satellite video customers who access video programming via the Web.

“The combined capabilities of thePlatform and the CMC represent a fast, seamless and effective means for television networks and their advertisers to measure the ‘TV Everywhere’ audience, which continues to grow as a result of consumer demand for shows they can watch both when and where they wish,” said Gary Traver, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Comcast Media Center.

“Media companies are now wholeheartedly embracing multi-platform video distribution, and they want to make sure that their viewers are counted in the C3 ratings,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Confirmation that the Nielsen watermarks flow through the CMC process is a critical step to realizing this cross-platform goal.”

For this initial implementation, thePlatform and CMC have developed a streamlined process to deliver national television shows to the Web:

• Using the CMC’s Content Distribution Operations Center, or “CDOC” ingest service, CMC first captures the national video feed of a programmer’s show.
• The CMC provides editing functions for its customers and transcodes the file into a format suitable for online viewing with the Nielsen audio watermark still intact. The CMC uploads the new Flash video file into the customer’s video management system.
• Customers can then publish their show to an online video player or website, using a video management system like thePlatform’s, which has been validated to preserve the Nielsen watermark.
• Depending on its customers’ strategy, thePlatform will provide the capability to replace this file as necessary to pursue other business models, such as online video advertising insertions.

Both companies will continue to work with Nielsen as it introduces the Extended Screen ratings program to the industry later this year.

For more information about this new online commercial measurement capability, visit www.thePlatform.com. For specific details about Comcast Media Center visit www.comcastmediacenter.com. For specific details about The Nielsen Company visit www.nielsen.com.

About Comcast Media Center

Denver-based Comcast Media Center (CMC), a subsidiary of Comcast Cable, provides centralized content management and distribution solutions for cable systems, video content providers and advertisers. More information about the CMC is available at www.comcastmediacenter.com.

Comcast and Comcast Media Center are trademarks or registered trademarks of Comcast. Other trade names used in this document are acknowledged to be the properties of their respective owners.

thePlatform Unveils New Social Media Player for Professional Video Sites and Content Owners

Enables online audiences of media companies to embed and share premium online video across leading social networks Lets consumers easily share clips or segments of premium video and maintains business relationships between content owners and advertisers Available to customers of thePlatform through Player Development Kit 4.2

SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO – March 3, 2010 – At the “TV of Tomorrow Show 2010” today in San Francisco, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, unveiled a new social media player enabling media companies to embed and share premium online video across leading social networks. In addition, thePlatform’s newest Player Development Kit (PDK 4.2) provides standard features that enable consumers to more easily share their favorite clips of premium online video, while preserving the financial obligations between content owners, advertisers and distributors.

“With the right tools in place, media companies can embrace the notion of consumers becoming the best distributors of their video,” said Ian Blaine, co-founder and CEO of thePlatform. “With our new Player Development Kit, audiences can clip and share a favorite portion of video with a few simple clicks. Historically, there has been some resistance from traditional media companies to fully empower consumers to share their videos across social networks because of the need to maintain some control over branding and monetization. Our video management system gives them this control. The advertisements can travel with their virally syndicated content, no matter where it has been embedded.”

Premium Video Goes Social

Customers who use thePlatform’s new PDK 4.2 will be able to place their entire video player experience – with all of its features, add-ins and components – into a single Adobe Flash file for embedding into social networks, blogs, and affiliate sites. Customers can immediately launch video players that are pre-integrated with 10 leading social media sites. Customers can also easily expand to more social media sites by using thePlatform’s fully documented APIs.

The pre-integrated social media sites include:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Digg
• reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Windows Live
• Yahoo! Buzz
• Vodpod

Users can also share video with simple e-mail-to-a-friend features, RSS feeds and embeddable links. In addition, thePlatform’s Community Toolkit enables consumers to comment, rate, tag and create favorites via their players. For Twitter, thePlatform has added additional features including support for automatically adding hash tags based on the video’s metadata and short URLs generation to simplify the experience for consumers.

The new social media player also lets consumers legally share specific sections of a video in a manner that preserves the financial obligations between content owners and advertisers.

“One of the most common types of messages when consumers Tweet or e-mail about an online video is to include a note like, ‘Watch what happens at 2 minutes into the video – it’s hilarious,’” continued Blaine. “Our new social media player provides a win-win for consumers and our customers. Consumers can embed and share the portion of the video that most interests them, but the content owner maintains the ability to show advertising and keep the integrity of the financial model.”

“There’s no question that sharing and other social media capabilities are becoming increasingly important features for video players, and that’s also true on AP’s Online Video Network,” said Bill Burke, global director, Online Video Products, Associated Press. “Right now, we’re building enhanced players for our 1500-affiliate network, and having these features as a standard part of thePlatform’s tool set means faster and less costly player development—a real long-term benefit.”

thePlatform Marks 10-Year Anniversary with Launch of mpx Beta: Next-Generation Video and Media Publishing System

thePlatform leverages 10-year history of technological leadership to launch industry’s most advanced, multi-screen video management platform

Two core products, mpx Beta and mpx Dev Kit, designed to deliver an unmatched combination of efficiency and scalability

SEATTLE – Feb. 2, 2010 – SEATTLE – Feb. 2, 2010 – For the past decade, thePlatform has been at the forefront of the online video industry, managing high profile, cross-platform initiatives for some the world’s most recognized media companies and brands. Today, concurrent with the company’s 10th anniversary, thePlatform launched mpx Beta, a radically re-engineered video management system designed to deliver an unmatched combination of efficiency and scalability for publishing online video. In addition, the company unveiled a complementary mpx Dev Kit for companies seeking to enhance and extend their online video platform capabilities.

mpx Beta includes an entirely new and intuitive console for managing video assets; dramatically simplified and faster processes to publish large video libraries across the Web, mobile devices, and set-top-boxes; and advanced personalization features. In addition, the new publishing system is built on a new service oriented architecture (SOA) that provides additional reliability and scalability.

“We’re resetting the bar today,” said Ian Blaine, co-founder and CEO of thePlatform. “Our job is to anticipate and provide solutions that enable our customers to evolve their video businesses in the years ahead. mpx represents the culmination of all of our learning over the past 10 years, and we’ve applied the full resources of the company to develop an easy, streamlined and robust new system to meet the increasingly complex needs of the market.”

Several of mpx Beta’s capabilities represent a marked departure from the conventional approaches traditionally used by “white-label” video service providers. For example, most online video platforms use a basic, linear process for managing and publishing video on an individual basis. While this standard approach was sufficient during the formative years of the online video industry, mpx Beta delivers more efficient and time-saving methods to serve companies with extensive video libraries, syndication requirements and increasingly complex needs.

Unlike other systems, mpx Beta allows customers to upload multiple media files simultaneously and easily distribute video to Web sites, mobile phones and other IP devices – including the newly released Apple iPad. mpx Beta also uses a new and highly efficient, non-linear “publishing profile” that considers a video’s destination point first – in effect, reversing the common workflow. This unique “smart publishing” methodology automates the required steps for video management, including file creation, transcoding, thumbnail generation and more. In the end, this intuitive design eases video publishing requirements, simplifies the process, and makes the system more accessible to a broader set of users.

“As the online on-demand video market matures, thePlatform is continuing to move with the times with the launch of mpx Beta and mpx Dev Kit,” said Adrian Drury, principal analyst, Media, Broadcast and Telecoms, Ovum. “mpx Beta delivers important user interface and content management enhancements that will help content owners and programmers respond to a growing number of channels and platforms, and enable a wider range of non-technical editors and service managers to use thePlatform’s ingest and publishing tools. As for the mpx Dev Kit, if there is a truth in the OVP market, it is that the technical and business requirements of no two media companies are the same. The Dev Kit makes thePlatform’\‘s 10 years of experience in this market available as a library of APIs, and this creates some exciting opportunities for process automation and service innovation. The premium Web video market is growing but the supply chain is becoming more complex. thePlatform is building on its heritage to provide an enhanced set of tools to meet this challenge.”

mpx Beta Features

mpx Beta enables customers to efficiently manage large video libraries more efficiently with personalized user workflows and smart publishing profiles for easy distribution to Web sites, mobile phones and IP-connected devices. Key features include:

• Increased efficiency. Editors and producers have new tools for previewing videos, assigning the requisite metadata to video files, adding business policies, and making publishing easy. Users can quickly upload multiple media files, apply new filter and search features to create specific views, and access files faster through a brand new console with an intuitive user interface (UI).
• Personalization features. Editors and producers can customize their video or media lists by adding/removing columns for quick assessment and sorting establish specific metadata schemas with configurable panels and custom fields, and save optimal system management views with a new shortcut tool.
• Smart publish profiles. Customers can easily distribute video to Web sites, mobile phones and other IP devices with a few clicks. New publishing profiles consider consumer endpoints first and automate the required steps-including file creation, transcoding, and thumbnail generation—for video delivery.

mpx Dev Kit Features

mpx Dev Kit offers programmatic capabilities to manage the complete video publishing lifecycle with standardized APIs, complete documentation and extensive code samples. It enables customers to access the underlying services of mpx Beta to extend its capabilities. Features include:

• Video lifecycle management. Customers can easily ingest media directly into the system through thePlatform’s Watch Folders, Feed Reader, and custom ingest adapters; access complete control over media objects, metadata, policies, advertising, and more; publish media with pre-configured publishing profiles to simplify media delivery to any outlet; and use notifications to receive immediate insight into the process.
• Standardized APIs. REST interfaces provide standard calls, including POST, GET, DELETE and PUT. Groovy scripts can be used to build custom ingest adapters, and Java clients make connecting to the mpx services easy.
• Complete documentation. Extensive documentation guides customers with step-by-step instructions, overviews of different services, and detailed code samples. Procedures cover each required service interaction to accomplish tasks, and code samples are provided to speed development time.

Underlying mpx Beta and the mpx Dev Kit is a new service-oriented architecture (SOA) in which each feature is created based upon its task within the larger whole, resulting in greater reliability and easier scalability for customers. Any media objects added, changed, or managed in thePlatform’s legacy media publishing system (mps) will seamlessly be reflected in mpx Beta, without additional system or service deployments. Customers can use mpx Beta with the wide variety of other online video tools offered by thePlatform (mps) and its ecosystem of partners. These services include optimized content delivery network (CDN) policies, advertising campaign system integration, support for all major video playback technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and others, reporting capabilities and more.

mpx Beta and mpx Dev Kit are being offered to existing customers at no additional charge, and additional features and capabilities will be added throughout the year. In addition, thePlatform provides robust customer support, including professional services, account management, and industry-leading 24/7 technical support.

Ten Years of Innovation and Service

“Ten years ago there were many questions about how video would be delivered, monetized and consumed,” said Blaine. “We formed our company on the premise that those questions would be answered differently by the individual customers we serve, and we built a platform designed to address them. Today, these same questions remain, but our ability to answer them has expanded dramatically. In 2010 and beyond, consumers will be watching more video with longer durations across an evolving ecosystem of devices. Our customers, in turn, want to reach larger audiences to drive revenues and increase brand loyalty. mpx will enable them to address this growing opportunity in the years ahead.”

thePlatform Simplifies “TV Everywhere” for Programmers

Company provides new features to enable consumers with TV subscriptions to watch more of their shows online

SEATTLE – Nov. 18, 2009 – Programming networks face an increasing number of technical options and requirements as they evaluate their “TV Everywhere” plans. Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, announced a new suite of features designed to enable programmers to provide “TV Everywhere” capabilities on their own Web sites, while preserving their financial and content rights arrangements with TV service providers.

“In a world where multiple service providers offer multiple subscription packages on multiple platforms, programmers need a simple, flexible solution that helps reduce complexity and meet the expectations of their service provider partners and consumers,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “This is a natural enhancement of a very successful business model between programmers and TV service providers. Consumers win because there will be far more online video than ever before, and both programmers and service providers win because they can extend their video to the Web in a secure manner.”

To date, most of the public discussion about “TV Everywhere” has focused on the “authentication” of subscribers, in other words, how a programmer’s Web site knows whether an individual consumer is a subscriber to a particular TV service provider. thePlatform’s solution addresses that challenge and then adds the capability to validate and authorize the playback of individual shows. In addition, the company supports adaptive content discovery and monetization policies to support various business policies between programmers and service providers, and offers a range of other tools to improve online viewing for consumers.

Authentication and Authorization

The initial challenge for programmers’ Web sites is to authenticate a consumer is a subscriber to a particular TV service provider. Complicating matters are the various back-end billing systems used by TV service providers. Today, thePlatform introduced a new Authentication Adapter service as part of its media publishing system (mps). The Authentication Adapter will act as a proxy that can authenticate consumers for programmers for the numerous TV service providers’ billing systems. With this adapter, thePlatform will manage the complex cross-referencing and interface required from the various companies involved.

Once a consumer is authenticated as a subscriber, programmers need a mechanism to authorize playback of each show based on the consumer’s subscription package. To accomplish this, thePlatform maps each individual video to each service provider’s channels. By connecting the consumer to a list of approved channel IDs and each video to its channel ID, thePlatform’s video management system can provide robust and flexible authorization tools necessary for “TV Everywhere” video playback. Within milliseconds, thePlaform’s system can verify alignment between the video, the TV service provider’s channel lineup, and the consumer’s subscription package; ensure that media rights associated with individual shows – such as airdates, geographic restrictions, and other business polices – are enforced; and re-verify that the consumer is still an active customer of the TV service provider. This approach will ensure that consumers can start watching their video instantly, while the business policies and financial obligations between programmers and service providers are maintained.

Adaptable Content Discovery and Monetization

Programmers also need flexibility when it comes to personalizing their video Web sites for consumers based on business arrangements with TV service providers. For example, if a consumer visits a programmer’s Web site and searches for a particular show that isn’t included in their TV subscription package, service providers have a choice of what to present to the consumer. These options include: constraining the search results to only those videos the consumer is allowed to watch; providing full search results with an up-sell opportunity to subscribe to a premium subscription package; or offering a pay-per-view option for that online show, similar to today’s TV video on demand (VOD) systems. thePlatform’s “TV Everywhere” solution serves as the source of standardized content access rules across service providers, providing programmers with the versatility to support these various scenarios.

In addition, thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) provides programmers with a wide variety of other online video tools, including comprehensive video management, optimized content delivery network (CDN) policies, advertising campaign system integration, support for all major video playback technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Move Networks, and others, reporting capabilities and more.

Media companies use thePlatform’s mps as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. thePlatform currently provides online video management services to four of the top five U.S. cable TV service providers, numerous programmers, and other leading media companies. thePlatform is also managing the back-end for Comcast’s On Demand Online trial in conjunction with numerous programming networks.

thePlatform Launches New Advertising Management Features to Simplify Revenue Generation from Online Video

Acudeo ad policy integration from Tremor Media provides simplified means to manage multiple advertising systems, and meet customers’ evolving needs

SEATTLE – Oct. 6, 2009 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, and Tremor Media, the leading online video media company, have partnered to introduce a new set of comprehensive advertising management features for online video as part of thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps). The new Acudeo ad policy and management tools are designed to help publishers increase their advertising revenue, while decreasing the complexity of managing a vast ecosystem of advertising partners.

With thePlatform’s newly integrated Acudeo ad policies, companies with premium online video sites can now manage advertising policies, patterns, formats, and delivery in a single, easy-to-use interface. The new features will serve established companies seeking to integrate multiple advertising networks, or companies building new video sites that want a high-degree of flexibility and adaptability.

“For many professional online video sites, managing advertising policies can be a major headache,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of marketing for thePlatform. “It’s often a very fragmented and complex process. Our new features, however, are specifically designed to simplify our customers’ lives so they can focus on how to best generate revenue for their video.”

“We are thrilled that thePlatform selected Acudeo as their ad management platform to empower publishers with a seamless solution for monetizing video inventory,” said Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Media. “Our expanded partnership with thePlatform further demonstrates the value Acudeo brings to the market and validates the need for a single-source inventory management and monetization solution for video publishers”.

Acudeo Ad Policies

Customers can take advantage of an intuitive and easy-to-use control panel to set up and execute video ad policies. The new features offer a comprehensive menu of advertising policy management benefits, including the ability to:

• Manage and prioritize advertising sources: Companies can integrate and optimize the performance of multiple ad networks in order to find the right mix that maximizes advertising revenue. Companies can also set up failover policies to ensure uninterrupted ad delivery.
• Set advertising patterns: Publishers can set the use of pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads, and add overlays, companions, and display banners. Ad timing can use chapter points in long-form videos or run ads before a variable number of short-form video plays.
• Control ad formats and ad playback: Ad operation teams can set IAB-compliant in-stream and overlay formats, define playback policies, and sync companion banner ads with ad streams.
• Incorporate new or evolving capabilities: Using Acudeo ad policies helps companies future-proof their ad platform, saving time and effort, by taking advantage of the system’s ever-evolving list of integrations and updates. In addition to Acudeo’s compatible ad source format, Acudeo is designed to support the Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) format as distributed by the IAB. Additionally, Acudeo is pre-integrated with major video ad networks, ad serving and video analytic technologies.

Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. Customers of thePlatform have the option to easily add the Tremor Media ad network as part of the new Acudeo ad policy management and monetization tools.

thePlatform Selected to Manage Online Video Efforts for Big Ten Network

thePlatform to manage two key online video initiatives for Big Ten Network

SEATTLE – Sept. 29, 2009 – Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video management company, announced that it has been selected to manage and publish online video for the Big Ten Network. Specifically, thePlatform will provide centralized back-end management support for two major video initiatives, one aimed at serving international audiences outside the U.S. and Canada, and the other serving domestic sports fans.

The Big Ten Network, a joint venture between Fox Cable Networks and subsidiaries of the Big Ten Conference, is the first nationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. For international fans, the Big Ten Network will utilize thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) to manage the Big Ten Network’s new international streaming package, the “Big Ten Ticket.” All televised Big Ten Network football and men’s basketball games will be available live and on-demand online to viewers living outside of the United States, Canada and the Caribbean on www.BigTenTicket.com. The Big Ten Network will televise between 35-40 football games and 105 regular season men’s basketball games, plus three Big Ten Tournament games, in 2009-10.

For North American audiences, thePlatform’s media publishing system will also support the Big Ten Network’s webcast of a wide-range of other sports video for the fans of the University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and University of Wisconsin.

“We are expanding our online video efforts to serve the fans of the Big Ten Network worldwide,” said Michael Calderon, director of new media for Big Ten Network. “thePlatform has a proven history of managing large and complex video offerings for many leading content companies, and we believe their system gives us the flexibility, scalability, and ability to monetize video in the way that we need.”

“The Big Ten Network is already the place for fans to stay connected to their favorite teams and sports content within millions of households across the US,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of marketing for thePlatform. “We’re very proud to have been chosen to help them deliver more of their incredible library of collegiate sports video to online audiences around the world.”

thePlatform publishes video, and other media, to PCs, mobile devices, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually.

Travel Channel Boards thePlatform for Online & Mobile Video

Popular travel site to utilize thePlatform to publish and syndicate video across the web and mobile

Seattle, Wash. – September 15 – Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video management company, announced that it has been selected by Travel Channel Media to manage and publish broadband video across both web and mobile destinations. Travel Channel Media is the premier channel for travel-related content, both on television and the web, serving an aggregated audience of more than 94 million U.S. cable homes and two million unique web visitors per month.

Travel Channel Media will utilize thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) to manage the distribution and playback of short form programming, including original video and clips from popular shows such as: Travel Channel’s Man v. Food, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Ghost Adventures, Samantha Brown’s Passport Series, and Dhani Tackles the Globe. In addition to broadband video publishing, thePlatform will also manage the network’s syndication efforts to third-party web destinations and mobile sites including: MSN Video, iTunes Podcast, YouTube, Comcast’s The Fan, as well as the mobile video services of Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint Nextel. Travel Channel Media is also utilizing thePlatform’s video player to create custom, interactive viewing experiences for their audiences.

“Due to the diverse viewing habits of our consumers, we want to broadly distribute our programs in order to reach the maximum number of viewers,” said Drew Frederick, Sr. Director, IT & Technology at Travel Channel Media. “We turned to thePlatform because of their vast experience in supporting wide spread syndication for online and mobile which allows us to quickly expand our advertising reach and grow our audience.”

“Travel Channel Media is widely viewed as one of the principal destinations for travel-related content, and we’re proud to support their broadband and mobile video efforts,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “As their publishing needs grew increasingly complex, we were able to step in and help them distribute their content widely, increasing their brand exposure and the number of opportunities to monetize their content library.”

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually.

About Travel Channel Media

Travel Channel Media is an integrated travel media business, and is wholly owned by Cox Communications, Inc., a leading multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company. Travel Channel Media includes: the Travel Channel television network, available in 94 million U.S. cable homes; Travel Channel HD™, the network’s high-definition simulcast; travelchannel.com, the network’s broadband travel hub; Travel Channel’s video-on-demand (VOD) and HD VOD offerings; its mobile content platform, Travel Channel GO™; World Hum (worldhum.com), a leading online travel blog; and FlightDeck™, an innovative content-sharing and advertising network for online publishers and advertisers.

thePlatform Adds More Than 20 New Companies to Its Partner Program for Online Video

New partners join thePlatform Framework from across the online video ecosystem including: advertising, content delivery, syndication, analytics, and more

SEATTLE – Sept. 10, 2009 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, today announced that more than 20 new companies have recently joined thePlatform Framework, the company’s extensive partner program. The vast majority of these newly integrated partner solutions are currently in production or trial with customers of thePlatform. With today’s announcement, thePlatform’s open media publishing system (mps) now has an even broader menu of pre-integrated service and technology choices to serve the professional online video market.

More than 80 companies now participate in thePlatform Framework, which spans the entire ecosystem of online video, including: advertising campaign management systems, ad sales networks, analytics and reporting, content delivery networks, content protection, media formats, transcoding engines, payment processors, syndication outlets, video search, and more.

“In an increasingly robust online video environment, media companies want the flexibility to integrate and test new technologies that best suit their business needs without worrying about compatibility issues,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of marketing for thePlatform. “Our role is to make online video publishing a seamless process for our customers and allow them to easily publish their content regardless of the technical requirements. thePlatform’s Framework is key to that strategy, and it enables our customers to work with a wide variety of best-in-class companies in the online video space.”

thePlatform publishes video, and other media, to PCs, mobile devices, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. thePlatform’s customers also benefit from a wide choice of pre-integrated partner services and technologies through thePlatform Framework.

thePlatform Framework gives technology companies full-featured software development kits, engineering support, training, and development sandboxes for a quick implementation. The recent additions to thePlatform Framework include companies in the following specialties:

Advertising and Monetization

• Auditude
• BrightRoll
• EyeWonder
• Google AdSense
• YuMe

Asset Management, Transport, and Protection

• Aspera
• Platformic

Community Creation

• Gloto

Content Delivery

• CDNetworks
• Nokeena Networks
• StreamGuys
• Velocix

Content Syndication and Discovery

• EveryZing
• Goodmail Systems
• Loomia
• The Filter
• Transpond

Mobile

• Azuki Systems
• Transpera

Reporting and Analytics

• MediaMorph
• TubeMogul
• Visible Measures
• Webtrends

Transcoding

• RadiantGrid Technologies

For more information, please visit our partner section.

TV Everywhere Accelerates As Solutions Prove Effective

Fred Dawson, Editor of ScreenPlays Magazine sat down with Marty Roberts, our VP of Marketing, to discuss TV Everywhere.

With Verizon and Time Warner Cable adding TV Everywhere trials to the one already underway at Comcast, early successes in overcoming complex challenges to execution are dramatically improving the prospects for pervasive availability of this new subscription TV service model in the not-too-distant-future.

Read the rest of the interview here.

thePlatform says Efficiency, Lower Cost, Partnerships are Keys to Success

Internet TV provider thePlatform has an advantage over its competition because it’s owned by Comcast.
But even with corporate ownership and first dibs on plum projects like TV Everywhere, the firm is still feeling the broader economic pressures like anyone else.

thePlatform Recognized by Seattle Business Monthly Magazine as One of the Best Companies to Work for

thePlatform ranked third among mid-sized companies on annual list of 100 top companies in Washington state

SEATTLE – June 26, 2009 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, today announced that it was named by Seattle Business Monthly as one of “Washington’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2009.” At a recognition dinner held last night in Seattle, thePlatform was selected as the third best mid-sized company to work for in 2009, out of hundreds of nominated companies in Washington state.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from Seattle Business Monthly,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “We continually strive to make thePlatform an engaging, fun, and rewarding place to work. As the online video industry grows, it’s clear that our success is dependent on hiring and retaining the best people available. We’re very committed to our employees, and extremely proud of the work they do everyday to serve both our customers and each other.”

“thePlatform’s strong performance in Seattle Business magazine’s 100 Best Companies To Work For competition reflects the strong culture that it has built to attract and retain talent,” said Leslie Helm, editor of Seattle Business magazine.

Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. As tracked by comScore Video Metrix, thePlatform’s clients had a combined total of more than 689 million video views in March of 2009. Customers include BBC, Cablevision, CBS College Sports, CNBC, Comcast, Corus Entertainment, Cox Communications, ExerciseTV, Gannett/USA Today, HIT Entertainment, PBS, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, Starz, Time Warner Cable and numerous others.

thePlatform Expands Initiatives to Lower Total Cost of Operating a Broadband Video Business with Ingest Service

Robust technology developed specifically for large media companies with extensive or dynamic online video libraries Media companies to use new service for fast and simple ingest of videos and associated metadata Expands on company’s recent efforts to lower delivery and storage costs for online video

SEATTLE – June 9, 2009 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, today introduced a new video Ingest Service as part of the company’s media publishing system (mps). Developed specifically to address the challenges of companies with large or dynamic video libraries, thePlatform’s new Ingest Service reduces the costs and complexity of publishing video online. This effort builds on similar cost-saving initiatives for small and mid-sized media companies through its new content delivery network (CDN) and storage services, which thePlatform introduced earlier this year.

The new Ingest Service gives customers an easy, versatile and automatic means to move video and metadata online and into thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps). The service addresses what thePlatform has found to be the three key criteria necessary to serve large media companies with best-in-class video ingest system capabilities. These include: 1) the ability to replace manual processes with an automatic means to upload new online video libraries; 2) constant monitoring of video files via “Watch Folders,” which enable video to be ingested from files placed in an FTP folder, and/or a Feed Reader, which enables Media RSS to automatically ingest content; and 3) the use of ingest adaptors that convert various proprietary metadata formats into the industry standard, Media RSS. Each of these capabilities is a part of thePlatform’s new service.

Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. As tracked by comScore Video Metrix, thePlatform’s clients had a combined total of more than 689 million video views in March of 2009. With thePlatform’s advanced technology and market scale, the company is able to leverage its collective assets to dramatically lower the cost of running online video businesses for its customers.

“For media companies that want to publish their programming quickly to consumers, the first critical bottleneck is ingesting that video content into a system that can deliver it,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Historically, this has been technologically difficult, time-intensive and expensive for many media companies. Our new Ingest Service helps remedy many of those issues.”

“Given the nature of the broadband video publishing, the larger the video libraries, the more they are constantly changing,” said Greg Ireland, research manager, Consumer Markets: Video, IDC. “Media companies with sizeable video content are looking to leading-edge technology and systems to enable the delivery of content to viewers, quickly and economically. The new Ingest Service is an important addition to thePlatform’s media publishing system and should bring efficiencies to the broadband video business.”

mpsManage Ingest

An optional service for customers of thePlatform’s mps, the mpsManage Ingest Service gives customers a fast and simple way to place videos and associated metadata into the system for distribution. Key features and benefits include:

• One-time, easy setup: thePlatform will work with each customer to define an ingest profile, which specifies the metadata formats and content requirements. Content is then automatically loaded into mps.

• Multiple ingest formats: Supported formats include addContent, Media RSS, CSV and XML. Additional format adaptors can be built to meet various needs.

• Workflow support: Companies can use their existing video feeds to ingest content or set up a Watch Folder and content is ingested automatically from other systems.

• Bulk upload: Large content libraries can be uploaded in bulk, and it will process the files and metadata appropriately.

• Error Check: Detailed error logging provides analysis on the ingest process.

Comcast’s Sam Schwartz Offers Some Insights Into OnDemand Online Authentication Plans

I’ve written a number of times over the last few months about the recently disclosed plans from Comcast and Time Warner to deliver cable programs online to their paying subscribers. In general I’m a big fan, as these plans offer the potential for users to watch cable shows online that are mostly available through in-home set-top boxes only today.

Read the rest of Will Richmond’s VideoNuze post here.

thePlatform Powers 4Kids Entertainment Web Video Programming Portal

Clips and full length programs of Chaotic: M’arrillian Invasion, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sonic X, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other popular programs now available at www.4Kids.TV and www.4kidsTV.com Video Portal

thePlatform discloses that more than 8% of its video views now come from kids’ programs; 141% Year-over-year growth in kids’ related video views

Seattle, Wash. – April 20, 2009 — thePlatform, the leading white-label video management company, today announced an agreement with 4Kids Entertainment to manage the publication and delivery of online video to the 4Kids Entertainment portal, www.4Kids.TV and the new video programming portal www.4KidsTV.com. 4Kids delivers popular content to online and broadcast audiences through its 4Kids destination sites 4kids.tv and 4KidsTV.com, in addition to TheCW4Kids Saturday morning programming block, including popular shows such as Chaotic: M’arrillian Invasion, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sonic X, Kirby, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 20 additional titles representing more than 1,000 full-length episodes.

As more parents and kids turn to the Internet for on-demand viewing of their favorite shows, thePlatform disclosed that children’s programming now represents more than eight percent of all the video views it manages on behalf of major media companies. Compared to this period last year, the collection of kids’ programming it delivers throughout its video management system has grown by 141% in the past year. 4Kids joins a number of the most popular children’s programmers including PBS KIDS Sprout, Hit Entertainment and Corus Entertainment that rely on thePlatform to publish and syndicate Web video.

“Online video is a great supplement to our traditional television business, and we view it as a tremendous growth opportunity,” said Mark Kirk, Vice President, Director of Interactive Operations, 4Kids Entertainment. “We turned to thePlatform because of their success in deploying, managing and driving views to many of the largest video portals on the Web, and their experience with this particular genre of content.”

“4Kids has a global reputation for professionally produced kids’ programming, including for the CW here in the U.S.,” said Marty Roberts, Vice President of Marketing, thePlatform. “Many of their viewers are kids and pre-teens that are growing up in an on-demand world – on TV and on the Web. We’re proud to serve as the video management system for 4Kids, and look forward to supporting their online initiatives.”

thePlatform publishes video, and other media, to PCs, mobile devices, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. thePlatform’s clients, as tracked by comScore, had a combined total of more than 559 million online video views in February of 2009.

Marty Roberts interviewed by ContentAgenda

How easy is it for TV to be everywhere?

Just how easy, or not, will it be to make something like Jeff Bewkes’ vision for TV Everywhere a reality? Depends on who you ask. Last week, I highlighted some comments by ExtendMedia’s new CEO Tom MacIssac describing the proposed global online authentication system for pay-TV subscribers as a potential quagmire of technical, logistical and political pitfalls. A few days later at Cable Show 2009, however, Bewkes himself blithely dismissed the problem, calling online authentication “not hard to do.”

Read the rest of this article here.

FierceOnlineVideo Leaders - Ian Blaine, CEO thePlatform

FierceOnlineVideo recently caught up with Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform, the Seattle, Wash.-based online video management and syndication platform. We talked about thePlatform’s progress in 2008, plans for 2009, and Blaine’s thoughts on the online video industry.

Read the rest of this article here.

thePlatform Introduces New Initiatives to Lower Total Cost of Running a Broadband Video Business

Chicago Sun-Times and others utilize new optional CDN and Storage services to lower costs. Company unveils discounts for select services from companies within thePlatform’s Advantage program

Seattle, Wash. – Feb 9, 2009 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, today introduced two new, optional services designed to reduce the overall cost of delivering broadband video for small and mid-sized media companies. Companies using thePlatform’s video management and publishing system can order content delivery network (CDN) and storage services directly through thePlatform at significantly lower rates. In addition, thePlatform introduced a new preferred pricing program that provides additional savings for customers who use services from select companies within thePlatform’s extensive partner program.

Media companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video views annually. thePlatform’s clients, as tracked by comScore, had a combined total of more than 440 million video views in December of 2008. Given the volume of video thePlatform manages, the company is able to leverage its collective purchasing power to dramatically lower the cost of delivery and storage.

“Effectively monetizing online video is one of the most discussed topics among media companies today,” said Greg Ireland, research manager of Consumer Video Markets, IDC. “While focus on revenue is necessary for growth, companies must also prioritize ways to lower costs in order to improve the economics of online video. Innovative cost-saving initiatives, like those thePlatform announced today, can help to drive efficiency and growth across the industry.”

“While we’re best known for serving some of the largest media companies in the world and providing maximum flexibility to our customers, we recognized that we could do more for smaller and mid-tier customers,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “By providing low-cost storage and delivery options, in addition to our core service, we estimate that mid-size customers delivering up to 500 thousand video views per month could save up to 32 percent on their total cost to deliver video to consumers.”

One of thePlatform’s initial customers to sign up for the new services is the Chicago Sun Times, one of the top 10 most-read daily newspapers in the United States. The paper’s Chicago Sun-Times News Group Online Network reaches over 3,425,000 unique monthly users.

“It is important to take advantage of efficient business models as we explore producing and delivering more online video content,” said Mark Roth, Director of Media Services, Chicago Sun-Times News Group. “With thePlatform’s new CDN and storage packages, we will lower our total costs, enabling us to focus on growth — without being restricted by fears of what could be prohibitive costs.”

mpsManage CDN & mpsManage Storage

The mpsManage Content Delivery Network (CDN) service provides flexible terms, distributed architecture, and technology that is specifically tuned for video delivery. mpsManage CDN features utility-based pricing with no long-term agreements or minimums required. In addition, the solution has been specifically customized for customer needs by offering Adobe Flash Media Server, progressive downloads, bandwidth throttling, load-balancing and digital media system security. Access points are available globally throughout the US, Europe and Asia. The mpsManage CDN services are made possible by a partnership with EdgeCast Networks.

mpsManage Storage provides flexible terms, enterprise-grade performance, dynamic access and utility-based pricing to simplify the process of hosting digital assets. As customers’ needs change, thePlatform’s new cloud-based storage offering scales dynamically to match the volume required.

thePlatform’s Advantage Program

Today, thePlatform also announced the Advantage pricing program that offers savings to customers who use services from companies within thePlatform’s extensive partner framework. Customers using thePlatform’s media management and publishing system can receive a 10 percent or greater discount on services such as advertising, reporting and analytics, and online community creation from a select group of partners:

• Panache – Ad-insertion platform for major media and entertainment companies, providing infrastructure for generating revenues as these companies move video to the Internet.
• BlackArrow -Multiplatform ad management for viewer-controlled video.
• TubeMogul – Audience and engagement data for syndicated videos managed by thePlatform.
• LiveRail – Online video advertising technology and optimization.
• ScanScout – Online video ad network with targeted ad insertion, scheduling, campaign management and reporting.
• Gloto – Brand-safe social media and user-generated content (UGC) services.
• Visible Measures – End-to-end reporting and analytics for online video advertising campaign measurement and effectiveness.

Puget Sound Business Journal: Help Wanted

“Despite the overall economic climate, the consumption of premium online video continues to grow, especially for our customers,” said thePlatform’s Ian Blaine, whose clients include news organizations such as The Associated Press, News Corp. and others.

Read the rest of this article in The Puget Sound Business Journal.

News Corp’s News Digital Media Turns to thePlatform to Power Australian News Operations

Agreement covers 50 major entertainment and news destinations including news.com.au, The Australian and Vogue.au.

Seattle, WA
January 20th, 2009

thePlatform, the leading white-label video management company, and News Digital Media, the online business of News’ Corporation’s Australian subsidiary News Limited, today announced that thePlatform will publish and manage online video across 50 News Digital Media properties, including news.com.au and major newspaper websites, including The Australian. The agreement also calls for thePlatform to provide broadband video publishing services to News Limited’s major magazine properties including Vogue.com.au and NotebookMagazine.com.au.

News Digital Media, one of Australia’s largest and most innovative digital media publishers, reaches nearly 10 million unique browsers each month through its digital media properties. In addition to managing and syndicating video among News Digital Media sites, thePlatform will also serve as the aggregation point for content from third party sources such as The Associated Press, Reuters and Sky News. News Digital Media joins a number of premier news sources, including The Associated Press and Gannett, that utilize thePlatform to manage and syndicate their broadband video.

“We chose thePlatform due to their extensive experience in supporting the digital operations of major news and media properties,” said Michael Lynch Video Technology Manager, News Digital Media. “With their system, we have standardized our video operations in order to quickly publish both our own and third-party news and entertainment content across our network.”

“Millions of people in Australia, and around the globe, turn to News Digital Media for breaking news and entertainment stories,” said Ian Blaine, CEO, thePlatform. “With our system, News Digital Media can introduce premium ad-supported video to their portfolio and syndicate stories throughout their properties in a matter of minutes.”

As part of its rollout, News Digital Media has incorporated a number of thePlatform’s technological capabilities to improve viral discovery, search and video views, including:

• Custom players: Using thePlatform’s Player Development Kit, many News Digital Media properties have created custom-branded players to match the look and feel of the host brand. These include News Limited mastheads The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Gold Coast Bulletin, and The Courier Mail, along with local news sites PerthNow and AdelaideNow.

• Search Engine Submission: thePlatform gives News Digital Media the ability to automatically submit video information to search engines, including Google. The pre-formatted feed submission improves discovery of content and saves video content producers significant time by enabling automatic site updates to be propagated throughout Google and other search engines.

• Community Toolkit: To encourage viral sharing of popular content, News Digital Media is taking advantage of thePlatform’s Community Toolkit to enable ratings, favorites, top viewed and top rated content.

NDM Sites Managed by thePlatform

News Digital Media Sites news.com.au truelocal.com.au CareerOne.com.au carsguide.com.au moshtix.com.au

Newspaper Properties dailytelegraph.com.au theaustralian.com.au heraldsun.com.au couriermail.com.au perthnow.com.au adelaidenow.com.au themercury.com.au

Magazine Properties vogue.com.au taste.com.au notebookmagazine.com overlander.com.au

thePlatform is the only white-label video management company that publishes media to the PC, mobile, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s open system as the central hub for managing and monetizing billions of professionally produced video views annually. Customers rely on thePlatform to design unique Internet TV channels and syndicate video to the most popular destinations. The company offers customers unmatched flexibility to tailor their business needs through the broadest set of integrated partners, including leading campaign systems, content delivery networks (CDNs), player technologies, syndication destinations, and more. Customers also benefit from 24/7 technical support and the ability to monetize their media businesses via advertising, subscriptions, or digital download services.

About News Digital Media

News Digital Media is one of Australia’s largest and most innovative digital media publishers. We are Australia’s first choice when it comes to online news, sport and weather. We are the place people go to for things that interest and matter to them.

News Digital Media is made up of 23 digital properties, purpose built to deliver 360 degree coverage of the lifestyle, needs and interests of our audience of Aspiring Australians – the people who work hard and actively spend to have the best possible lifestyles for themselves and their families.

Through news and entertainment at NEWS.com.au and the masthead sites of News Limited’s newspapers; search at truelocal.com.au, CareerOne.com.au or carsguide.com.au; access to the latest entertainment and music information at moshtix; corporate training at Learning Seat; or indulging a personal interest at vogue.com.au,notebookmagazine.com or overlander.com.au – News Digital Media has become part of life for Aspiring Australians. www.newsdigitalmedia.com.au

Online Video Viewership Explodes

By Linda Hardesty – Communications Technology, December 9, 2008

Cable viewers are watching large amounts of online video, even twice as much as video on demand (VOD), according to a recent survey.

“Video views exploded across the industry,” writes Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform and SVP, content publishing, for Comcast Interactive Media (CIM) in an end of year post on his Web site. Read the rest of this article.

Video Ads Hit Some Mobile Phones

By Todd Spangler — Multichannel News, 11/8/2008 11:06:00 AM

Ready for interactive, on-demand TV ads in the palm of your hand? Even if you are, your phone — or your wireless operator — may not be.

Mobile VOD ads have a long way to go before they’re a mainstay of the business, but operators and mobile publishers have been encouraged by early tests. Read the rest of this article.

Boston.TV Taps Azuki Systems and thePlatform to Deliver Optimized Mobile Video Experience

Premier Online Video Network Leveraging Azuki’s MashMedia Platform and thePlatform’s Media Publishing System to Extend Desktop Content to Mobile Devices

ACTON, MA, Nov 04, 2008

Boston.TV Taps Azuki Systems and thePlatform to Deliver Optimized Mobile Video ExperienceAzuki Systems, Inc., an innovator in the interactive mobile media technology market, today announced it is working with thePlatform, the leading white-labeled video management and publishing company, to extend Boston.TV’s desktop content to mobile devices, and enable the rapid and seamless socialization of rich mobile media. Boston.TV, Boston’s premier online video entertainment network, is leveraging Azuki’s MashMedia Platform and thePlatform’s Media Publishing System (mps) to build and sustain mobile community around Boston events, entertainment, sports, music, restaurants, arts, parties and more. Read the rest of this release here.

Contentonomics: Put Your Video On A Longer Leash

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
October 7, 2008 03:40 PM

Media companies should invest in describing their content with metadata, to make it discoverable and make it as easy as possible for consumers to engage with, experts suggest. Read the rest of the article.

thePlatform Manages 329 Million Premium Video Views in July

Third-largest volume of online video compared to leading U.S. Online Video Properties;

CEO Ian Blaine discusses concept of the ‘Long Leash’ and the intersection of social networking and online video during industry keynote at Contentonomics

Los Angeles and Seattle – October 7

Today, during a morning keynote at Contentonomics in Los Angeles, Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform, disclosed that thePlatform’s clients, as tracked by comScore’s Video Metrix, had a combined total of 329 million video views in July of 2008.

Compared to the leading U.S. online video properties, thePlatform’s volume of video ranks it third in terms of the amount of video the company manages. However, unlike Google (including YouTube) and Fox Interactive Media (including MySpace), which rank first and second respectively, the video managed by thePlatform is all premium video from leading media companies, nearly all of which is monetized through advertising.

“The question today isn’t how to monetize user generated video. That’s a tired subject, and it’s not a great business,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “The real question is how to make professional, high-quality video exhibit the same viral traits and success we’ve seen with user generated content, which will better serve the consumer and the content owners’ bottom line.”

The Long Leash

Blaine continued, “The biggest inhibitor to the viral growth of video on the Web is that media companies are reluctant to distribute their content broadly to destinations they can’t control. What content owners need is a ‘long leash’ to let their video run far and wide. With this long leash, media companies can still maintain control and monetize video wherever it lands.”

During his keynote today, Blaine discussed a broad range of ideas about the intersection of video and social networking. In addition, thePlatform showcased collaborative efforts with two other subsidiaries of Comcast Interactive Media, StreamSage and Plaxo. With StreamSage, the companies demonstrated how advanced metadata techniques can yield better search results and better viewing experiences for consumers. With Plaxo, Blaine was joined on stage by Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect of Plaxo, and the two demonstrated ways they are providing a “longer leash” that will enable media companies to share video across social networks, and across platforms like the PC, mobile phone, and television.

Additional information about Contentinople’s Contentonomics show can be found at here.

AP Selects New Technology Provider for Online Video Network

NEW YORK — The Associated Press has selected thePlatform, a Seattle-based video technology provider, to launch a more flexible, enhanced version of its Online Video Network, which distributes AP’s acclaimed video content to more than 2,000 newspaper, broadcast and other media Web sites throughout the U.S.

Rollout of the new technology platform, to be completed by December, will provide network affiliates with greater ability to showcase their own news video as well as to offer higher video quality for AP’s coverage of world events, which most recently included the Olympics in Beijing, the U.S. presidential campaign and the hurricanes that hit Haiti, Louisiana and Texas.

AP’s Online Video Network provides in-depth video reports specifically designed for viewing on the Internet. Brought to market in 2006, the network now reaches 61 million unduplicated unique visitors through its 2,100 affiliate sites.

The world’s largest news gathering organization, AP draws on its worldwide staff of journalists, a global network of news sources and a rich historical archive to create authoritative video clips of international and national events, entertainment, sports, and business news.

“We’ve been very aggressive in providing top stories and breaking news video coverage wherever it happens,” said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll. “For instance, we chased half a dozen hurricanes over Florida and the Gulf Coast and produced scores of video clips including first-person accounts, extensive raw video and live streaming. We also made available to OVN affiliates last week never-before-seen 1973 video on the release of John McCain when he was a North Vietnam prisoner of war.”

OVN’s technology platform, initially provided by Microsoft, will now be licensed from thePlatform, an industry leader in the broadband video management and publishing market, which is a subsidiary of Comcast. In addition to offering enhanced content, AP will offer network affiliates for the first time a fully embeddable video player for video destination pages. The new system will also support higher video quality.

“For perspective, this is easily one of the largest online video initiatives to occur in 2008,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “In many ways, it’s like launching thousands of individual video sites at the same time, and we’re very proud to help the AP provide broader video coverage to millions of viewers.”

“The new version of the network will make it easier for our affiliates to incorporate compelling news video on their Web sites,” said Jane Seagrave, AP’s senior vice president of Global Product Development. “As video becomes the storytelling medium of choice on the Internet, we’re improving the content as well as the technical environment.”

About the AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world, to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP.

About the Online Video Network
The AP Online Video Network is an ad-supported news video service that draws on the global news gathering resources of The Associated Press and its network of members and customers in the United States to provide video summaries of breaking news stories for Web sites.

On the Net: www.ap.org

Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720

thePlatform Teams with Largest Set of Advertising Technology Providers for Online Video

September 16, 2008 – SEATTLE

Earlier this year, thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, unveiled the industry’s largest collection of integrated partners for serving the professional online video market. Today, the company announced that it will bolster its roster of advertising integrations, with the additions of: 24/7 Real Media, Microsoft’s AdManager, DoubleClick In-Stream, Tremor Media, Kiptronic, and LiveRail.

More than 60 companies participate in thePlatform Framework, the company’s premier partner program, which spans the entire ecosystem of online video, including: advertising campaign management systems, ad sales networks, content delivery networks, content protection, media formats, transcoding engines, payment processors, syndication outlets and video search.

Prior to today’s expansion, companies participating in thePlatform Framework within the area of advertising and monetization, included: Adap.tv, BlackArrow, DoubleClick (DART), Lightningcast, Panache, PayPal, ScanScout, and SpotXchange. With the addition of these six new technologies, thePlatform now offers the industry’s largest set of advertising capabilities for online video.

“Media companies are demanding more choices and enhanced capabilities to support their advertising efforts in online video,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “As part of the open, video management system that we provide, customers want the ability to work with the best-in-class solutions providers in a seamless way. With the addition of leading solutions like 24/7 Real Media, Microsoft’s AdManager, DoubleClick In-Stream, Tremor Media, Kiptronic, and LiveRail, we now offer the largest set of advertising choices for online video in order to meet the diverse needs of media companies of all sizes.”

24/7 Real Media

“As media companies continue to offer more online video, their demands and that of their advertisers, are evolving in ways that benefit from 24/7 Real Media’s depth of support,” said Nicolle Pangis, Vice President, Product Management, Global Media and Technology of 24/7 Real Media, Inc. “Together with thePlatform’s video management and publishing system, we will be able to work on holistic solutions for our collective customers as they look to maximize the efficacy of their online advertising efforts.”

24/7 Real Media, Inc., a WPP company, empowers advertisers and publishers to engage their target audiences with greater precision, transparency and ROI. Using its award winning ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics platform, powerful search marketing technology and global network of specialized Web sites, the company provides robust advertising solutions for the growing online video market.

Microsoft’s AdManager

“Microsoft understands that ad revenue and inventory management are critical to online video publishers, and we are continuing to expand our world class online video advertising capabilities to keep ahead of customer demands,” said Geoffrey Coco, senior product manager, video, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions, Microsoft. By combining the capabilities of Microsoft’s AdManager and the video management expertise of thePlatform, Microsoft offers a compelling and comprehensive solution to our customers.”

With Microsoft’s AdManager, publishers can easily obtain campaign data and make optimization updates in real time, quickly discover trends, accurately forecast inventory, and precisely target audiences. Microsoft’s AdManager provides custom statistical dashboards, expanded custom reporting capabilities and unique visitor statistics, as well as an intuitive user interface.

DoubleClick In-Stream

“DoubleClick and thePlatform are aligned to meet the needs of our shared clients. We know that publishers care about efficiency and scale in their online advertising operations. Our integration with thePlatform’s media publishing system (mps) ensures that the video advertising workflow can be done in the same system that is already in place for display and rich media advertising. This streamlining helps publishers grow their business in online video,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo.

thePlatform’s mps sophisticated ad placement tools work with DART for Publishers and DoubleClick In-Stream. thePlatform’s integration with DoubleClick In-Stream helps video content owners dynamically insert ads into video playlists and measure ad viewing behavior. Its integration with DART for Publishers provides trafficking, targeting, forecasting and reporting on video advertising. Together, thePlatform and DoubleClick give publishers the tools to manage successful video advertising campaigns with efficiency and scale.

Tremor Media

“We’re pleased to work with thePlatform to serve the needs of its clients as they look to manage and monetize their video assets to create new, effective, high value revenue channels,” said Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Media.

Acudeo is the next generation Video Monetization Platform from Tremor Media, a leading online video advertising network. Acudeo solves the complexities involved with video ad delivery with a solution that offers the same ease and ad server compatibility that publishers are accustomed to for their banner advertising. Because publishers can schedule and dynamically deliver in-stream video and overlay ads from multiple ad sources through their existing ad server they can maximize their ad delivery opportunities and revenue.

Kiptronic Media Services Platform

“Major media publishers are embracing distributed media to build audience and maximize revenue. Kiptronic is pleased to be working with the thePlatform to serve the needs of our joint customers by making dynamic ad insertion into distributed media seamless to their publishing, distribution, and ad operations processes,” said Bill Loewenthal, President and CEO of Kiptronic. “Kiptronic provides the tools that major media publishers need to maximize the value of their assets and ensure their ads go wherever their content goes.”

Kiptronic’s Media Service Platform dynamically inserts video and audio ads into digital media for consumption on any device and application (web pages, iPhone ™ & iPod ™ mobile digital devices, Facebook widgets, applications such as Adobe ™ Media Player & iTunes ™, internet connected TVs, smartphones and PCs). Kiptronic’s technology is integrated into the leading CDNs and is compatible with leading ad serving platforms including DoubleClick’s DART for Publishers and Microsoft’s AdManager. Publishers can seamlessly activate Kiptronic without changing the publishing process.

LiveRail

“LiveRail delivers best of breed technology solutions to manage, optimize and track advertising within video content” said Mark Trefgarne, CEO of LiveRail. “By combining LiveRail advertising technologies with thePlatform’s industry leading publishing environment, publishers now have the ability to not only deliver and distribute their content efficiently, but to monetize it in a way that is simple, effective and measurable for their advertisers”.

LiveRail’s next-generation advertising technologies make it simple to manage, target, optimize and track online video advertising. Whether managing campaigns sold by your internal sales team, or optimizing ad-serving from multiples partners, ad networks and sources, LiveRail’s video-specific approach delivers powerful, streamlined solutions with native support for modern video ad formats such as pre-rolls and overlays, rich video-centric reporting, automated video asset encoding and tag-based targeting that works directly with thePlatform’s content tagging system.

Additional companies will join thePlatform’s partner program in the coming months. Technology companies interested in participating in thePlatform Framework and utilizing its open application programming interface (API) should visit www.thePlatform.com.

thePlatform is the only white-label video management company that publishes media to the PC, mobile, and TV. Media companies use thePlatform’s open system as the central hub for managing and monetizing billions of professionally produced video views annually. Customers rely on thePlatform to design unique Internet TV channels and syndicate video to the most popular destinations. The company offers customers unmatched flexibility to tailor their business needs through the broadest set of integrated partners, including leading campaign systems, content delivery networks (CDNs), player technologies, syndication destinations, and more. Customers also benefit from 24/7 technical support and the ability to monetize their media businesses via advertising, subscriptions, or digital download services.

Upcoming TV Week Webinar

On Tuesday, September 30, TV Week and thePlatform will present a free webinar entitled “Getting Smart About Broadband Video Advertising.” The webinar will discuss lessons learned by large and small broadband video providers and cover a wide range of topics to optimize advertising for online video. Presenters include Mark Larkin, VP Programming, CNET TV; Chris Moise, CEO, MyOutdoorTV; Marty Roberts, VP Marketing, thePlatform and will be moderated by Chuck Ross, VP/Publisher and Editorial Director, TV Week. To register for the free webinar, visit our Events page.

The Great Web/TV Gamble

thePlatform’s Marty Roberts discusses online video with The Bridge

Will the Web cannibalize TV? Or will TV triumph, using the Web and its ancillary services as handmaidens to help grow audiences? Will platforms and programmers as we know them devolve into a free-for all whatever-whenever-wherever a la carte universe? And most important of all …

Read the rest of Evie Haskell’s story here.

Comcast Unit Cuts Web Deals

thePlatform Agrees To Manage Video For Cable Operators

A unit of cable giant Comcast Corp., an emerging player in Internet video, has cut a series of deals to handle online video for three other major cable operators.

The Seattle-based subsidiary of Comcast, thePlatform, has reached deals to deliver video to Web sites aimed at subscribers to the high-speed Internet services of Time Warner Cable Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. Cable operators are increasingly seeking to become destinations for online video, as consumers spend more time watching television shows, movies and other clips that they download from Apple Inc.‘s iTunes, Google Inc.‘s YouTube and other Internet sources.

Read the rest of the Wall Street Journal Article here. (Subscription required.)

Time Warner Cable and thePlatform Announce Online Video Publishing Agreement

New York, NY and Seattle, WA

Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC), the second-largest cable operator in the US, and thePlatform, the leading broadband video management and publishing company, today announced that thePlatform will serve as the central backend video management system for Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner portal.

Under terms of the agreement, thePlatform will aggregate and publish video content and associated advertising for the popular website. In addition, Time Warner Cable will have access to thePlatform’s media player tools in order to create unique video channels and playback experiences for consumers. Road Runner currently offers a wide range of video content from a number of marquee content companies and programmers including: CNN, HBO, Music Choice, and Showtime.

“Part of our core mission is to provide robust and compelling video experiences for consumers, whether in front of their TVs or PCs,” said Peter Stern, Chief Strategy Officer for Time Warner Cable. “As online video continues to grow in popularity on Road Runner, we need an efficient and proven way to continue meeting the growing demand. We’re working with thePlatform because of their versatility and ability to create solutions uniquely tailored to our needs.”

“Time Warner Cable is one of the most creative and forward-thinking companies in the video arena today,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “They have built a great consumer portal with content from a number of premier sources, and we’re pleased to play a role in their efforts. By removing much of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ technical complexity, we will enable them to focus their time on providing new and enhanced viewing experiences for consumers.”

Hundreds of companies use thePlatform to manage billions of video plays every year. thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets, and create unique broadband video players.

In addition to Time Warner Cable, thePlatform provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands including: BBC, Corus Entertainment, CBS’s College Sports TV, CNBC, Comcast, Gannett/USA Today, Fancast.com, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, The Hearst Corporation, Verizon Wireless, Vongo and numerous other media companies.

thePlatform Manages More than 270M Video Views in May per comScore

Seattle, WA

thePlatform disclosed today that its collective clients, as tracked by comScore Video Metrix, provided a combined total of more than 270 million video views to consumers in the month of May of 2008. For comparison in terms of volume, this means that if thePlatform was a consumer video website, the company would rank fourth (4th) on comScore Video Metrix’s list of top 10 online video properties in May. Unlike much of the user-generated video on the top video sites; however, the video managed by thePlatform is predominately professionally-produced content from media companies that is being monetized through advertising and other methods. A listing of comScore’s top 10 online video properties for May can be found here.

Chirp Interactive Joins thePlatform

thePlatform Begins New Initiatives in Silicon Valley

SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2008 –

thePlatform, the leading broadband video management and publishing company, today announced that it has acquired assets from San Francisco-based Chirp Interactive, Inc., a provider of social media applications. thePlatform will have access to key Chirp assets and Chirp’s technical development resources as select personnel will become employees of thePlatform. In addition, thePlatform announced that it is now actively investigating ways to attract technical talent from Silicon Valley, including opening a branch office.

Chirp has launched internet applications that combined social networking with media consumption capabilities. While thePlatform disclosed that it will not continue Chirp’s services moving forward, the company said that it will build new community and content discovery features into its media publishing system, leveraging the expertise of Chirp’s core product development team.

“Chirp’s team has proven expertise in designing rich media applications that integrate with social networking sites, and we look forward to leveraging their team’s talent to enhance online video services for our customers,” said Ian Blaine, CEO and co-founder of thePlatform. “As the market for online video continues to grow, we’re also pleased to begin a more concerted effort in the Bay Area to draw upon the region’s immense technical talent.”

Hundreds of companies use thePlatform to manage billions of video plays every year. thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets, and create unique broadband video players.

thePlatform provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands including: BBC, Corus Entertainment, CBS’s College Sports TV, CNBC, Comcast, Gannett/USA Today, Fancast.com, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, The Hearst Corporation, Verizon Wireless, Vongo and numerous other media companies.

Ian Blaine talks about thePlatform and PBS

In this short interview with Beet.TV, thePlatform CEO’s Ian Blaine covers a lot of ground. Find out why we saw potential in the broadband video market years ago, get an overview of what we do and how we work with delivery partners, and how we help broadband video businesses like syndicators manage and publish their media.

PBS Selects thePlatform for Nationwide Online Programming

PBS to dramatically increase online video; thePlatform to publish online video for PBS’ national shows and local PBS stations

SEATTLE, WA / PALM DESERT, CA — MAY 13, 2008

PBS announced today that it has chosen thePlatform to power its new online video initiative that will significantly increase the amount of PBS video available on both pbs.org and local PBS station Web sites.

PBS will use thePlatform, the leading broadband video management and publishing company, to publish and manage its national broadband video programming on its Web sites, including pbs.org, pbskids.org, pbsparents.org and pbsteachers.org. The agreement also allows PBS to enable online video distribution of national programming to PBS member stations and their respective Web sites. In addition, local PBS stations will have access to thePlatform’s publishing system and video player technology to publish locally produced content to their individual Web sites and to make it available to other local PBS stations. The announcement was made by Jason Seiken, PBS Sr. VP, Interactive, at PBS’ annual Showcase meeting in Palm Desert, Calif.

“We’ve already rolled out hundreds of hours of video on pbs.org, and it’s proven to be tremendously popular, as shown by the 1.2 million streams of the recent FRONTLINE program ‘Bush’s War,’” said Seiken. “Using thePlatform’s technology will allow us to execute on our far-reaching video strategy and considerably increase online video on both pbs.org and local PBS station Web sites.”

“PBS has a proud history of offering important, high-quality programming across the country,” said Ian Blaine, CEO, thePlatform. “We’re very proud to be serving as the back-end publishing system for their broadband initiatives and look forward to helping local and national PBS audiences enjoy newly available broadband video.”

Hundreds of companies use thePlatform to manage billions of video plays every year. thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets and create unique broadband video players.

In addition to PBS, thePlatform provides online video publishing and management for a host of well-known consumer brands including: BBC, Corus Entertainment, CBS College Sports, CNBC, Comcast, Gannett/USA Today, Fancast.com, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, The Hearst Corporation, Verizon Wireless, Vongo and numerous other media companies.

For more information, visit theplatform.com or www.pbs.org.

CelebTV.com Partners with thePlatform to Improve Online Video News Delivery and Management

New Media Publishing System Will Assist Online Video Management, Advertising Insertion and Syndication

LOS ANGELES and SEATTLE, April 8, 2008

CelebTV.com and thePlatform today announced a partnership to manage and publish video and associated advertising on the CelebTV.com site and help to efficiently syndicate television-quality video content to CelebTV’s premiere broadband partners such as AOL Video, Comcast.net, iTunes, and YouTube.

“As demand for our entertainment video news has grown, we needed a more flexible and scalable back-end system that could grow with us,” said Dana Golden, Vice President and General Manager of CelebTV.com. “Our content is increasingly viewed on leading websites around the world, and thePlatform gives us a simple and efficient means to publish and syndicate video to those sites.”

Since launching in February of 2007, CelebTV.com has quickly become a top destination for breaking celebrity news. Viewers have watched more than 350 million on-demand videos, which include 12-14 two-minute segments offered each day. CelebTV.com uses close-up camera angles and enhanced graphics to maximize the viewing experience on a smaller screen.

“CelebTV.com is a powerhouse in the celebrity TV news genre, and we’re very pleased to assist them as they expand their reach across the web,” said Marty Roberts, VP of Marketing for thePlatform. “Whether managing their online video and digital advertising assets or utilizing the existing technical integrations we already have with their distribution partners, we’re committed to helping CelebTV.com continue its impressive growth.”

thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets and create unique broadband video players. Hundreds of professional media companies use thePlatform for their online and mobile video needs, handling billions of videos requested by consumers every year.

In addition to CelebTV.com, thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands including: BBC, Corus Entertainment, CNBC, CBS’s College Sports TV, Comcast, Gannett, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, The Hearst Corporation, Verizon Wireless, Vongo, and numerous others. Media companies interested in publishing or syndicating their video across the web and mobile phones should visit www.thePlatform.com.

thePlatform Teams Up with Corus Entertainment for Broadband Video

Seattle, February 13, 2008

thePlatform, the leading broadband video management and publishing company, today announced an agreement with Corus Entertainment to deliver broadband video through a number of Corus’ entertainment portals. Corus is a leading Canadian-based media and entertainment company with various holdings in specialty television. With this deal, thePlatform provides broadband video management support for TreehouseTV (http://treehousetv.com), Canada’s only national TV network for preschoolers; YTV (http://ytv.com), Canada’s leading youth network; and WNetwork (http://www.wnetwork.com), the number one specialty network for women.

In addition to managing Corus’ online video across their branded websites and aggregating content from outside providers, thePlatform is syndicating Corus’ original programming to other destination sites. Also, Corus is using thePlatform’s mpsPresent Player Development Kit to develop and deploy custom Flash-based players across each of their entertainment portals. Clips and full-length programs of popular Corus video are now generating more than 4 million views per month through thePlatform system.

“Corus continues to innovate and develop its online destinations, and has now deployed a number of successful online video destinations,” said Marty Roberts, Vice President of Marketing, thePlatform. “We’re pleased that by using thePlatform, they are able to easily manage, syndicate and monetize their online assets.”

In addition to Corus, thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands including: BBC, CNBC, CBS’s College Sports TV, Comcast, Gannett, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony BMG, The Hearst Corporation, Verizon Wireless, Vongo, and numerous others.

thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets and create unique broadband video players. Hundreds of professional media companies use thePlatform for their online and mobile video needs, handling billions of videos requested by consumers every year.

Media companies interested in publishing or syndicating their video across the web and mobile phones should contact us here.

thePlatform Unveils Largest Ecosystem of Partners and Open Approach for Online Video Publishing

SEATTLE – February 6, 2008

As the market for professionally produced online video has matured, so too has the need for media companies to incorporate highly flexible, open and robust methods that help them keep pace. Today, thePlatform, the leading broadband video management and publishing company, announced the broadband video industry’s largest collection of pre-integrated partner technologies and an open approach for assisting media companies with their online and mobile video initiatives.

thePlatform’s customers benefit from the widest choice of pre-integrated partner services and technologies to support their unique business needs. Companies participating in thePlatform Framework, the company’s premier partner program, span the entire ecosystem of online video, including: advertising campaign management systems, ad sales networks, content delivery networks, content protection, media formats, transcoding engines, payment processors, syndication outlets and video search. In addition, customers can easily use their own in-house digital asset management system, customer relationship management and other back-office applications in conjunction with thePlatform’s system.

“Every media company has its own unique vision for online video, and they are becoming less tolerant of technology constraints or specialized vendors that inhibit their growth or agility,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Our customers want the ability to trial new technology and choose the best vendors without dramatically impacting their operations. thePlatform framework addresses this need with a robust menu of pre-integrated solutions that give them flexibility to easily create the optimal solution. No other broadband video management company has our open approach to partners or proven history in the space.”

“thePlatform and Cisco are collaborating on the creation and deployment of streamlined web-video management, distribution and delivery platforms enabled by the Cisco Content Delivery System,” said Paul Bosco, Cisco vice president and general manager of video and broadband initiatives. “We are also focused on convergent platform extensions supporting the fusion of web, television and user-generated content built around the consumer media experience across the growing number of wired, wireless and mobile devices in our lives. We welcome the opportunity to be a founding member of thePlatform’s ecosystem program and to continue our engagements with innovative customers worldwide.”

The Ecosystem
thePlatform Framework gives technology companies full-featured software development kits, engineering support, training, and development sandboxes for a quick implementation. Companies participating in thePlatform Framework include:

Advertising & Monetization

• Adap.TV
• BlackArrow
• CSG Systems
• DoubleClick
• Lightningcast
• Panache
• PayPal
• ScanScout
• SpotXchange

Content Delivery

• Akamai
• BitGravity
• Cisco Systems
• Edgecast Networks
• GridNetworks
• Highwinds
• Internap
• Limelight Networks
• MediaMelon
• OnStream Media

Playback Experience

• Apple Corp.
• Adobe Systems
• Microsoft Corp.
• Move Networks

Transcoding

• Digital Rapids
• On2
• Rhozet
• RipCode
• Telestream

Content Syndication

• AT&T
• Clearspring
• Comcast.net
• GoTV
• iTunes Podcasts
• MobiTV
• MSN Video
• Sprint
• Verizon Wireless
• Yahoo
• YouTube

Professional Services

• Ascertane
• Cypress Consulting
• Genex
• Online Video Service
• Schematic

Digital Asset Management

• ClearStory Systems
• North Plains Systems

Content Protection

• Microsoft Corp.
• Widevine Technologies

Additional companies will join the partner program in the coming months. Technology companies interested in participating in thePlatform Framework and utilizing its application programming interface (API) should visit www.thePlatform.com.

thePlatform’s system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform’s services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets and create unique broadband video players. Hundreds of professional media companies use thePlatform for their online and mobile video needs, handling billions of videos requested by consumers every year.

Media companies interested in publishing or syndicating their video across the web and mobile phones email us here.

ExerciseTV Advances Online Fitness with thePlatform

LOS ANGELES and SEATTLE, January 14, 2008

ExerciseTV, the first comprehensive on-demand network dedicated to fitness, sports training and motivational programming, today announced it has partnered with thePlatform, a leading “white-label” broadband video publishing company, to grow and expand the video offerings on its fitness destination site (http://exercisetv.tv). thePlatform is working with ExerciseTV to publish free web video workouts, clips, and download-to-own fitness titles in support of the fitness network’s online storefront.

ExerciseTV boasts over 5 million views a month for its television on-demand offering and is one of the only places online where consumers can purchase and then download workouts to their PCs, iPODs and other portable video devices. Overall, thePlatform is handling the publishing and management of ExerciseTV’s original library of over 200 download-to-own fitness titles featuring many of the nation’s most popular trainers. The partnership will help ExerciseTV expand its viewership by syndicating the programmer’s original content to other destination sites. In addition, ExerciseTV has customized the look and feel of the site’s Flash-based players using thePlatform’s mpsPresent Player Development Kit.

“Our online site has been a springboard for us, helping us to create new business models and avenues that make ExerciseTV programming available to more people, in more formats,” said Chris Mansolillo, General Manager of ExerciseTV. “We chose to work with thePlatform because of their holistic approach to the online video ecosystem and their broad range of functionalities. The collaboration has introduced our fitness programming to new audiences that exercise in their own homes and also to those who want to workout on the go.”

“ExerciseTV is a perfect example of how an online video presence can result in a successful multi-device media play that creates new revenue models and broadens the target audience,” said Marty Roberts, VP of Marketing, thePlatform. “As ExerciseTV expands their site to include more videos and features, the system will be able to grow with them and our open standards will position them to easily take advantage of the very latest technology developments.”

thePlatform manages the entire logistics process involved in the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. thePlatform’s open system integrates with technology providers that span the online video ecosystem, giving media companies the maximum flexibility to design solutions unique to their needs. Customers of thePlatform benefit from a choice of pre-integrated partner technologies, including advertising campaign management and billing systems, content delivery networks (CDNs), digital rights management (DRM), video formats, video player technologies and more.

thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands, including: BBC, CNBC, CBS’s College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, Gannett, Hearst, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS KIDS Sprout, Sony/BMG Music, Vongo, Telstra, Verizon Wireless and dozens of other companies.

About ExerciseTV
ExerciseTV is a multi-platform, on-demand media company dedicated to fitness, motivational programming and sports training. The video-on-demand (VOD) television network, which launched in January 2006, is currently available in more than 23 million homes in the United States via Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bresnan Communications. ExerciseTV is the first VOD network to offer advertisers the opportunity to seamlessly integrate their messages into the network’s programming. Online, www.exercisetv.tv is the premiere destination where hundreds of titles from the world’s best fitness professionals can be downloaded for use on a personal computer or portable device. ExerciseTV was founded by Jake Steinfeld of “Body by Jake,” and developed by Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. ExerciseTV is managed by Comcast, with New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc., and Time Warner Cable acting as additional equity partners. For more information, please visit www.exercisetv.tv.

thePlatform’s Blaine Talks Shop

December 14th, 2007

Frank Smith at Contentinople recently caught up with our CEO Ian Blaine, and Ian relayed his views on the NBC/iTunes distribution agreement, content providers’ broadband challenges, emerging online video standards, and other broadband video topics.

thePlatform Appoints Two Executives to VP Posts

SEATTLE, December 3, 2007

thePlatform, a leading “white-label” broadband video publishing company, announced today that it has promoted two executives from within the company’s ranks to VP posts. Alex Glass will assume the role of Vice President, Operations and Marty Roberts has been appointed Vice President of Marketing.

In his new position as VP of Operations, Alex will manage the entire lifecycle of thePlatform’s systems and networks, working to constantly improve the reliability and scalability of the company’s services. As VP of Marketing, Marty will lead the company’s marketing team and overall communications strategies, formulate messaging, launch new products and drive overall awareness of thePlatform’s brand.

“Both Alex and Marty have been valuable assets to our team and have helped us achieve our success in the broadband video market,” said Ian Blaine CEO of thePlatform. “Over the last year, thePlatform has seen a tremendous amount of growth and has signed a number of marquee customers, and we feel confident that Marty’s and Alex’s experience will benefit us as we continue to introduce new products and expand our customer base.”

Before becoming the VP of Operations, Alex Glass worked with thePlatform as a Solutions Architect, the Director of Customer Service, and the VP of Client Services. Prior to joining thePlatform, Alex was with Digeo, Inc. where he worked as both a Project and Program Manager responsible for the deployment of an interactive television personal video recorder.

Before joining thePlatform, Marty Roberts held product management and marketing roles at RealNetworks and at GiftCertificates.com. During his 10 years of experience, he developed strategies, built relationships with development organizations and created new products and services that increased the customer base and profitability of both companies. Marty joined thePlatform in 2006 as Director of Marketing.

thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands, including: BBC, CNBC, CBS’ College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, Gannett, Hearst, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS KIDS Sprout, PRIMEDIA, Scripps, Sony/BMG Music, Vongo, Telstra, Verizon Wireless and dozens of other companies.

Press Contact:
Stacy Oaksmith, JLM Partners for thePlatform, stacy@jlmpartners.com, 206-381-3600

thePlatform Chosen by Gannett for Online Video Syndication & Management

Seattle, November 27, 2007

thePlatform, a leading “white-label” broadband video publishing company, today announced it has been selected by Gannett as the back-end management system for publishing online video to Gannett’s diverse holdings of Web site destinations, including USATODAY.com and more than 150 newspapers, television and niche Web properties around the world. As part of the comprehensive agreement, thePlatform will not only play the central aggregation role for Gannett’s web video assets, but will also serve as the central distribution hub to syndicate video content among Gannett’s numerous destination Web sites. Syndicating content to third-party outlets also will be far faster and easier.

“As one of the world’s preeminent online publishers, Gannett is at the forefront of connecting millions of consumers to information every day,” said Ian Blaine, CEO, thePlatform. “We’re proud to play such a central role with Gannett and to provide them with an efficient and cost-effective means to publish and share video across their newspapers and TV stations’ websites.”

In addition to Gannett, thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands, including: BBC, CNBC, CBS’ College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, Hearst, Helio, HIT Entertainment, PBS Kids, PRIMEDIA, Scripps, Sony/BMG Music, Vongo, Telstra, Verizon Wireless and dozens of other companies.

thePlatform manages the entire logistics process that governs the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. thePlatform’s open system integrates with technology providers that span the entire online video ecosystem, giving media companies the maximum flexibility to design solutions unique to their needs. Customers of thePlatform benefit from a choice of pre-integrated partner technologies, including advertising campaign management and billing systems, content delivery networks (CDNs), digital rights management (DRM), video formats, video player technologies and more. For Gannett specifically, thePlatforms’ back-end management and syndication system will work in conjunction with players and advertising solutions delivered by Maven Networks.

About Gannett Co., Inc.

Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 85 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns nearly 1,000 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes nearly 300 titles, including 18 daily newspapers, and a network of prize-winning Web sites. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.

Press Contacts:

Jeremy Pemble, JLM Partners for thePlatform, jeremy@jlmpartners.com, 206-381-3600
Stacy Oaksmith, JLM Partners for thePlatform, stacy@jlmpartners.com, 206-381-3600

HIT Entertainment to syndicate video on the web through new partner: thePlatform

NEW YORK/SEATTLE — November 14, 2007

HIT Entertainment, a leading provider of quality preschool entertainment, announced today that thePlatform, the leading “white-label” broadband publishing company, has been selected to manage the back-end video platform for HIT’s brand specific web channels and the syndication of its world-renowned children’s videos to other destination websites in multiple countries around the world.

thePlatform launched video on the US Thomas & Friends site in late October and saw more than 3 million streams in the first two weeks. The roll-out of video on HIT’s other brand sites such as Angelina Ballerina™, Barney™, Bob the Builder™, and Fireman Sam™ will continue through 2008. In addition, thePlatform will manage and publish online video for other HIT Entertainment properties such as Guinness World Records.

“HIT is always looking for new and innovative ways to expand distribution of our award-winning content,” said Robert Weisstuch, Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officer, HIT Entertainment. “By utilizing thePlatform, we will implement an online publishing and management system that can handle our needs and be flexible enough to grow with our content and viewers into the future.”

“HIT Entertainment’s family of brands includes some of the most well known and respected characters on the planet – especially by families with young children,” said Ian Blaine, CEO, thePlatform. “We’ve worked closely to automate HIT’s online video initiatives for both HIT owned and third-party represented properties. With a centralized system in place, HIT can focus their energies on their primary business of creating new and compelling family content.”

thePlatform currently provides online video publishing and management for a host of well known consumer brands including BBC, CNBC, CBS’ College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, Hearst, Helio, PRIMEDIA, Scripps, Sony/BMG Music, Vongo, Telstra, Verizon Wireless and dozens of other companies.

Media companies interested in publishing or syndicating their content across the web and mobile phones should visit thePlatform.com .

About HIT Entertainment

HIT Entertainment, owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners, is one of the world’s leading independent children’s entertainment producers and rights-owners. HIT’s portfolio includes properties, such as Barney™, Bob the Builder™, Thomas & Friends™, Pingu™, Fireman Sam™, Angelina Ballerina™ and Rainbow Magic™. HIT represents Fifi and the Flowertots™ in North America and Japan and acts as a worldwide representative for The Jim Henson Company’s library of classic family brands and as representative for The Wiggles® in the UK. HIT also owns the Guinness World Records™ publishing and television property. Launched in 1989, HIT’s lines of business span television and video production (including studios in the US and the UK), publishing, consumer products licensing and live events. With a catalogue of more than 1,000 hours of young children’s programming, HIT sells its shows to more than 240 countries worldwide, in more than 40 different languages and has operations in the UK, US, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. In 2005, the Company joined Comcast Corporation, PBS and Sesame Workshop to launch PBS KIDS SproutSM, a 24-hour digital cable channel and VOD service for preschoolers. For more information, visit www.hitentertainment.com.

About thePlatform

thePlatform™, a subsidiary of Comcast, is the leading broadband video ASP for content providers, broadband media sites, and mobile businesses. thePlatform currently manages and publishes online video on behalf of some of the most well known consumer brands, including: BBC, CNBC, CBS’ College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, Hearst, Helio, PRIMEDIA, Scripps, Sony/BMG Music, Vongo, Telstra, Verizon Wireless and dozens of other companies.