Monday 29th June
NDS
to integrate Pontis Marketing Delivery Platform with NDS Unified headend
NDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has teamed up
with Pontis to integrate its Marketing Delivery Platform (MDP) with the
NDS Unified. The integrated solution will enable digital pay-TV operators
to up-sell and cross-sell services to their subscribers more effectively
by giving them the ability to create real-time, personalised offers, promotions
and content recommendations on both linear and VOD channels. The solution
will help operators to improve the customer experience and raise ARPU
by delivering relevant, contextual offers and recommendations to subscribers.
The award-winning NDS Unified Headend integrates conditional access (CA),
Digital Rights Management (DRM) and third-party applications, allowing
operators to deliver secure broadcast and on-demand services to a variety
of devices – including set-top boxes (STBs), mobile phones, PCs,
portable media players (PMPs) and digital video recorders (DVRs) –
using a common infrastructure.
The Pontis Marketing Delivery Platform is a comprehensive system for automating
the creation and delivery of targeted offers and recommendations across
TV, mobile and fixed-line platforms.
Nigel Smith, NDS Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Technology that
helps to improve the customer experience can be a key differentiator for
service providers as they strive to reduce churn and raise ARPU. By integrating
Pontis’ Marketing Delivery Platform with the NDS Unified Headend,
we are providing pay-TV operators with an effective mechanism for developing
personalised and contextual offers, promotions and content recommendations
to subscribers on a multiplicity of networks and devices.”
Alon Werber, Pontis VP Marketing & Business Development, added: “The
integrated solution allows operators’ marketing managers to cross-sell,
promote and make recommendations that are relevant to customers and are
based on real-time information. For example, households that frequently
order children’s films using VOD, could be automatically offered
an upgrade, perhaps with a special discount, to a premium kids’ TV
channel just before the start of the summer vacation period.”
NDS and Pontis will be showing ‘proof of concept’ scenarios
at the NDS booth at IBC 2009 September 11-15. The two companies will jointly
market the solution to pay-TV operators.
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Virgin
Media and Universal Pictures launch PictureBox
Virgin Mediaand Universal Pictures have announced the launch of PictureBox,
the leading movies-on-demand TV subscription service, on Virgin Media’s
TV platform.
From July, the PictureBox service will be available to Virgin Media’s
3.6 million TV subscribers for £5 per month and provide a broad
selection of recent and library feature films. Subscribers will be able
to view films whenever they like from a selection of 28 films at any given
time, with seven new titles being added to the line-up each Friday. Most
of the PictureBox films will be available in HD and many will not yet
have been seen on free-to-air television in the UK.
Highlights of films that will be featured on PictureBox in the coming
months include such hits as Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum, Children of
Men and The Holiday, as well as classic blockbusters such as Scarface,
Total Recall, The Nutty Professor and E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial.
PictureBox is wholly owned by Universal Pictures Ltd.
Katharine Burns, executive director of content acquisition at Virgin Media,
said “Our customers love movies on demand and they’re watching
millions of films every year. The addition of PictureBox means Virgin
Media is the perfect choice for film fans, with a fantastic HD line-up
and even more films to choose from, all at great value for money.”
The agreement continues the expansion of the PictureBox service, which
also operates on other platforms in the UK, Poland and Singapore, and
marks the service’s first UK platform to present films in HD.
“This agreement is a significant step in the growth of the PictureBox
brand, which will now be available to Virgin Media’s 3.6 million
TV customers in the UK,” added Belinda Menendez, president, NBC Universal
International TV Distribution. “Our reach in the UK has now increased
more than fivefold and the service has expanded internationally since
initial launch less than three years ago.”
Virgin Media has pioneered on demand television in the UK with over half
a billion views in 2008. More than half of its 3.6 million TV customers
are now regularly watching on demand content. Virgin Media offers a vast
library of thousands of hours of TV shows, movies, music and kids programming,
all of which can be watched when viewers want, at the touch of a button.
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