KIT digital delivers Online Enterprise Service Platform (OESP) for Liberty Global’s Horizon TV
19 Sep 2012KIT digital, Inc. a leading video management software and services company, took part in the launch of the Horizon TV Online service. Working in tight collaboration with Liberty Global, Inc., and their partners, KIT digital designed and developed the delivery platform and will be providing the managed services. The Horizon TV platform will first be rolled out to UPC’s existing customers in the Netherlands, followed by Switzerland in the fourth quarter and Germany and Ireland early 2013.
In development for over a year, the launch of the Horizon TV platform has become the highlight of IBC2012 in Amsterdam. “A Netflix killer!” said Scott Sahadi, KIT digital’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Pay TV providers are facing challenges from over-the-top services and KIT digital’s core business is helping tier one service providers, like Liberty Global’s UPC, to successfully transition their services to multi-platform, allowing their consumers to experience content anytime, anywhere.”
KIT digital was selected by Liberty Global in early 2011 to carry out the design and implementation of Horizon TV in close collaboration with Liberty Global’s key strategic partners. Bob Greene, Managing Director of Online Entertainment for Liberty Global, said: “For strategic initiatives like this, we have to choose our partners carefully. As one of the largest pay TV providers in the world, Liberty Global is constantly looking at new and innovative ways to serve our customers. Our multi-platform video strategy is at the core of that innovation hence the reason for selecting KIT.”
Scott Sahadi added; “We believe this is the first ever multi-country, multi-currency, multi-language, multi-platform service in the world today, breaking away from the traditional approach of building one-off projects that don’t scale. We applaud the team effort across various internal and external partners that made this a success."
KIT digital was responsible for providing the overall design, implementation, end-to-end platform testing and managed services. Chris Butlin, KIT digital’s VP Client Services continued, “This was a complex service to get to market as we went live with a number of business models and consumer experiences including subscription VOD, transactional VOD and linear VOD, across multiple devices, languages and currencies. The Online Enterprise Service Platform (OESP), managed and run by KIT, provides extensibility and scale and will ensure that multiple LGI properties around the globe will be able to quickly and successfully get new services, like integrated multi-screen, to market.”