EpicTV has selected Tvinci and Accedo to power its new pan-European adventure sports streaming subscription service. The over-the-top service will be available via Connected TV, iPad, Android, and the internet, writes David Fox. “We are focused on providing new experiences and delivering TV services for the future where people watch content that is specific to their interests, and on whatever device they want,” said Panu Lehti, Head of EpicTV and VP, Business Development at Elisa (the Finnish telecommunications and ICT service company that owns Epic). It is deploying Tvinci’s Pay-OTT platform to enable the delivery of a personalised, consistent viewing experience across iPad, Android, PC and Connected TV, the latter powered by Tvinci’s partner Accedo, which specialises in interactive applications for IPTV and SmartTV. “Within a very demanding time frame, they knew how to enable us to meet consumer demand and understood the complexity we faced in packaging content for different devices, protecting it with DRM, eg Microsoft Playready, and effectively charging for it [at €6.90 per month]. The platform we have deployed meets our requirements, and more,” added Lehti. EpicTV is offering a wide-ranging library of skiing, snowboarding, surfing climbing, mountain biking and base jumping video, and will chase a potential audience of tens of millions of adventure sports fans in 15 countries, and will feature a Facebook-based freemium model (the first six months of the beta service is free if joining via Facebook) and other ways of engaging viewers. “This deployment with Elisa serves to prove that operators are now realising the power of OTT and that they must think clearly and strategically about who they are delivering to and how these people are consuming content,” said Ofer Shayo, CEO, Tvinci. He believes that that “EpicTV subscribers will enjoy a highly targeted and personalised cross-device experience on EpicTV from day one.” “Regional and global content offerings can be cost-efficiently realised with OTT solutions,” added Accedo CEO Michael Lantz. “Elisa has shown unprecedented innovation and strategic thinking with an attractive targeted content offering via OTT.” EpicTV can seamlessly add devices centrally managed through Tvinci’s OTT platform, and is expected to roll out on additional tablets, smartphones and connected TV brands within the next six months. www.accedo.tvwww.epictv.comwww.tvinci.com
