US broadcast channel IPTV has chosen Arqiva as its key content distribution platform to expand into the European market. Arqiva recently acquired two teleports and fibre networks in the United States that offer direct access to Arqiva’s extensive distribution capabilities within the UK and Europe. With this new infrastructure in place, Arqiva “has landed”, said Simon Thrush, Senior VP and head of Arqiva’s US operation, writes Adrian Pennington.
“We are now positioned as the major international gateway to Europe for American broadcasters. Our ability to take content from the US market and directly distribute it within Europe allows us to offer customers faster and simpler implementation times and more cost effective services,” he continued.
For IPTV, using Arqiva simplifies distribution so that, once the content leaves its facilities in Santa Monica, all elements of the onward distribution are taken care of by Arqiva. From Arqiva’s teleport in Los Angeles, content is delivered across the Atlantic by fibre directly to one of Arqiva’s many Eurobird multiplexes in the UK. It then appears as part of the Sky direct-to-home (DTH) platform in the UK as channel 670. “Rather than deal with multiple parties to enable distribution outside the US, our customers only have to work with one entity – we are a total end-to-end service package,” explained Thrush.
