Tvinci and Accedo are partnering on a project with Finnish telecommunications company Elisa to roll out a pan-European adventure sports streaming service.
Elisa will use Israel-based Tvinci's pay-over-the-top (OTT) platform and Accedo's smart TV applications to power its EpicT service for delivery to multiple devices.
EpicTV will offer premium, feature-length adventure films on demand for about $9 a month. Subscribers will get unlimited access to films on skiing, snowboarding, surfing, climbing, mountain biking, BASE jumping and more. The venture is fully funded by Elisa, a telecommunications and ICT service company that had revenues in 2011 of $2.01 billion.
"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. "We are delighted to work with Tvinci and Accedo on this project. 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," as well as protecting it with DRM and effectively charging for it.
Elisa said EpicTV could be delivered over the top to 15 countries, with an audience potentially in the tens of millions. It plans to also launch a Facebook-based freemium model and other viewer engagement methods.
"This deployment with Elisa serves to prove that operators are now realizing 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 of Tvinci.
Shayo said the project will offer subscribers a highly targeted and personalized cross-device experience.
For more:
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