Hearst Corporation says it will partner with Synamedia to distribute its linear channels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The pact will see Synamedia distribute channels operated through the Hearst Networks EMEA business to cable TV, satellite, broadband and other TV providers. The channels include regional variants of The History Channel and Crime + Investigation, plus unique offerings like Blaze and Cosmo. The channels were previously offered under the A+E Networks EMEA brand, with Ateliere serving as Hearst’s distribution partner in the region.
Hearst says it settled on new business relationship with Synamedia because of its Quortex PowerVu technology, a software-as-a-service product that runs on top of Amazon Web Services and allows broadcasters and programmers to spin up new channels and make them available to distribution partners in a matter of hours. Quortex PowerVu pledges to deliver high-quality video feeds using efficient bandwidth, and incorporates open standards and disaster recovery strategies.
“We chose to partner with Synamedia because the company offered a risk-free way to move our distribution to the cloud and benefit from new levels of scalability and flexibility while cutting operating costs,” Matt Westrup, the Chief Technology Officer at Hearst Networks EMEA, said in a statement. “When we assessed Synamedia’s CloudOps Centre, we were impressed by the calibre of its services and found a perfect match for our business needs.”
“Quortex PowerVu and our fully managed services provide a compelling proposition for content providers, such as Hearst Networks, who are ready to enjoy the benefits of switching to IP distribution,” Elke Hungenaert, the Vice President of Product Management at Synamedia, said on Tuesday. “Because we support satellite, IP and CDN, we offer content owners the flexibility to evolve to IP at their own pace. And the addition of our managed services is the icing on the cake for anyone looking to outsource network management.”
Additionally, Hearst Networks EMEA will benefit from Synamedia’s global cloud operations center located in Bangalore, which includes a dedicated team of engineers who will control and monitor Hearst’s television output around-the-clock.
