Comcast Technology Solutions has introduced a new service that allows broadcasters and programming distributors to consolidate their legacy television, streaming video and social media efforts into a unified platform.
The solution, called Comcast Media360, is intended to consolidate workflows, lower costs and maximize efficiency across traditional linear and connected TV channels and services, the company said on Tuesday.
The product suite includes Cloud Video Platform, Comcast Media Express and Comcast Media Origination, all of which the company will be showcasing at the NAB Show in Las Vegas next week.
Broadcasters and streaming media distributors can use one or all of the solutions provided by Comcast Media360 as their individual needs dictate, the company said.
“Broadcasters and content owners around the globe recognize the need to make their video operations less duplicative and more cost-efficient, but so many remain trapped by the complexity of their legacy back-end systems,” said Bart Spriester, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Streaming, Broadcast and Advertising for Comcast Technology Solutions. “Comcast Media360 is designed to help them finally break free from the complexity of the past, lower costs, unify broadcast and streaming, streamline workflows, and expand distribution globally. Backed by the proven quality and scale of Comcast Technology Solutions, our customers can now centralize their technical efforts, freeing them to focus their precious time and resources on viewer engagement and profitability.”
A press release distributed by Comcast Technology Solutions outlined the three core products that comprise the service offering:
- Comcast Media Express (stylized as MediaExpress) — a newly launched centralized Video-On-Demand (VOD) management and distribution service for premium content providers. It provides extensive broadcast and OTT VOD distribution and VOD aggregation capabilities. Content providers simply integrate with Comcast Media Express for mass distribution of their premium VOD titles to reach all the leading social, OTT and pay TV platforms, including the most popular streaming video services and FAST channels.
- CTS’ Cloud Video Platform — provides centralized ingest, transcoding, and processing of live and on-demand video; metadata management; content protection and rights enforcement; content recommendations; server-side and contextual advertising; commerce and subscription management; content delivery and OTT distribution; advanced analytics and insights; and a managed user experience for playout across connected devices and apps. CTS’ award-winning Video AI enables advanced metadata augmentation, ad marker detection and insertion, and automated quality control of premium content.
- Comcast Media Origination (stylized as MediaOrigination) — provides the capabilities needed to acquire, prepare, create, package, and deliver linear or online channels and video content across devices. Content is acquired either as live video or file-based acquisition via satellite, fiber, or secure IP. Channels are then prepared with CTS’ rendering operations, cloud-based content supply chain implementation, media asset management, and traffic and metadata services. Next, channels are created with capabilities such as channel automation playout (e.g., advanced graphics, SCTE triggers, closed captioning, and more), and master control, and VideoAI. From there, channels are prepared with the necessary encoding, encryption, and linear rights management (LRM) and authorization policies, then delivered via satellite uplink, fiber, secure internet, or CDNs for MVPDs, vMVPDs, or FAST channels across any screen.
“Efforts to effectively streamline broadcast and streaming operations have been a holy grail for broadcasters and content owners for some time,” said Maria Rua Aguete, a Senior Research Director and a Media and Entertainment and Technology Fellow at Omdia. “Now, however, it’s becoming an economic necessity. Media companies must adopt a consumer-first strategy that is equally effective at reaching viewers across online video and traditional TV, via social, mobile, and home entertainment devices. Solutions like Comcast Media360 are designed to offload the technical complexity for broadcasters and content owners, so they can focus on viewer monetization, however and wherever it is occurring.”
