Comcast’s ThePlatform Eyes Cloud TV

 

Leveraging thePlatform’s mpx video publishing system, key Framework features include enhanced discovery and personalization, allowing operators to centralize metadata from providers such as Rovi, and create their own custom fields and queries. This centralization seeks to enable better search capabilities, more dynamic guide navigation, and personalized viewing options. ThePlatform’s mpx integrates with ThinkAnalytics’ content recommendation engine to incorporate contextual, behavioral, and social data, along with editorial promotions. Mpx can also manage and surface metadata at an asset level (e.g. TV episode), guide level (e.g. show availability), and higher detailed information. This means operators could let subscribers bookmark favorite shows, highlight programs and surface (surface?? Is this some kind of term they’re using?) other programs they would likely enjoy.

 

In addition to publishing national ads in linear feeds, mpx enables customers to insert dynamic ads based on operators’ needs, and delivers more Web-like and personalized advertising via key integrations with FreeWheel and BlackArrow. Meanwhile, the new service provides video commerce platform to manage elements such as digital storefront purchases, subscriptions, subscription extras, customer notifications and cross-promotional offers. It also provides unified distribution to portable devices and living room devices, including new RDK set-top boxes, game consoles and Smart TVs.

 

thePlatform CEO Ian Blaine called the Virtual TV Framework “the culmination of more than a decade of technical experience managing video for many of the largest TV and media companies in the world. It’s not a monolithic stack, but rather an open framework that gives them greater flexibility and cost control. mpx is engineered to work in parallel with legacy TV systems – leveraging existing infrastructure investments – while providing a clear migration path to an all-IP based architecture.”