Watch the Olympics Everywhere
By | July 17, 2012
With the London Olympics less than two weeks away, Synacor, the multi-device TV Everywhere platform is beefing up capacity for potentially millions of cable subs watching the big game on smaller screens. CableFAX spoke with Michael Bishara, vp/gm, TV Everywhere for Synacor about preparation for the big game.
The company has provided authentication service during major events like the 2010 Winter Olympics and March Madness. Any lessons learned?
A couple of things we are doing based on lessons learned includes increasing awareness and marketing efforts to drive usage and demand. There are easy-deployment of marketing campaign materials across numerous consumer-facing cable operator websites. The second piece is adding capacity and technical support, meaning things like having a disaster recovery system in place, close collaboration with cable clients and adding servers and technical staff. Planning is key. Many of the Olympic events will happen in daytime so we will monitor and manage the significant traffic hike during that period to ensure there’s no congestion. The planning process involves a combination of software, hardware and human resources.
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How’s consumer response so far?
“What you might find interesting is compared to normal TV Everywhere authentication, what we’re seeing across-the-board already is an ‘Olympics Kick’ of more than 6%. At this early stage, we agree it’s a strong indicator that the NBCU Olympics will be big for TV Everywhere."
New features coming to TV Everywhere?
Many existing features are device specific so you manage your ecosystem around your devices. Going forward, the goal is to create a unified experience, despite devices and content formats. Social media will also be an important part as many cable operators have started to integrating social media to better understand their subs.
How do you prevent multiple users from logging in?
So there’s the security component and there’s the ease of use component. There are rules like stream limits but they are on a case-by-case basis. Synacor’s white-label TV Everywhere solution includes video aggregation, mediation, and single sign-on authentication, as well as back-office integrations with cable operators’ rights, I.D., and billing systems.
