Amsterdam — Globecast has entered into a long-term partnership with BBC Worldwide to provide content preparation, playout and distribution services for up to 30 channels globally.
Globecast will be the primary technical partner for these services, handling channels that were previously supported by multiple service providers across multiple regions. Moving the whole operation to a single service provider means a more cost-effective, flexible and efficient playout and distribution workflow than would have been possible with the current multitude of separate providers.
BBCW will benefit from increased flexibility through direct access to Globecast’s global distribution networks and increased business agility through the ability to re-assign channels to different regions as and when needed. The tightly integrated solution allows faster content turnaround, significantly reducing the window between UK and international broadcast for key programming, maximising the monetisation value.
Globecast will also provide flexible capacity for rapid channel deployments where opportunities are identified.
BBCW is taking advantage of Globecast’s newly-announced Media Factory, a unified, converged workflow to prepare and playout content. It provides a dedicated web portal enabling more efficient and secure orchestration of content preparation by the broadcaster, Globecast and selected partners. The web portal will allow BBCW to track the progress of content through the workflow, providing a live service health dashboard for playout and global channel distribution.
Globecast is also offering Edge Playout as part of its package, enabling additional revenue from existing services by delivering them to new territories and regionalising them. Globecast’s global fibre network enables the integrated site diverse Disaster Recovery (DR) solution to be seamlessly fed to all of the distribution points without the need for dedicated network infrastructure, which is both complex and costly.
Commenting on the agreement, Andy Steele, Head of Operations, Global Markets, BBC Worldwide said, “BBC Worldwide are very much looking forward to expanding our partnership with Globecast, who have played a vital role in supporting our playout and distribution requirements for our Global Markets’ channels. Globecast’s ability to propose solutions with build-in flexibility, whilst adapting to our strategy and business plans was a key factor in to our decision to expand our relationship with them.”
Olivier Barberot
Globecast CEO Olivier Barberot added, “This major partnership with BBC Worldwide is testament to both the power of our distribution services and our highly evolved media management capabilities. We are very proud that they have chosen to extend the relationship between our two companies in such a comprehensive way.”
Playout and distribution for BBCW will be handled from Globecast’s London facility, by a team of dedicated channel managers.
Peter Elvidge, Head of Global Media Management, Globecast, added, “We are delighted that BBC Worldwide has chosen Globecast. Our long term relationship has given us the opportunity to understand their business objectives and to shape our services technically and commercially to support these requirements. By bringing the entire operation under one roof and combining it with distribution services, not only can we deliver a significant saving, we can also provide the flexibility and business agility they need to test new markets and continue growing.”
