RedPlayer™ to facilitate and monetise growth of the online video market.

Red Bee Media, responsible for managing more than 90% of broadcaster video on demand content consumed in the UK, has launched RedPlayer™, the first ‘media grade’, end-to-end, next-generation online video platform. RedPlayer™ allows broadcasters and content owners in the UK and internationally to deliver and monetise high quality video to multiple devices, including iPhone, iPad and PlayStation, in a secure and scalable manner.

The broadcast services company, which manages the content for the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4’s 4OD, Channel Five’s Demand Five and the Virgin Media Player, has developed RedPlayer™ to introduce to market an enhanced online video platform, and to become an end-to-end provider of video management and distribution. RedPlayer™ has been created in response to a growing demand for broadcast quality online video platforms that offer a secure and quality player service that can be monetised – a requirement fuelled by the advent of connected TV and growth in consumption of video across multiple devices.

Key features of RedPlayer™ include: a higher quality of image and smoother playback; sophisticated security using the latest digital rights managements (DRM) platforms; integration of live content with intelligent EPG that links past, present and future programming in a personalised manner; and fast availability of programmes available online immediately after linear transmission.

Additionally, RedPlayer™ enables businesses to profit from the growing online video market by offering flexible options for multiple purchase types including subscription, download to own, rental and capped or uncapped library access, using Cisco Videoscape Media technology. These options sit alongside dynamic and targeted advertising capabilities. Red Bee Media has partnered with industry leading businesses Cisco, 247 Real Media and Akamai to create the ‘media grade’ end-to-end service.

Red Bee Media has launched RedPlayer™ to deliver the following business benefits;

  • Enhanced user experience
  • Deepened user engagement
  • Extended viewing time
  • Capture of behavioural data
  • Addition of dynamic advertising
  • Integrated micro-payment models

"The online video market has rapidly evolved, driven by consumer demand for higher quality and a greater variety of content made available across multiple platforms. As a result businesses need to deliver a better experience with intuitive search and recommendation tools through a better user interface. With critical mass has come the first real opportunity to profit from video online which has heralded flexible and simple payment models delivered by RedPlayer™. On all counts Red Bee Media are in a strong position to lead this new ‘media grade’ era. Online video is to become a standard component of our clients’ channel mix. The scope of RedPlayer™ is refined to enable our clients to make strategic decisions – on availability, monetisation, content protection, dynamic advertising and the multi-platform user experience.”

Bill Patrizio CEO, Red Bee Media

RedPlayer™ takes best of breed video technology from leading product providers and fuses it with Red Bee Media’s expertise in brand identity, media management and content protection to create a leading-edge player that delivers every component along the value chain, tailored and packaged to the client’s requirements. The launch of RedPlayer™ comes as part of Red Bee Media’s roadmap of continued investment in new technologies and products.

RedPlayer™ comes to market at a time when online video is growing rapidly. In April 2011 26.9m people in the UK streamed video from home and work computers, according to research by Nielsen VideoCensus. Cisco predicts that by 2013 video content will account for 90% of all online traffic.

"The online video market has developed considerably in recent years, both in terms of technology and viewer demographics. This has attracted increasing volumes of high quality content, a broader range of content providers and raised viewer expectations. Now brands, rights holders, production companies and studios are competing directly with traditional broadcasters through the open market of the internet. Slow, unreliable video platforms are no longer good enough, especially when customers are paying for content. RedPlayer™ has been forged as a result of this new dawn presenting an unprecedented opportunity to all businesses with quality content””

Steve Plunkett Director of Technology , Red Bee Media

Key elements of the RedPlayer™

RedPlayer™ has been designed to offer an enhanced alternative to what is currently available in the marketplace, introducing a series of innovations that include: enhanced multi-device distribution, flexible, faster and scalable ‘media grade’ content management, content protection and rights locker, industry-first rich metadata services, award winning creative services, ground breaking search and recommendation functionality, dynamic advertising, analytics and reporting and prized monetisation options. RedPlayer™’s functionality can be introduced by clients on a modular basis as required.

Multi-Device Distribution

The player has been specifically designed to support a flexible distribution model that can serve current and emerging outlets, including PCs, smart phones, tablets, connected TVs and gaming consoles.

Flexible, fast & scalable ‘media grade’ management

RedPlayer™ builds on the expertise and infrastructure that Red Bee Media already offers, including high capacity file delivery through ‘Media Gateway’ and multi-format tape and disk ingest facilities. These assets have both large storage needs and rapid transcoding to deliver formatted video to multiple end devices.

Live TV & EPG

Most existing online video platforms deliver on-demand access to a library of content – both catch-up and VOD. This provides a great way to access what you might have missed on TV or convenient access to a broad range of studio and TV titles. This does however leave out two of the core elements of television – live content and a schedule of what’s on soon. RedPlayer™ will bring together best practice for catch-up and VOD but blend this with multi-device live streaming services and an intelligent EPG to provide the ultimate online TV experience.

Content Protection

The solution provides state-of-the-art content protection services using industry leading digital rights management (DRM) systems and asset identification services, such as content watermarking, to ensure the safety and traceability that premium quality content requires.

Rich Metadata Services

RedPlayer™ offers rich metadata, including the provision of images, video clips and longer form editorial metadata to enhance the viewer experience increasingly required by content owners and platforms. The RedPlayer™ solution provides rich metadata creation, normalisation and transformation features to support the needs of the content owner and platform.

Search & Recommendation

RedPlayer™ users search functions similar in concept to internet search tools to allow advanced keyword searching across the content catalogue based on the metadata provided. Recommended technologies offer dynamically created suggestions of programmes to a viewer based on past preference and demographic profiling.

Monetisation

A key element of RedPlayer™ is its options for content monetisation. Using Cisco Videoscape Media technology, the RedPlayer™ offers detailed granular, flexible options for multiple purchase types including subscription, download to own, rental, bundling offers for content and merchandising packages and capped or uncapped library access. In addition RedPlayer™ offers dynamic and targeted advertising.

Creative Services

Red Bee Media provides a highly customisable front end on which to build unique, differentiated, branded user interfaces/portals that fit with the linear TV channel brands.

Analytics and Reporting

RedPlayer™ tracks data relating to content usage and provides a range of reporting tools to allow broadcasters to better understand their audience. The reporting engine can display analytics data using graphical models, information reports and a variety of exportable data.

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About Red Bee

Red Bee Media is the leading global media services partner for innovation and growth. We enable some of the world’s most recognised media brands, broadcasters and content owners to instantly connect with audiences anywhere at any time. Every day, millions of people across the globe discover, enjoy and engage with content prepared, managed, broadcast and streamed by Red Bee Media. Headquartered in London, with more than 2,000 media experts in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, Red Bee Media provides innovative solutions across the entire content delivery chain, including Playout, Streaming, Distribution, MCR, Media Management, Access, Content Discovery, and Post-Production services.

BORN IN BROADCAST. LIVE FOR MEDIA. 

 

For press enquiries, please contact:
Gabija Jonsson
Head of Communications, Red Bee Media
gabija.jonsson@redbeemedia.com