Red Bee Media (note: the company was originally a BBC business unit, called BBC Broadcast, that was sold off by the Corporation to Australian venture capital firm, Macquarie, in 2005 for £166 million) has renewed its contract with the BBC's Future Media & Technology arm to enable the latter's interactive services. The new contract, which was awarded after a formal EU procurement process, has a five-year term, with a provision to extend it for an additional two years. Red Bee (and its predecessor, BBC Broadcast) has powered the BBC's interactive services since their launch back in 1999.
BBC Future Media & Technology is responsible for directing all technology investment across the BBC and assisting with the delivery of interactive services--including the red-button ITV service, BBCi, and bbc.co.uk. Red Bee Media says that the new deal will see it continuing to provide a comprehensive playout and operational managed service covering four core areas:
- Interactive TV playout, including 24-hour support of audio, video, applications and data streams across digital satellite, digital cable and digital terrestrial platforms, as well as interactive services on the UK's recently launched FreeSat platform.
- Interactive online publication services, including presentation and publication of content delivered over Internet Protocols to the BBC's supported online platforms, including the Web, digital cable, broadband and wireless technologies.
- Systems management, including for both interactive TV playout services and interactive online publication services.
- Hotline and support services. This will see Red Bee acting as a single point of contact for coordination of operational support, change management and incident management for ITV services, green button, online interactive services, program metadata, management scheduling and automation systems.
"I am delighted that we have been successful in retaining this contract with the BBC," Red Bee Media CEO, Pam Masters, said in a prepared statement. "This contract underlines our commitment to being at the forefront of multiplatform content fulfillment in the linear and non-linear space."
