ExtendMedia Powers "TV Everywhere"-Type Service for Bell TV and Astral Media

Multiscreen video-management software solutions provider, ExtendMedia, said Tuesday that its OpenCASE platform is now powering a "TV Everywhere"-type service for Canadian pay-TV operator, Bell TV. According to the company, the service, dubbed TMN Online and available through the Bell TV Online portal (bell.ca/tvonline), links authentication and access to the subscriber rather than to the home Internet connection, thus allowing Bell TV customers who subscribe to Astral Media's premium programming channel, The Movie Network, to access that channel's programming on an Internet-connected PC or laptop anywhere in Canada, at no extra charge, as part of their existing subscription. The service, whose programming line-up reflects that of The Movie Network's SVOD service, offers approximately 130 hours of content per week, with 25% of that content being refreshed on a weekly basis. "The addition of TMN Online to our Bell TV Online portal is an important milestone as we evolve our business to meet our customers' desire for anytime, anywhere digital video services," Kevin Crull, president of Bell Residential Services, said in a prepared statement. "Bringing a service like this to market also requires a robust technology platform and deep domain expertise. We've launched a number of offerings with ExtendMedia, and the company has proved itself to be a strong partner in digital media distribution."

According to ExtendMedia, its OpenCASE platform--which is available via both hosted SaaS and enterprise licenses--was expressly designed to meet the needs of content providers looking to build, deploy and manage unified video services across PC, TV and mobile devices. The technology was built from the ground up to be platform-neutral, the company says, and includes out-of-the-box integration with leading ad servers, CDN's, DRM providers and encoding platforms; supports both paid and ad-supported business models; and can deliver streamed or downloaded content to multiple devices. The company says that the TMN Online service represents the first production launch of OpenCASE's support for Microsoft Silverlight video and PlayReady DRM.