thePlatform Named as Centralized Video Management System for STARZ PLAY Arabia
thePlatform’s Cloud-Based mpx System Supports Service in Middle East and North Africa
SEATTLE – September 29, 2015 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company and independent subsidiary of Comcast, today disclosed that it was selected by Parsifal Entertainment Group to provide the back-end video management and publishing system for STARZ PLAY Arabia. STARZ PLAY Arabia is the new, premium content, direct-to-consumer multiplatform subscription video service for select markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
STARZ PLAY Arabia has launched a premium video-on-demand service across the MENA region. The new service relies upon thePlatform’s cloud-based mpx video publishing system to support viewers across a variety of IP-connected devices. Technically, thePlatform’s mpx provides workflow management of video ingest; metadata management; subscriber management and viewing rights enforcement; automated publishing across devices and video players and sophisticated TV data feeds to power their web and app experiences.
“We’re fully committed to giving people a groundbreaking subscription video service leveraging STARZ PLAY Arabia’s incredible content library and brand,” said Saleem Bhatti, CIO of STARZ PLAY Arabia. “Part of that commitment means using a back-end system with proven scale and versatility, which is why we turned to thePlatform.”
“We’re extremely proud to have been selected to play such a key role for STARZ PLAY Arabia in these growing international markets,” said Marty Roberts, co-CEO, thePlatform. “The service offers subscribers a compelling new choice in premium video entertainment, and we’re confident that mpx will deliver the enterprise-grade reliability and capabilities required to support the service now and into the future.”
STARZ PLAY Arabia is available in markets including: Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. Additional information is available at www.starzplay.com .
Earlier this year, thePlatform disclosed it was powering subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in Australia for Stan, the joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax Media Limited, and shomi in Canada, a joint venture owned equally by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. Recently, thePlatform was cited as one of the vendors that plays prominently in the online video platform market according a Forrester Research report entitled, Market Overview: Video Platforms for Digital Media Companies . The report outlines that online video has gone from an ancillary strategy to a critical growth opportunity, and noted that “thePlatform has the most support for pay-TV operators and TV programming networks.”
