Eutelsat gets deeper into satellite/OTT integration with Cirrus

Eutelsat gets deeper into satellite/OTT integration with Cirrus
Editor
| 06 September 2018

Aiming to free up broadcasters to focus on content and subscribers while it takes care of the end-to-end logistics, Eutelsat has launched Cirrus, a turnkey content delivery solution for both satellite and OTT platforms.
Eutelsat CIRRUS 6Sep2018

In essence, Cirrus is targeted at broadcasters seeking to launch or upgrade their service and is said to offer the benefits of rapidly deployed video services, low operational costs, high image quality and consistent end-user experience. Eutelsat believes that through its dual offer of turnkey DTH services and OTT multiscreen delivery, the new service represents a further step in its ongoing strategy of the integration of satellite into the IP ecosystem.

Assessing the environment in which services are launched in today’s highly competitive markets, Eutelsat believes that operators are finding it difficult to manage ever more complex and widely deployed platforms that need ever more constant innovation. It notes that just keeping up with compatible devices is becoming a burden.

The solution aims to enable broadcasters to off cloud-based integrated multiscreen user experiences that complement traditional DTH broadcast services with simultaneous OTT streaming through the native hybrid platform. It will enable end-users to watch video content on devices such as mobile phones and tablets, access multiple programmes, record and rewind, and view an array of programme information, while providing business rules management and usage reporting for Eutelsat’s broadcast customers.

The Cirrus ecosystem is built on core elements accessed by APIs that support subscriber management, OTT devices, editorial metadata, and STBs/HbbTV/TV sets. Customers are able to plug into the environment with their own CRMs in order to manage their customer bases.

Partnerships are key within the ecosystem. While Eutelsat will manage teleports, head-end and customer operations, the company is working with Nagra, Irdeto and Century Link for a unified back-end, conditional access and content delivery expertise respectively.

For Gerry O’Sullivan, Eutelsat executive vice president, global TV and video, the challenge today is for broadcasters is to create compelling content and then deliver content and services with increasing capex and opex burdens and with adequate technical expertise and financial resources. Only a small parentage of today’s operators has such capability, he argued, and said that Cirrus would enable them to deliver their core task more efficiently.

He added: “Cirrus...will offer our customers the best of both worlds, combining the efficiency and reach of satellite with the convenience of OTT. This new hybrid solution is designed to facilitate the building a content distribution business. It will free up broadcasters to focus on content and subscribers while Eutelsat takes care of the end-to-end logistics, accompanying them in maintaining their competitive edge in an increasingly complex environment.”
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