Telstra, Ericsson and the Fox Innovation Lab launch industry first content delivery solution for movie consumers
Pilot gives participants immediate access to new release content in premium quality with no impact to device performance or data plans.
Telstra, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and The Fox Innovation Lab at 21st Century Fox will unveil a revolutionary, first of its kind content delivery solution at Mobile World Congress 2017 that will pre-position personalized, premium movie content directly onto consumer devices, with no impact to device performance or consumer data plans.
Participants will receive notifications when the latest movies that match their interests become available. The movies are pre-positioned on the consumer’s device and are available immediately for purchase or rent and play in full 1080p HD and high quality audio without interruption, both online and offline, and irrespective of network connectivity.
Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer & Head of Business Unit Media, Ericsson, says: “This live pilot is an example of how Ericsson is partnering with industry leaders across both the content and telco worlds to deliver innovative solutions that will transform viewing experiences and create new business models and monetization opportunities that help our customers to be competitive and lead the pack as digital pioneers. This pilot is the first service offering of its kind and an important industry milestone.”
Andrew Penn, Chief Executive Officer, Telstra, says: “Our customers love entertainment content and are increasingly watching it on their mobiles. Running this pilot in collaboration with innovative partners is a great way for us to test and learn how we can improve the customer experience while at the same time achieving network efficiencies. It has the potential to offer our customers a truly distinctive video customer experience, delivering studio sanctioned picture and audio quality. The solution will use Telstra’s Media Optimised Network, including LTE-B capability to pre-position content, and therefore have limited impact on overall network traffic with little to no additional infrastructure cost.”
Hanno Basse, Chief Technology Officer, Twentieth Century Fox and Managing Director, Fox Innovation Lab, added: “Ericsson is a valued partner and has been integral to advancing the Fox Innovation Lab’s mission to develop cutting-edge mobile experiences. This pilot is the first step to developing future solutions that will see faster and easier delivery of our content right into the hands of our consumers.”
The pilot will kick off today and will last for one month. A closed number of Telstra, Fox and Ericsson customers will obtain a mobile device with a trial app, giving them instant access to new release movie titles provided by Twentieth Century Fox, in full HD 1080p quality.
This is the first service offering of its kind in the market, offering an end-to-end, one-stop solution for media ingest, processing, distribution, monetization and consumption. It leverages Ericsson MediaFirst’s unique, cloud based media store for content processing and origin; Ericsson’s Unified Delivery Network for global content delivery; and Ericsson MediaFirst TV Platform, to provide a seamless, personalized, and intuitive experience.
This solution provides content providers with a highly secure, one-stop-shop for global content distribution. Studios can retain full control of the quality of experience right down to the viewing device, complete with advanced security (multi-layer watermarking and multi DRM). They get to better monetize high value content and gain valuable insights into consumer behavior.
By offering instant access to the latest studio releases with a premium audio visual experience, service providers can increase ARPU, differentiate from competitors and lower content distribution costs. Additionally, there is limited impact to network traffic and resources and little to no additional infrastructure expenditures.
About The Fox Innovation Lab
The Fox Innovation Lab at 21st Century Fox is a research and development center established to drive the advancement of groundbreaking technology and new consumer experiences across all platforms and distribution models. The Lab works across all 21st Century Fox film and television divisions as well as key external partners to advance next generation technologies. The Fox Innovation Lab serves as a research hub, demonstrating and testing technologies with consumers throughout the development process to obtain qualitative data and hands-on feedback in order to bring innovative and premium products to market.
About Ericsson
Ericsson is a world leader in communications technology and services with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Our organization consists of more than 111,000 experts who provide customers in 180 countries with innovative solutions and services. Together we are building a more connected future where anyone and any industry is empowered to reach their full potential. Net sales in 2016 were SEK 222.6 billion (USD 24.5 billion). The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and on NASDAQ in New York. Read more on www.ericsson.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS
For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visit www.ericsson.com/press.