GlobeCast announces banner year in 2010
December 15, 2010
GlobeCast CEO Olivier Barberot has announced that GlobeCast had a banner year in 2010, most notably in playout services, event coverage, and international content delivery. The year also saw GlobeCast land its first major deals for Media Asset Management (MAM), in conjunction with its subsidiary NETIA.
Key Figures:
– Over 85 per cent increase in number of channels played out worldwide (54 as of today).
– 17,000 miles (27,000 km) of fiber added in 2010 to the GlobeCast Backbone Network, which now contains 120,000 miles of fibre.
– Five new fiber PoPs added, notably in Eastern Europe, South America, and South Africa, for a total of 31.
– On the World Teleport Association ranking, GlobeCast is the leading broadcast services company on the Independent Top Twenty and the Global Top Twenty, ranking number two and number eight respectively, just behind satellite operators and ahead of other service providers.
Transport, Manage, and Play was the theme of 2010, with GlobeCast aiming to add more value to its service offering across the value chain.
Transport
The company saw an increase in channel distribution activities around the world, and grew its infrastructure to accommodate this increase. New Points-of-Presence (PoPs) were added in Betzdorf (Luxemburg), Warsaw, Moscow, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Johannesburg.
Notable channel distribution business included the launch of Russia Today in Spanish to Europe and the Americas, the expansion of France 24’s American coverage, the launch of Vintage TV in the U.K., and the expansion of Fashion One HD in Asia.
On the sports contribution side, 2010 was a year filled with major sporting events — GlobeCast was present to deliver thousands of hours of content in HD at such events as the FIFA World Cup£ and the Vancouver Olympics. In November at the Asian Games, GlobeCast delivered over 2,500 hours of content to a potential audience of billions.
Manage
GlobeCast grew its MAM activities significantly in 2010, thanks to continuing integration of its subsidiary NETIA. GlobeCast was selected in April to ingest 22,000 hours of tape-based content into a tapeless workflow for leading Bollywood broadcaster B4U. All of B4U’s content is managed and delivered through GlobeCast. In France, GlobeCast now handles five video-on-demand/catch-up TV channels for Orange TV, the country’s leading IPTV, mobile TV, and web TV bouquet with over 4,000 pieces of content managed every month.
At IBC2010, GlobeCast announced the creation of a Digital Ecosystem, through agreements with several post-production and digital media service companies in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The Digital Ecosystem allows existing and future clients to connect the post-production aspect of their workflows with GlobeCast’s MAM and delivery services, helping them to streamline operations, saving time and money all across the value chain.
Play
This year GlobeCast interconnected its playout and origination centers in London, Paris, Miami, and Singapore, and saw a startling increase of 86 percent in the number of channels played out at these facilities over the course of the year.
In Singapore, a deal with Technicolor saw GlobeCast acquire a new HD playout facility and add a staff of creative services professionals. In London, playout equipment was upgraded and optimized, increasing the efficiency and capacity of GlobeCast’s playout capabilities. Most recently, the company’s central London facility on Grays Inn Road upgraded to an OmniBus iTX system. In the Americas, Argentine broadcasting giant Pramer decided to originate five of its channels from GlobeCast’s state-of-the-art facility in Sunrise, near Miami.
In 2011, GlobeCast looks forward to further development of the company’s MAM and global playout activities, with new deals soon to be announced, as well as live demonstrations at key trade shows in every region of the world including CSTB in Moscow, CABSAT in Dubai, and NAB in Las Vegas.