SaskTel to introduce new TV recommendation engine
March 21, 2012
SaskTel will soon be one of the first providers in North America to introduce a new recommendation feature to its IPTV service, Max Entertainment Services. The feature will be powered by Gravity R&D’s Gravity IMPRESS engine. Gravity R&D is one of the leading providers of movie recommendation systems. SaskTel is the leading communications service provider in Saskatchewan, Canada. When implemented in the second quarter of 2012, Gravity IMPRESS will enable SaskTel to recommend live TV programs and movies individually to all Max residential subscribers based on each viewer’s taste and viewing habits.
Overcoming Content Overload – With the growing amount of content available to IPTV viewers through linear programs and video on demand (VOD), it is increasingly hard for users to find or discover content that is appealing to them. Technology solutions such as the Gravity IMPRESS recommendation system enable TV and VOD content providers to make intelligent recommendations by tracking, analyzing, learning and predicting the viewing habits of their consumers.
Among the first – SaskTel, pioneering the way users watch TV, chose Gravity as their recommendation system. Gravity is capable of recommending both Video on Demand content and linear TV programs in an integrated way. This is one of the first full blown deployments of such a system in North America.
“SaskTel is committed to innovation and to enhancing the viewing experience of our Max customers,” said Stacey Sandison, SaskTel’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Our innovative new TV and movie recommendation system, powered by Gravity IMPRESS, will add value for Max customers by making it much easier to find the content they want to see.”
Gravity IMPRESS has the added benefit of making it possible for different members of the family – albeit using the same device – to still get personalized recommendations by differentiating among various viewing patterns on the same TV set.
This deployment was arranged by Versus Technologies Inc., a re-seller of Gravity IMPRESS recommendation solution in Canada.