Advanced Television

ISG Group launches ISG Connect SaaS platform

July 2, 2019

ISG Group has announced the addition of a SaaS platform to its television industry’s first fully cloud based distribution platform, ISG Connect. This platform provides the sports broadcasting industry’s leading brands, broadcasters and rights holders with the ability to harness cloud technology to manage and package content to multiple platforms. The platform was previously only available as a managed service, but customers can now choose it as a software-as-a-service (SaaS), depending on their needs.

The sports broadcasting service world is currently linear-based and very much on-premise, using outdated methods such as spreadsheets to keep track of projects. This results in time-consuming processes and lots of overheads. The ISG Connect platform allows broadcasters and advertisers real-time access and visibility to content from anywhere and on any device. This enables them to edit content quickly and transparently, with changes that previously took days, now taking hours.

Matt Bowman, director at ISG Connect, said: “Linear Broadcast services are broken, with increasingly complex services requiring expensive hardware and increased staffing needs. This is happening at the same time as increased delivery population to digital platforms forcing customers to have a keen focus on obtaining value. For a linear supplier, it is unsustainable and unsurprising to see so many well-known firms go under.”

Bowman continued: “Our industry leading solutions architects and digital operations team set out to transform the content servicing industry and fix these problems. Our solution is fully clouded, infinitely scalable, and means customers can access every file as quickly as they can take it. Customers no longer have to rely upon cumbersome systems that delay processes taking place, as our cloud solution allows real-time amends and approvals. Sponsors can keep their advertising campaigns current as they can be updated just hours before an event.”

Simon Kay, director at ISG Connect, added: “The average savings our solution has provided customers in the first year of their contract is 40 per cent. The solution also generates a wealth of actionable real-time data that leads to future cost saving, for example, download behaviour mapping, reduced one clients spend by 75 per cent.

“We have added a SaaS option to our platform to allow customers to subscribe and sign-in users remotely, with a solution that is flexible, easy to implement and affordable. Customers can now pay for what they use and ensure they are really getting value for money. We will continue to offer our managed services solution to customers requiring a more bespoke offering.”

ISG Connect is available in different tiers: gold, silver and bronze, depending on the levels of support and seats a customer requires on the system. Through client projects, ISG Connect has onboarded over 250 international broadcasters and creative houses, becoming a trusted partner to some of the world’s largest properties.

For ISG Group, the launch of ISG Connect further demonstrates the company’s determination to use technology to improve the interaction between major brands, rights holders and media organisations.

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