Simplestream powers GB News OTT
July 13, 2021
Live, live-2-VoD, and on-demand OTT platform specialist Simplestream has been selected by GB News – the newly-launched British free-to-air television news channel – to power a range of new OTT services.
The latest digital offering complements the service’s mass-reach traditional linear television distribution strategy via DTH, DTT and cable through increased reach and consumer engagement.
Built on Simplestream’s proprietary App Platform, the project encompasses a fully-customisable, powerful framework for seamless delivery of premium content, with out of the box functionalities for live and on-demand consumption. It includes a fully automated live-2-VoD integration for automated catch-up generation, plus the removal of broadcast adverts, allowing for dynamic ad replacement.
The GB News app is free and initially launched on desktop, Android, and iOS. It is set to be made available across all major platforms by the end of 2021.
Following the launch, over one million unique users accessed GB News in the first three weeks; 900,000 hours of content were consumed across all digital platforms, with 33 minutes of playtime, on average, per unique user.
“We confidently delivered a complex project within a very short turnaround time of only eight weeks, from the design phase, through the build and release of the applications and embeddable web players,” commented Dan Finch, Chief Commercial Officer, Simplestream, said. “Since its launch, GB News gained over 200,000 downloads from app stores, with high average ratings, which are testament to the popularity of the channel and the scalability of our App Platform.”
“We undertook a rigorous procurement process which validated the technical robustness and flexibility of the Simplestream solution,” added GB News’ Marc Schipper, Chief Operating Officer. “A very pleasant additional benefit was the ‘can-do’ and positive attitude displayed unfailingly by the Simplestream team towards what was certainly not the least challenging set of tasks”.
The launch follows similar projects Simplestream has recently undertaken for UK broadcasters such as A+E Blaze, Sony Kids, CBS, and UKTV.