NEW YORK — While parent company Comcast Corp. is inching closer to a deal to acquire a 51% stake in NBC Universal, its white-label video publishing firm thePlatform is expanding its client base and launching features designed to enable programmers to provide “TV Everywhere” capabilities on their Web sites.
New clients for thePlatform include Comcast cable networks E! Entertainment Television, Style Network and G4, for which the firm had to compete with outside competitors; Travel Channel; Big Ten Network; a dozen local Fox Sports Networks; and local Comcast Sports Group networks.
ThePlatform is also unveiling Wednesday that it is working with Canadian cable giant Rogers on an online video initiative.
Its existing clients include the AP, CNBC, truTV, PBS and BBC Worldwide as well as cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Cox.
“In a world where multiple service providers offer multiple subscription packages on multiple platforms, programmers need a simple, flexible solution that helps reduce complexity and meet the expectations of their service provider partners and consumers,” thePlatform CEO Ian Blaine said about the new “TV Everywhere” features.
Blaine told The Hollywood Reporter that programmers need simple, flexible solutions for “TV Everywhere” that also preserve their financial and content rights arrangements with TV service providers.
ThePlatform’s new products options include constraining the search results to only those videos the consumer is allowed to watch, providing full search results with an upsell opportunity to subscribe to a premium subscription package and offering a pay-per-view option for an online show, similar to TV VOD systems.
Founded in 2000 and bought by Comcast in 2006, thePlatform is headquartered in Seattle.
