Add NOS, Portugal’s major cable operator, to the list of MSOs that is embracing OTT.
NOS, which serves more than 1.6 million video homes in Portugal, is working with Metrological to integrate a variety of OTT offerings, via a TV apps store, for its new UMA TV platform, which includes a 4K-capable box made by Arris that is powered by the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a pre-integrated software platform being managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter Communications.
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Under the agreement, NOS will integrate OTT alongside its traditional pay TV offering using Metrological’s Application Platform, WPE (Web Platform for Embedded) browser and WPE cloud architecture.
NOS hasn’t revealed which OTT apps will be offered on its platform, but Metrological has already helped two other RDK champions – Comcast and Liberty Global – integrate online services such as Netflix on their respective set-top boxes.
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Pedro Bandeira, head of development at NOS, said it’s important to employ an architecture that ensures that OTT services are not delivered to set-tops in in separate silos, but are seamlessly integrated into the operator’s interface/navigation and search platform.
“It’s a full experience, a full package,” Bandeira explained, adding that NOS’s new hybrid set-top box platform “offers us the flexibility to do such a move.”
Metrological’s approach, added company SVP of sales and marketing Thijs Bijleveld, doesn’t replace anything on the box’s middleware stack, but employs an open-source browser that can efficiently onboard apps.
