Taking aim at studios, TV networks, sports leagues and MVPDs, SeaChange on Wednesday introduced Rave, a platform designed for “premium” over-the-top video.
SeaChange said Rave, which will support the company’s data analytics and advanced advertising technologies, will cover a variety of OTT apps and services, including video-on-demand, time-shifted, live and downloadable content.
According to the company, the Rave platform will support a presentation layer for multiple devices and operating systems, a unified subscriber experience via a component called Rave Unite, and a services layer spanning content preparation, analytics, advertising, social integration, personalization, as well as live and on-demand video, time-shifted TV, and network DVR capabilities.
The product seemingly expands the business scope for SeaChange, which has been traditionally focused on the MVPD sector via products such as Adrenalin, its multiscreen video backoffice platform, and Nucleus, an in-home gateway software platform that will play a key role at Layer3 TV, an emerging “virtual” MVPD. Adrenalin is also part of the Rave platform, the company confirmed.
SeaChange said Rave is backed by its Professional Services organization, and that its platform has already been picked by BBC Worldwide for the BBC Store, a service scheduled to launch in 2015. Algar Telecom of Brazil is also a Rave customer, using it to expand a cloud video services trial. SeaChange is in discussions with others.
The rollout of Rave also appears to place SeaChange in more direct competition with premium-focused online video publishing and management companies, such as Comcast-owned thePlatform, Ooyala, and Piksel, as well as Vubiquity, which also provides content aggregation services, Cisco Systems (Videoscape), and Ericsson, which recently upgraded the Mediaroom product it acquired from Microsoft and introduced a cloud-based, OTT-facing product called MediaFirst.
“Until now the OTT phenomenon has mainly been about reaching the biggest possible audience, not about getting the most revenue from the TV and video content that consumers most prize,” said Jay Samit, SeaChange’s recently appointed CEO, in a statement.
SeaChange announced Rave as it prepared to release fiscal third quarter results.
Update: SeaChange posted Q3 revenues of $30 million and a GAAP loss of $5.9 million (19 cents per share), versus revenues of $37.8 million and net income of $500,000 (2 cents per fully diluted share) in the year-ago quarter. SeaChange expects fourth quarter revenues to be in the range of $30 million to $34 million.
