ThinkAnalytics said it has secured a deal to power a personalized video recommendation and search engine for Swisscom’s new TV 2.0 Android IPTV set-top boxes as well as for the service provider’s legacy set-tops.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but Swisscom TV 2.0 has tapped ThinkAnalytics’ system for live, linear TV channels, as well Replay (a seven-day TV catch-up service), and the operator’s video-on-demand platform. The recommendation engine has been integrated with the Swisscom EPG. Specific personal and recommendation categories include “content for you,” “most watched/rented,” and “highest rated.”
"We selected ThinkAnalytics because we wanted a partner with proven experience in live, linear TV deployments and VOD," said Volker Dietzel, head of TV services at Swisscom, in a statement. "We now have a personalized recommendations/search solution that incorporates advanced analytics and business rules and gives us flexibility and scalability, allowing us to add new features, support for additional devices, and additional services down the line."
Update: Jinni noted it and Swisscom are under a commercial agreement for providing a narrow set of discovery features, and that Swisscom has never used or tested Jinni's LiveTV features. However, it added that its discovery features for live TV has been in use by Belgacom for more than two years and that other Jinni customers are currently in advanced stages of integrating the Jinni LiveTV features within their services.
ThinkAnalytics, which counts Jinni and TiVo-owned Digitalsmiths as competitors, said its customer base is now comprised of more than 50 video service providers including Fox, Cox Communications, Liberty Global, BSkyB, Viaplay, and Zon in Portugal.
Jinni's service provider customer roster includes AT&T U-verse, Comcast (for its X1 platform),Belgium’s Belgacom, Spain’s Prisa, Singapore’s SingTel, and Canada’s Telus. It's also providing video discovery capabilities on Xbox consoles and is in the process of being integrated with Vudu, Wallmart’s electronic sell-through service.
