VIACOM: Media Asset Management for Over-The-Top content delivery

ETERE has helped Viacom International Media Networks to improve the distribution and monetization of their OTT content by significantly automating material packaging and cutting delivery times.

The long and firmly established prestige of ETERE as the only company able to provide the most complete and tailored solutions at lowest costs has led VIMN to rely upon ETERE to deploy a business-class OTT delivery system.

Challenge
VIMN (Viacom Media Networks) has responded to the need to meet the growing demand for over-the-top services and the market opportunity to further monetize its media assets by choosing ETERE’s OTT Delivery as the cost and resource-efficient solution to ensure a seamless distribution of content stored in their media archive.

The implementation of a business-class OTT Delivery for VIMN (Viacom international media networks) was the crowning element of a more ambitious project built upon an ETERE MERP framework, designed to embrace the acquisition, transcoding, localization and delivery of VIMN’s content into a cloud-based, workflow-driven management system.

“ETERE has helped VIMN to improve the distribution and monetization of their OTT content by significantly automating material packaging and cutting delivery times.”

VIMN’s OTT business consists of granting licenses to partnering OTT service providers (Netflix, iTunes, Net Now, Canal+, Orange, SFR, NumeriCable, Direct TV, cableLabs, Sony Internet TV, etc.) to distribute content coming from its networks (Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, Bet, Nick Jr., etc.), usually after their premiere broadcast in a specific country (USA, France, Brazil, etc.).

This paper will describe the multi-platform OTT delivery solution provided by ETERE to streamline VIMN’s content distribution and ensure a 100% compliance of all delivered materials according to the technical specifications required by each particular OTT platform. A special focus will be made on the comprehensive workflow framework that allows automating the acquisition, conforming, transcoding and transferring all required material, a key feature that eliminates possible errors during the delivery chain.

Solution
ETERE OTT Delivery is based on a strong grasp of the broadcasting and media industry, being designed to help content providers to keep up the pace with the rapidly increasing demand of over-the-top content by offering a reliable system to automatically license and deliver media with ensured compliance and security.

“Delivery orders drastically automate licensing, packaging and consignment of premium assets, meeting all contract terms and format specifications of an unlimited number of platforms“.

The OTT Delivery module enables content providers (e.g. broadcasters, television programmers, movie studios, etc.) to carry out the distribution of their content over a variety of media platforms (e.g. Netflix, Hulu Plus, Redbox Instant, Vudu, etc.).

A user-friendly interface enables users to create delivery orders where all conditions can be specified from the distributor, platform, metadata and materials to the workflow to be used to automatically adjust content to the technical requirements of a specific platform and transfer packaged files where needed.

Delivery Orders
With OTT Delivery, VIMN content can be delivered just by specifying the contractual terms (i.e. distributor, platform, period, price, etc.) and material (i.e. one or more different assets), and triggering the delivery workflow appropriated to automatically adjust content to the technical specifications of a particular platform.

OTT Delivery is part of Etere BMS, the suite of broadcast management tools that cover all key aspects of the sale and purchase of content within broadcast and media companies, from the entry of licensing rights to the usage monitoring of licensed assets.

Multi-Platform Delivery
An unlimited number of target platforms can be defined in the VIMN system, so each delivery order can be related to a specific platform. A key feature allows marking content with an “exclusivity” flag to indicate that said particular content cannot be delivered to other platforms (or distributors).

Versions Conforming
Before being processed within delivery orders, content is conformed via workflow to generate a “clean version” suitable for re-use (i.e. without slates and recaps). Conforming is based on the asset’s EDL previously marked during the post-acquisition stage.

On-the-Fly Transformation
Delivered material can include besides media, also XML files with assets metadata, said files can be created on-the-fly (via workflow) based on a XSLT transformation templates designed to suit a required data specification (structure, fields, etc.).

MERP Integrations
As part of Etere MERP solution provided to VIMN, OTT Delivery has placed VIMN at the technological forefront of media production and distribution thanks to the latest modular and workflow-based features required to efficiently deliver content to the OTT marketplace:
■ Outstanding integration with all Etere modules to create a high-level architecture with direct archive
and database communication.
■ Accurate real-time media management, content delivery and processes monitoring
■ Versatile framework to introduce future changes into the delivery workflow without altering the
overall functioning and increasing costs.
■ Reliable rights structure to restrict specific media, metadata and operations to specific users

Workflow Processing
The VIMN system has been powered with workflow technology to ensure accurate and automated management of assets. After files (IMX50 or XDCAMHD) are acquired into the VIMN archive, in order to make them “ready for use” a series of processes are performed including the metadata insertion and EDL marking of “visible” segments that compose the conformed version (free of slates and recaps) to be delivered.

Automatic Delivery
The delivery workflow is the most sensitive part of the entire process; it’s
where the conformed content is adjusted to meet the required specifications of an OTT platform, including transcoding and generation actions required before transferring the set of files to the required destination.

Files Packaging
A special feature consists of the use of a workflow action that allows packaging multiple files related to an asset into one single package (directory or zipped file), thus enabling VIMN to automate the transfer process of all required material (video clips, audio tracks, poster images, xml metadata and subtitles).

Third-party Transfers
Besides from using the Etere’s built-in ability to transfer files through the FTP protocol, the VIMN workflow has been enriched with the ability to use specialized file transfer systems (e.g. Signiant, Aspera, etc.), controlled through an API interface to automatically trigger transfer jobs and get their status and progress.

Benefits
■ Flexibility on meeting all technical specifications about format, metadata, rights and location of material delivered to multiple platforms
■ Scalability, to add OTT platforms without altering the workflow complexity, keeping operational overheads low and overall costs
■ Efficiency, achieved by reducing manual intervention and planning in advance the automatic execution of preset workflow actions
■ Reliability, derived from the use of streamlined workflows provided with detailed logs for tracking the overall and individual functioning of the system
■ Accuracy, on all phases, reducing the risk of errors when delivering material since all operations are continuously checked and monitored
■ Integration, of third-party systems at any point of the workflow, allowing to use external file transfers, transcoders and archives
■ Security, across all operations depending on specific user permissions based on the structure of the customer’s Active Directory domain
■ Usability, of a sophisticated interface that guarantees a smooth use and intuitive delivery of OTT content, including facilitated operations

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