Monthly Archives: October 2011
KIT digital officially opens the doors to its new Prague HQ
Last week was a big week in our new Prague headquarters. Members of our management team from around the world hosted more than 60 international guests for a ‘Corporate Open House’ event, where we took stakeholders through a snapshot of the business today. This snapshot included in-depth demonstrations of the latest iteration of the KIT Video Platform. Check out our video recap of this exciting event below:
This is the first in a weekly series of updates on the rapidly changing world of social TV. View the Slideshare full screen to access the links. Social TV Update #1
When 30-Second Spots Morph Into ‘Social Intermissions’
Part 2 of 3 of a series on SocialTV by our strategy director Alan Wolk that originally appeared in DigiDay. Last week, I wrote about how social platforms can play a critical role in the decision-making stage of the television experience. Today we’ll look at how social plays out while our eyes are on the set. There’s little doubt social media and TV are colliding. The only question is how they will be weaved together. There’s no easy answer here, as social’s role morphs with the type of programming. Watching TV is a “lean back” experience. And how much we want to lean back depends on our relationship to the content. Sports programming has lots of timeouts and other breaks in the action. These provide ample opportunity to lean in and start talking with our friends, both online and off. But take a new episode of a crime drama. For most people, this demands their full attention. They may want … Continue reading
Telecom Argentina Leverages KIT digital to Deliver Arnet Play, a New Multiscreen OTT Video Service
This morning, KIT digital and Telecom Argentina announced a partnership to deliver TA’s new multiscreen over-the-top video service, Arnet Play. The service, which launched this week, already offers Telecom Argentina’s 1.5 million subscribers access to more than 2,500 video titles on the go. Read the full news release →
The Three Stages of Social TV
This is the first of a three-part series by Alan Wolk, our Managing Director of Social Strategy, on emerging consumer behaviors around multiscreen television. It originally appeared in DigiDay Daily. Social media might just be the best thing that’s happened to TV. While you probably think all that tweeting and Facebooking is tearing us away from the flat screen, it’s actually making TV programming even more powerful. Social TV is a hot trend nowadays. Everyone has an opinion; only there’s a tendency to lump any and every TV-related interaction under the banner of “social television.” There are, however, actually three distinct stages of the TV-watching experience: deciding, watching and reviewing, all of which feed off each other in a circular rather than linear pattern. In this article, I’ll concentrate on deciding. In subsequent articles, I’ll address what it means for watching and reviewing. The first part of any TV-viewing experience is always going to be “what should we watch?” And much … Continue reading
KIT Powers “Nautilus Live” Experience
Today we announced a partnership with the JASON project, in which we’re helping to broadcast “Nautilus Live” – a series of live, 24-7 video streams from a four-month ocean exploration expedition in the Black and Mediterranean Seas and the Atlantic Ocean. KIT is helping to encode raw satellite feeds, organize the footage into channels and programs and deliver them to the web and a special channel on Roku set-top boxes, which have been distributed to museums, aquariums, schools and after-school clubs. From the press release: Both the Nautilus Live and JASON outlets are designed to give viewers the experience of being aboard the Nautilus ship, looking over the shoulders of the scientists and crew and listening to their conversations during the expedition–enabling participants to communicate with each other and learn about and share discoveries in real time as they watch live ocean exploration and shipboard activities during each leg of the journey. We’re extremely excited about what this announcement means … Continue reading
KIT digital and Harmonic announce partnership to deliver advanced multi-device broadband video solutions
Today we announced a strategic partnership with Harmonic that harnesses our complementary product portfolios to offer MVPDs an end-to-end multiscreen video architecture optimally managed for maximum performance. Our two companies are working together to create solutions that enable Tier 1 video providers to efficiently expand existing broadcast and pay TV services with new multi-platform, multi-device delivery models. Read the press release here.
Busy Week in the Northeastern US for KIT
KIT digital is gearing up for a busy week in the northeastern US next week, where we’ll be sponsoring two different conferences: Akamai Edge Customer Conference KIT digital will be the exclusive sponsor of the Media & Entertainment track at Akamai’s Annual Customer Conference, October 11-14 at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston. If you’re attending, stop by booth #32 for a demo of the KIT Video Platform and some of the latest OTT, multi-screen video experiences we’re powering for customers. You can also sit in on one of the sessions we’re participating in: KnowlEdge Round Table Discussion: Social + TV – Why Everything You Know Is About To Change Moderated by Alex Blum, Global COO, KIT digital Wednesday, 12:00 – 1:00, Orleans Meeting Room Nearly half of US adults who are online have used social media to engage with TV programming in some way within the last few months. We’re building to a fundamental shift in the way … Continue reading
Cannes, France: KIT Sets Sail at MIPCOM 2011
MIPCOM opened in Cannes today and as always, KIT digital is there with a small but dedicated team, demonstrating the breadth of our solutions to the worlds biggest broadcasters and media companies. MIPCOM has long been a focal point for companies in the business of making, selling and distributing content. Over 12,000 participants from 100 countries descend on Cannes to wheel and deal in the worlds best film and television content. This year, KIT digital will be showcasing our new KIT Video Platform (read about it here), our ready-made VOD store (check it out here) and our Social TV offering (more information here) aboard a charter yacht which is docked close to the action. The high-tech vessel is fully equipped with data services and a demo suite so that customers can sit back and experience the KIT offer. So spare a thought for our hardworking sales team who are most certainly doing it tough this week!