Elemental Powers Sky Go and NOW TV

Largest pay TV operator in the UK is the vanguard of software-defined video use for delivery of popular online news, sports and entertainment content to millions of customers

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Elemental

Jul 15, 2015, 12:00 ET

PORTLAND, Ore., and LONDON, July 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Elemental Technologies, the leading supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, today announced that Sky, the UK's largest pay TV provider, is leveraging Elemental to process and deliver its over-the-top (OTT) TV service NOW TV and mobile TV service, Sky Go.

During a special pre-IBC press event hosted at Sky in London today, Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of Elemental, described how software is "eating the video industry" as the world goes all IP.

Sky, the UK’s largest pay TV provider, is leveraging Elemental software to process and deliver its OTT service NOW TV and mobile TV service, Sky Go.

"We love to give our viewers the flexibility to choose how, where and when they watch their favorite shows," said Matt McDonald, director of broadcast services for Sky. "Elemental offers the platform we require for live video and VOD streaming and rapid deployment of new services that delight customers."

Sky Go is a mobile television service for Sky TV customers, which allows access to live and on-demand programming on computers, smartphones and tablets. NOW TV service provides contract-free, flexible access Sky's content and is delivered by IP-enabled boxes for viewing on TVs or via an app on over 60 compatible devices. NOW TV offers monthly passes to Sky Movies or Sky's Entertainment Channels or week and day passes to watch Sky Sports.

The Sky OTT service infrastructure is deploying Elemental® Live as the video processing engine in a workflow controlled by Elemental® Conductor. During live streaming, Sky channel IP inputs will be fed to Elemental Live software, which will encode original and aggregated linear content in real time for delivery to mobile devices and the web. For the Sky VOD workflow, Elemental® Server systems transcode content into multiple formats and encrypt it for high-quality, protected output to consumer's devices, including Apple TV, over the Sky Content Delivery Network (CDN).

"Sky is constantly innovating new ways for customers to enjoy premium TV Everywhere content," said John Nemeth, VP sales/EMEA for Elemental. "Elemental's level of quality and flexibility enables us to uniquely support Sky's mission to delight existing customers and redefine the meaning of TV."

About Sky

Sky is Europe's leading entertainment company with 21 million customers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and Ireland. Sky offers the best and broadest range of content, delivers market-leading customer service and uses innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose. Sky has annual revenues of over £11 billion and is Europe's leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of over £4.6 billion. The company employs 31,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).

About Elemental

Elemental Technologies is the leading supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company pioneered the use of software-based video processing to distribute video over IP networks. Solutions from Elemental provide the flexibility, scalability and performance required to deliver high quality video via turnkey, cloud-based and virtualized deployment models. Powering video experiences for more than 600 leading media franchises worldwide, Elemental helps pay TV operators, content programmers, broadcasters and enterprise customers bring video to any screen, anytime – all at once. The company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, China, Russia, India and Brazil. To learn more, please visit www.elementaltechnologies.com and follow @elementaltech on Twitter.