IBM and CANAL+ Group Delivers Digital Content to Consumers at Accelerated Rate

Project Modernizes the Media Process Allowing Canal+ to Bring Programs to Air Faster

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Sep 10, 2012, 10:23 ET

ARMONK, N.Y and AMSTERDAM, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), that it has helped Canal+ Group, the leading pay-TV broadcaster in France to transform its operations and streamline how the company processes, delivers and archives digital content. Canal+ can now easily launch and manage new channels and services such as on-demand, web-TV, as well as mobile-TV, in order to enhance the customer experience, while continuing to offer its subscribers high quality programming.

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Since announcing the project in June 2010, Canal+ has modernized and improved efficiencies across the entire media process lifecycle - from the time content is received to the moment it is distributed via satellite, cable, DSL or mobile. During the transformation, Canal+ automated its entire workflow and moved to a fully digital media end-to-end processing system, allowing the broadcaster to bring content to air faster, reduce operational costs, launch new services and add new channels within days, not months.

"This project has helped Canal+ undergo a major transformation, not just in terms of how we operate internally, but how we service our customers," said Jo Guegan, executive vice president, Technology and Information Systems, Canal+ Group. "This new intelligent system ensures we have the tools to produce and process programs in a time frame that keeps us ahead of our competitors in France and globally. As a result, Canal+ has become one of the first organizations in the world to dynamically monitor its workflow processes."

Prior to the overhaul, Canal+ often used separate and isolated systems to manage its services, often making the production process cumbersome, manually intensive and costly. Today, the staff has access to an interactive portal that collates and manages over 170 hours of content per day or 8,000 programs per year, whether from tape, external files or post-production video. The intuitive portal allows multimedia content to flow back and forth in real-time across business units such as programming, advertising, editorial, archiving, production, and distribution.

The new system reduces complexity and production time by eliminating the need for specific equipment and costly content duplication. Additionally, staff members can now share data and collaborate with colleagues and partners from other offices without travelling, freeing time to focus on new market opportunities. By streamlining this automation process, Canal+ can optimize tasks management without adding headcount. The team which previously managed the operations for five TV channels can now easily take on up to thirty channels.

"Profitably growing audience share in today's rapidly changing media marketplace requires a smarter, more agile approach to both production and distribution," said Steve Canepa, General Manager of IBM's Global Media & Entertainment Industry. "Canal+ has completely transformed its business, by implementing a scalable, instrumented and standards based software platform that allows it to better exploit the full value of its content while delivering compelling experiences to its customers."

IBM Global Business Services served as the lead system integrator and also provided program management, process and system design. The project is based on software capabilities of the IBM Media Enterprise Framework architecture, including IBM's Business Process Management solution, in addition to IBM LT04 Storage Systems, Media Asset Management software from Dalet Digital Media Systems, and numerous IBM xSeries servers including Bladecenter H.

About CANAL+ Group

CANAL+ Group is France's number 1 pay-TV operator and a leader in channel production and distribution with more than 11.2 million subscriptions. Worldwide CANAL+ Group totals close to 13 million subscriptions. A leading broadcaster with over 25 channels including the Canal+ premium channels, CANAL+ Group is a pioneer in bringing customers the best TV experience through innovative services. Canal+ Group, which has recently developed into free-to-air television, is a European leader in the movie industry via StudioCanal.

About IBM

For more information about IBM Media and Entertainment, visit www.ibm.com/media. Follow us on Twitter:@Smarter Media

Contacts

Fabienne Guildhary
IBM Media Relations
1-917-472-3733
[email protected]

Sandrine Durupt
IBM Media Relations (France)
33-1-5875-1795
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM