Aferian plc (LON:AFRN), the B2B video streaming solutions company, has announced that its 24i video streaming platform is supporting Waoo, Denmark’s leading provider of internet, TV and telephony via the fibre network, to bring its Pay TV service to a new generation of Android TV set top boxes (STBs), as well as adding third party aggregated content and enhanced search functionality.
As part of their continuing efforts to deliver better customer experience, Waoo recently launched a new generation of STBs that make use of a new custom Android TV launcher built by the 24i team. The new devices include Waoo’s offering of live TV channels, network PVR, catch-up TV and a VOD rental store. They are powered by the same 24i streaming platform that already supports Waoo’s service on other devices including mobile phones and Apple TV devices.
Waoo has been a long-standing client of Nordija, now part of 24i, relying on its solutions since 2010. This successful partnership now continues with the enlarged 24i which has previously deployed Android TV services for Pay TV operators including Youfone in the Netherlands and Entel in Chile.
In addition, Waoo has also rolled out 24i’s Unified Search capabilities to all its devices to enable better search and discovery of video content in a growing library of live and on-demand content. Users can now get integrated search results from across the Waoo platform, including catch-up TV, the EPG (TV Guide) and more than 12,000 TV and Movie titles available to rent in the “Waoo Bio” VOD store.
Martin Jürgensen, Waoo’s Senior Product Development Manager, said: “Aggregation is the keyword. Using our existing 24i streaming platform to reach Android TV boxes with the Google Play Store means we can offer our customers a wider range of attractive content. We are preloading the new TV boxes with apps from streaming services like Disney+, Discovery+, Viaplay and the national broadcaster DR. Users can also download apps for themselves like Spotify or games. This makes the box become a versatile media hub in the home.
“The new Universal Search function only enhances this versatility, and is already proving popular with our subscribers. As a viewer, you just have one place to go to find the content you’re looking for, so you don’t have to browse all kinds of catalogues and archives. You can just start entering the name of an actor or a show and then the result will pop up. It’s an easy way to discover content and it works across all devices including STBs, web and mobile phones.”
Joachim Bergman, 24i CEO and Aferian Board Member, said: “We have been working with Waoo for many years now and they’ve always wanted to innovate and offer their subscribers ground-breaking features, so we’re delighted to have supported them on this latest step into content super-aggregation. The combination of a custom Android TV launcher and our cloud-hosted Universal Search solution is a great way to give customers what they want – quality, choice and convenience.”
