YouView Takes Service to the Cloud
YouView, the hybrid DTT and broadband TV service for 2.5 million UK customers, has re-engineered its platform from the ground up to take advantage of cloud and web technologies.
YouView claims to be the first broadcast platform of significant scale in the UK to embrace the technology fully across the whole platform and device.
Indeed it claims this makes it "one of just a handful of TV platforms in the world" to do so.
Changes include a redesigned image-centric UI that promises a slicker programme guide and quicker playback of live and on-demand content.
At the same time, it is switching from Flash to HTML5 to make it easier for third-party providers to offer their programming via the platform.
YouView infrastructure now runs over Amazon Web Services, enabling more agile mobile and app technology and allowing service owners—BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 plus Arqiva, BT and broadband service provider TalkTalk—to gain more data about how consumers discover and choose content, combined with traditional viewing data.
Cross-device innovation and multi-room viewing is also under development.
"Our move to the cloud gives us the opportunity to make large scale changes, add functionality and enhance features in days or weeks, rather than the months or years it can take for other traditional TV platforms to do the same," says Richard Halton, CEO of YouView. "Having worked in close collaboration with our shareholders, particularly with BT and TalkTalk, our next-gen platform can rapidly adapt to the changing tastes and TV demands of future viewers, all without the need for a new set top box. Every YouView box will feel like a whole new product, which will continuously improve."
The new platform is being rolled out to TalkTalk customers this week, and then to BT subscribers, followed by YouView set-top box owners in the new year.
YouView pioneered the new BBC's Red Button+ Service and, a year ago, was the first to offer UK customers a 4K Netflix channel.
Reports earlier in the year suggested BT wanted to buy out the other sharedholders for between £20-60m after being frustrated at the platform’s ability to innovate. The current deal supporting the platform runs util 2019.