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Ready To Play With Global Digital Broadcast’s UK IPTV Service
Other Topics: Korea
IPTV Rollout
PlayTV UK
July 7, 2008
Brighton, UK -- The long awaited channel line up for the UK’s first
open, consumer, IPTV service, PlayTV UK, is now being released.
Powered by the Global Digital Broadcast (GDBTV) network, PlayTV UK
offers free to view channels and a number of packages including Play
Entertainment and Family, Play Movies, the international and foreign
language channel package, Play World and the largest selection of
sports programming through Play Setanta and Play Sports.
PlayTV UK is available on its
exclusive set-top box service and through its triple play package
which incorporates the set-top box with telephone and broadband
services. |
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GDBTV co-founder, managing
director and co-director of PlayTV UK, Jim Deans, says: “Finally,
after four years of hard work, IPTV is now looking like it is
supposed to. Our platform facilitates niche, small and independent
channels to sit alongside the major broadcasters and, with our
extensive sports offerings, it allows Rangers FC to sit alongside
Accrington Stanley. This is what we have wanted all along – to
provide a platform that can be used by everyone.”
PlayTV UK’s free to view line up includes: BBC
1, 2, 3 and 4; BBC News 24; BBC Parliament; ITV 1, 2, 2+1, 3 and 4;
Channel 4, MORE 4, E4 and E4+1; Five, Five Life and Five US; Sky
Three and Sky News; Virgin 1; CBBC and CBeebies; Film 4 and Film
4+1; UK History; Dave TV; The Hits; TMF; UK Entertainment; Teachers
TV; the Community Channel; QVC, Price Drop TV and Bid TV; Ideal
World; LBC; STV; CITV; Nuts TV and Smile TV.
The IPTV-based Play Entertainment and Family packages include:
Discovery Home and Health, Discovery Knowledge, Discovery Real Time,
Discovery 1, DMax, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Travel and Living,
Animal Planet and Discovery Science; Fashion TV and Fashion Men; the
Performance Channel; Main Street; Paramount 1,1+1, 2 and 2+1; CNN;
Al-Jazeera; Russia Today; Information TV and Information TV2; TV
Polari; Wedding TV; 18 Doughty Street; Redskin Records; The Magic
Channel; UK Entertainment; RCTV; Dave Courtney TV; Turkish Travel;
MTV, MTVR, MTV2, MTV Hits, MTV Base and MTV Dance; VH1 and VH1
Classics; TMF; Nickleodeon, Nick Toons, Nick Junior and Nick Replay;
the Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network 2, Toonami, Cartoonito and
Boomerang.
Play Setanta offers Setanta 1 and 2, Setanta News, NASN, Setanta
Golf, Racing UK, Setanta Ireland, Liverpool TV, Arsenal TV, Celtic
TV and Rangers TV; whilst the Play Sports package provides Eurosport
1 and 2, TV Scuba, Huddersfield FC, Sussex Cricket, TV Freestyle, TV
Boardrider, Suzuki, The Baseball Channel, The Fight Network and Race
Clubs.
Play Movies hosts Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and TCM2, plus Sixty 6
Films; and applies a no advertisements during movies policy as
standard.
Many niche and community/local IPTV channels are also available on
the platform, including TV Brighton, TV Luton, TV Chichester, TV
Christchurch and channel 1066; with numerous acquisitions, including
a dedicated football channel which plays host to independent
football clubs’ own TV offerings, are being added on a continuous
basis.
The Play World package is devoted to bringing the best of foreign
language programming to the UK and further details about this
offering will soon be available on the PlayTV UK website. A
secondary subscription service, which broadcasts adult content, is
being made available independently to the Play packages.
PlayTV UK’s set-top box service is currently
rolling out, with 1,000 set-top boxes in the UK marketplace at the
time of writing and ongoing figures standing at 10,000 within six
months and 50,000 within the next year. In addition to the set-top
box to television delivery, many of the channels will also be
available on PlayTV UK’s secure virtual set-top box application.
This means PlayTV UK can to broadcast to 86 countries around the
world and can be received by anyone, anywhere, with a broadband
connection.
PlayTV UK security, being on the GDBTV
platform, is unsurpassed. GDBTV implements secure iGuardian age
verification systems as and when relevant to content, i.e. U rated
content can be accessed by anyone, whereas 18 rated content, for
example, requires age verification before it may be accessed. No
other delivery method allows video-on-demand with a secure age
verification system.
GDBTV also provides Microsoft Digital Rights Management and a unique
secured conditional access model; in addition to the GDBTV eWallet
technology running bank processing from three major high street
banks and Thawte-approved security software (highest level
encryption), incorporating 3DSecure (verified by VISA and Mastercard
SecureCode).
David Wray, GDBTV co-founder, director and co-director of PlayTV UK,
concludes: “We are the only broadcaster currently offering the type
of PIN security which is so crucial to a family home environment. We
are, of course, extremely proud to have led in this area for a
couple of years now and we would like to see other broadcasters
catching up and implementing their own security measures.”
About PlayTV UK:
PlayTV UK is a British broadcast network which
has incorporated high-definition and digital technologies, in order
to provide a triple-play package including IPTV, telephone and
broadband services.
For further information on PlayTV UK and/or to order the service,
please visit http://www.playtvuk.com
About Global Digital Broadcast:
Established in 2005 and headquartered in Brighton, East Sussex,
GDBTV provides technical services in order to enable internet
protocol television (IPTV) to be delivered by broadcasters around
the world, to viewers around the world. It is the first to develop
and implement such a comprehensive, end-to-end, IPTV application,
including the G-Studio middleware and a hybrid set-top box (STB).
GDBTV maintains and operates IPTV networks in America (SuncasTV);
EMEA (Via America); the UK (PlayTV UK); Russia (MaksTV); the
Philippines (IPQube); Sweden (100 Plus); and can deliver to 86
countries worldwide. GDBTV had existing clients in over 30 countries
and territory IP-STB re-sellers positioned in Germany, Sweden,
Chicago, L.A., China and Canada. |
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