NEW YORK – Media company ZoneTV is readying a suite of customizable linear TV channels that it says will launch this fall.
The start-up announced a partnership with video monetization technology and services provider Ooyala and Microsoft that will see it curate some 6,000 hours of licensed digital-first content into specialized channels for pay-TV subscribers called ZoneTV Dynamic Channels.
The result is a new cable/satellite content category that offers a personal user experience blending the convenience of linear viewing with the flexibility of on-demand programming in a highly personalized viewing experience, with genres that include kid’s programming, fitness, cooking, casual games, sports, and lifestyle.
ZoneTV said that the content in the specialized channels will be presented in a consumer-friendly, easily discoverable way to viewers thanks to the ZoneTV Programming Studio, which is integrated with Ooyala’s Flex CMS and with Video Indexer, part of Microsoft Cognitive Services, to curate fine-tuned specialized channels.
The combination of these tools features advanced algorithms that characterize content; the platform automatically extracts and analyzes metadata to identify video genre and content sentiment, pulls topics from speech and text, translates captions into multiple languages and integrates subscriber analytics. This provides quick scalability for ZoneTV as it adds additional content, and reduces manual processes that can slow content curation and introduce errors in metadata translation and application.
“We’re building the next generation of pay-TV services, so we need next-generation tools. With the combination of Ooyala’s platform and Microsoft Cognitive Services, the ZoneTV Programming Studio delivers an unmatched capability to enhance the TV ecosystem and translates into a one-of-a-kind viewer experience,” said ZoneTV CEO Jeff Weber, in the news release.
ZoneTV said that it is deployed on Bell Canada, Telus, Comcast, DIRECTV, CenturyLink, and Frontier Communications.
