Aferian plc partners with Swisscom Broadcast, launches FokusOnTV

LONDON, UK: Aferian plc (LSE AIM: AFRN), the B2B video streaming solutions company, announced a new partnership with Swisscom Broadcast and the launch of FokusOnTV.

FokusOnTV is 24i’s new TV as a Service (TVaaS) streaming offering that enables Pay TV operators to improve their time to market and reduce their on-site infrastructure and operational complexity.

The end-to-end, fully cloud based FokusOnTV solution is a managed service based on 24i’s proven middleware. It will be offered as a pre-integrated solution with Swisscom Broadcast’s premium headend infrastructure, giving operators in the region access to over 600 national and international TV channels.

FokusOnTV’s configurable, off-the-shelf consumer applications are available for leading web browsers and mobile devices running iOS or Android as well as Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TVs, Chromecast and set-top boxes.

These apps give consumers the ability to pause, resume or restart live TV channels on their devices. Users can also record and replay up to 1,000 hours of their favourite content in the cloud.

The service also comes with an optional, pre-integrated launcher for Android TV, enabling operators to enjoy rapid time-to-market with a managed set-top device that aggregates content from other streaming service providers including their own. For a complete Aferian solution, the service can be delivered with pre-integrated Android TV streaming devices from Amino.

Donald McGarva, Aferian Group CEO, said: “At Aferian, our mantra is ‘streaming made simple’ and Pay TV doesn’t get much simpler than FokusOnTV. We offer access to a fantastic range of TV content and network PVR functionality as part of this fully hosted, end-to-end solution. It’s a cost-effective and hassle-free way for Pay TV operators to bring a superior streaming service to consumers on a wide range of devices and to scale for their future growth.”

Dominik Müller, CEO of Swisscom Broadcast, said: “We have been working with the team at 24i for many years now, so we are very familiar and impressed with the stability and reliability of their middleware and applications. We are delighted to be part of this hosted TV as a Service solution that gives operators a fast, flexible and high-quality next-generation streaming service without having to invest in their own infrastructure.”