Entriq™, Inc, an innovative company that provides pay media services to leading content providers, ISPs and cable operators worldwide and a subsidiary of the multinational media group Naspers (NASDAQ: NPSN and JSE: NPN), announced that it enabled participating European Broadcasting Union (EBU) broadcasters to deliver live and on demand video over the Internet from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Secured in June 2004, this historic deal protected some of the most valuable TV sports content in the world for live Internet distribution.
Entriq facilitated EBU members to stream Athens 2004 Olympic content securely over the Internet. This was the first time in the history of sports distribution that such high value and prestigious content was available over the Internet, which was made possible by an integrated solution from Entriq and the Akamai global delivery platform.
Together with Akamai, Entriq successfully ensured complete protection and geographic control of the live and on demand video from the Olympic Games. Use of Entriq’s services enabled participating EBU broadcasters to protect their digital Olympic Games video content and ensured that access was restricted to Internet users in the EBU territory.
Entriq enabled the EBU and its broadcasters to secure hundreds of videos of Olympic content, which was viewed by people in more than 30 countries in the EBU territory. European broadcasters that offered live or deferred streaming of the Games from their respective Web sites included ARD, ZDF in Germany, Canal+ in France, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark and SRG in Switzerland.
As the largest professional association of national broadcasters (television and radio) in the world, the EBU has 72 active Members in 52 countries of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and 50 associate Members in 30 countries further afield. A total of 88 EBU broadcasters were present at the Summer Games.
Marc Joerg, Head Of Sport at EBU comments,’In an age where digital content has become increasingly more valuable to rights holders it was absolutely imperative that we appoint for our members a company that had technological and business solutions that would ensure that the protection of the Olympic broadband rights’ said Marc Joerg, Head of Sports of the EBU.
Mr. Joerg added ‘It is clear from our initial research that online participation through the rights holders has been larger than expected and as such we are thrilled that the Entriq solution has allowed us to realize the secure online distribution of Olympic video content.’
Commenting on the deal with EBU, Jan Steenkamp, chief executive officer of Entriq, says, ‘By using the Entriq solution, some of Europe’s most prominent national broadcasters were able to realise the full worth of their Olympic content. We continue to work towards implementing the most secure online solutions for our customers in the fields of sports, television, music and entertainment. We are thrilled that through our unique service we have been able to deliver the most secure media authorisation for this most valuable content for one of the world’s most prestigious events.’
Boyd Peterson of research consultant Yankee Group, ‘This is a significant deal for Entriq. It signals the company’s emergence as a global player in the pay media industry, and it highlights their unique expertise in developing and tailoring secure on-line media solutions allowing broadcasters to manage and monetize exceptionally valuable sports related content’.
For more details contact:
Will Paget or Lisa Baker
PagetBaker PR
Tel: 00 44 207 289 4440
Email: will@pagetbaker.com