GTPL Hathway, the country’s single largest cable feed provider, said it has tied up with France-based Verimatrix to deploy its video content authority system — a software solution that helps GTPL stream video content to its Android TVs securely.
The moves comes as GTPL Hathway ramps up its Android TV box-based service. The company started out as a traditional cable TV provider, and later added broadband services to the mix.
It is now leveraging its broadband infrastructure to roll-out an IPTV-like solution that will include on-demand movies and features such as rewind and repeat for TV programs.
However, to get content owners to license their intellectual property to GTPL, the cable operator has to prove to them that their content will not be recorded or otherwise captured and misused by consumers, and this is where the VCAS system comes in.
Verimatrix has solutions that involve a customized version of Android TV operating system that can be loaded onto a set-top-box, much like Amazon’s Fire TV version of Android TV (see image).
Once the set-top-box is loaded with this version of Android TV, GTPL can get full control over what apps are allowed to be installed, what is shown on the home-screen and also deliver its own videos, such as movies, right on the home screen of the device.
In addition, the French company also offers an app-based version of the service that can be used to extend GTPL’s content service to the subscriber’s mobile phone or tablet. By installing the app on a phone or tablet, the user can watch all the content he would be able to watch as part of his GTPL subscription on his mobile device as well.
“Verimatrix VCAS is designed as a future-proof and scalable security solution for premium video content. Its DVB Hybrid offers GTPL an unmatched combination of protection and flexibility as delivery methods expand and evolve throughout India,” the Gujarat-based company said.
The Indian company said Verimatrix will help the company offer “studio compliant” protection to whatever offerings it chooses to support as time goes by.
Moreover, it will also simplify the management of subscribers and content at the back-end.
GTPL said it will gain “enhanced workflow and integration options as well as the reliability that we’re ready to rapidly scale up new subscribers across our areas of operation, to any additional devices we choose later, with a single security platform,” the company said.
GTPL Hathway is India’s largest cable feed provider and the country’s 6th largest private sector wired broadband operator.
It offers cable TV in 1,100 towns across Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Karnataka.
The company has around 7.50 million Paying Cable TV Subscribers and 7,65,000 broadband subscribers. Its broadband service is available at 4.4 million homes in India.