Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has been selected by SaskTel in Saskatchewan, Canada, to power its multiscreen IPTV service. SaskTel plans to start to implement the Ericsson MediaFirst solution suite this year, with plans to commercially launch the upgraded service in early 2018.
The deployment is intended to support in-home video, TV everywhere and OTT, including a personalized interface across all screens and the ability to watch live TV and access content on demand on any device. It will also be made available to existing maxTV subscribers.
Ron Styles, president and CEO at SaskTel, said: "The implementation of Ericsson MediaFirst will position SaskTel at the leading edge of TV innovation and will afford us the flexibility to evolve maxTV as our customer's preferences and habits change over time. In addition, by 2018/19 this platform will allow SaskTel to expand our maxTV service to approximately 100,000 new households spread across more than 300 communities throughout rural Saskatchewan."
Ericsson's MediaFirst suite includes the MediaFirst TV Platform, Video Processing, Video Delivery and Video Storage and Processing Platform (VSPP). The software-defined, cloud-based platform is designed to support all content sources and delivery networks and to provide analytics tools.
