Turkey's D-Smart Selects KIT digital to Launch OTT Pay TV Service

Monday, July 23rd, 2012
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Multiscreen Video Service Will Be Powered by KIT digital’s Cosmos Video Platform

NEW YORK, NY and LONDON — KIT digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITD), a leading video management software and services company, today announced that it has been selected by Turkish pay TV provider D-Smart to develop and launch a multiscreen over-the-top (OTT) pay TV service.

“D-Smart is the most innovative digital platform in Turkey and this OTT project will provide our customers with an unparalleled user experience across their preferred devices,” said Ali Güven, CEO at D-Smart.

The D-Smart OTT service will be implemented using KIT digital’s Cosmos video platform and will support the delivery of live and on-demand programs to audiences in Turkey and around the world across multiple connected devices, including PC/Mac, tablets and smartphones. KIT digital will design and configure the software solution at the heart of the OTT service, and will partner with a local systems integrator to complete the implementation.

“We are thrilled that our first end-to-end implementation of Cosmos in Turkey will be for D-Smart, and we are confident that our partnership together will be tremendously fruitful for both our organizations,” added Frances Jarvis, Managing Director of EMEA at KIT digital.

D-Smart’s decision to roll out an OTT service mirrors the reaction of traditional pay TV providers around the world to consumer demand for IP-delivered video solutions, but Turkey offers a particularly compelling opportunity for forward-thinking service providers like D-Smart: although penetration of traditional digital TV is expected to nearly double by 2016, multiscreen viewing habits in Turkey are expected to grow five times as quickly in the same period, according to data by research group Screen Digest.

“D-Smart is in the business of delivering superior content to our customers here in Turkey. By partnering with KIT digital, we will now be able to deliver this content to a global audience the way they want to view it — anytime, anywhere, on any device,” said Erdogan Simsek, VP of Technology at D-Smart. “KIT digital’s superior software and deep experience made them the obvious choice for this project, and we hope to tap them in the future as we expand this service to new platforms and audiences.”

The broadcast-grade Cosmos video platform will be the software backbone of D-Smart’s new service, enabling premium content delivery to multiple devices via a consistent and intuitive user interface and supporting new platforms and devices in the future. The entire solution can be quickly and cost-effectively scaled to meet the viewership demands of audiences in and outside of Turkey, enabling support for multi-lingual, multi-currency and multi-territory geo-blocking.

“Cosmos doesn’t just make multiscreen video delivery possible — it makes it efficient,” said Oliver Botti, VP Sales South East Europe at KIT digital. “We are eager to help D-Smart’s editorial and marketing teams easily orchestrate publishing processes for many channels and devices by leveraging Cosmos and its flexible video content management system.”