Starman unveils new smart TV platform

Estonian cable operator Starman and its Finnish owner Elisa have jointly unveiled a new smart TV platform for Starman customers, designed to help them find relevant content quickly and easily, according to the pair.

The new service will offer access to thematic areas focused on music, sports, kids content and adult content as well as movies and recently-viewed content.

The service will include seven-day catch-up functionality.

The sports area will show a list of all sports currently on air and on-touch viewing, in addition to access to recent events on-demand and sports news. The kids content area includes multimedia, individual shows and popular channels.

Elisa and Starman board member Andrus Hiiepuu said that studies had show that two thirds of TV viewers are often or frequently frustrated because they can’t find the right content while 44% expect their TV provider to recommend suitable content. He said the new interface was designed to meet these concerns and added that a sophisticated search capability was necessary because Starman and Elisa’s service enabled viewers to watch over 30,000 titles at any one time.

Starman’s head of services and products Silver Soomre said that the new interface represented “a big step forwards”, with the introduction of thematic areas providing simpler and more straightforward access to content.