Elisa taps Netgem for Estonian Binge

Finland’s Elisa, owner of Estonian cable and mutliplay operator Starman Group, has tapped Netgem to provide the technology for the pair’s new multiscreen TV service, Binge TV.

Binge TV was launched at the end of July as the first fruit of Elisa’s acquisition of Starman from its previous owner, East Capital Explorer. The service was the first in Estonia to include Netflix and YouTube as part of its offering.

Binge TV was designed to complement Starman’s existing ZUUMtv offering, adding smart TV functionality including network recording capability and replay. The service is available outside Starman’s cabled areas of the country, and is designed to target the one third of the country’s population without access to cable. Kertus Kriisk, head of new services at Elisa said at the time of the launch that the estimated target audience for the service was about 200,000.

Binge TV offers 25 channels, including seven Estonia services alongside Fox and Fox Life, documentary services Viasat Explore, Nature and History, movie channels TV1000 and Filmzone, and kids services Kidzone and Kidzone+. The service is available over any network for €13.99 a month.

Elisa has chosen Netgem’s virtual STB cloud technology to support its deployment of Binge TV. The Netgem technology also integrates the Binge TV mobile app, which provides direct access to live and catch-up services across all available channels.

Einari Kanerva, head of Binge business at Elisa said: “As we expand into new countries, we want to provide consumers with the best TV experience possible, and a flexible way to grow the service once launched. By deploying Binge TV, we can reach a growing population who want access to their TV content wherever they are, and Netgem’s platform gives us a unique flexibility to add more content and features over time.”

Sylvain Thevenot, managing director, operator solutions at Netgem, said: “Consumer behaviour is changing, and operators need rapidly deployable and dynamic solutions that will enable them to maintain a competitive edge. This deployment of Binge TV using Netgem’s Diamond entertainment software suite enables Elisa to reach new audience segments as it extends into a new market, offering a full suite of live, on demand and quality OTT content based on an award-winning cloud-based platform from day one.”