RTÉ and Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) taps Simplestream to upgrade IPTV service

Ireland’s largest sporting organisation, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and the Irish broadcaster RTÉ have tapped Simplestream to revamp its sports subscription channel, GAAGO. 

The IPTV service airs Gaelic games including hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, Gaelic handball, and rounders accessible to members and supporters.

Simplestream have built and delivered a new set of OTT applications for Android and iOS in under 12 weeks for the channel. In addition, the development of new Smart TV apps for tvOS, Android TV, Fire TV, Roky, LG TV, and Samsung TV, which will be rolled out later this year.

The solution provides the GAAGO with a fully managed, end-to-end offering that goes from live stream ingestion to distribution across multiple platforms. It supports multiple business models: subscriptions (SVOD), transactional in-app purchases (TVOD), and pay-per-view (PPV), depending on regional rights.

GAAGO apps have been revamped with custom integration of Simplestream’s Media Manager product into the platform, used as an orchestration layer for multiple services. Authentication, authorisation, and entitlements are proxied between the applications and the customer’s backend service. The tech provider acts as a ‘middleware’, securely transiting data and allowing access to subscribers, as well as workflows for subscriptions and in-app purchases. All events, both upcoming and live, are ingested into the system alongside on demand assets via an integration with GAAGO’s APIs. The simplified architecture also leverages automated workflows for the generation of catch-up content within minutes from broadcast.

Per the agreement, Simplestream has also signed a strategic partnership with media services provider Globecast.

Simplestream’s Founder & CEO, Adam Smith, said: “The global reach is only set to improve with our partnership and the significant improvements made to their applications. Live event support provided by Globecast also allows us to ensure the continuity of services, regardless of business hours.”

Peter McKenna, GAAGO Director, said: “This new GAAGO-Simplestream integration brings a quality multiplatform experience to GAAGO’s direct-to-consumer and white label B2B customers. Viewers expect content to be available across a choice of devices, and expanding our app offering to TV screens is a crucial part of the next phase of GAAGO’s development.”