NAGRA Media CMS

Managing content is quickly evolving beyond encoding and providing quality assurance for the broadcast TV platform. In today’s fast-moving, ever-changing consumer environment, tracking multi-format content preparation in the shortest timeframes has become paramount. This is true for content on a variety of linear and on-demand platforms, whether it will be viewed on set-top boxes, PCs or mobile devices.

What has changed?

The entertainment industry is going through radical changes moving from pure broadcast to rolling out value-added services such as video-on–demand (VOD), catch up, start over, extended Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) and home gateways. To increase the sell value to the consumer and therefore bring additional revenue to the operator, these services require complex and flexible just-in-time content preparation and publishing tools to meet the ever-shrinking VOD preparation windows.

Increasing ARPU and retaining consumers through diversity and inclusiveness

The consumer’s ecosystem is broadening past the set-top box to a variety of personal devices allowing content to be delivered:

• to multiple devices: set-top boxes, PCs and phones,
• over multiple networks: DTT, DTH, Cable, IP and Wi-Fi,
• while implementing multiple business products: download-to-own, 24 hour rental, one time only and pay per time,
• and using multiple protection schemes: conditional access system and persistent right manager.

Accessing more content within a large variety of services requires different content preparation paths. The paths in turn require synchronization with different availability schedules.

NAGRA Media CMS
Business Process Manager

The Business Process Manager (BPM) within the NAGRA Media CMS uses a complete rule engine to manage the business tasks, technical metadata and asset transfers between the different entities involved in asset preparation. The BPM ensures asset readiness throughout multiple just-in-time preparation paths covering encoding, non-linear editing, subtitling, transcoding, quality assurance, packaging, archiving, technical and commercial approval, and publishing.

1 / Acquisition

This step captures content rights and revenue split terms negotiated with content providers, as well as all content metadata and assets needed for programme and on-demand playout.

2 / VOD Catalogue

Imported assets and metadata are packaged into sellable products with a price and validity schedule. Numerous business models are supported from download-to-own, download-to-rent, pay-per-view, pay-per-day or pay-per-time packaging.

3 / Scheduling

Programme planning is carried out to create and schedule services like subscription channels, pay-per-view (PPV) or pushVOD. Available content can be searched by different criteria: genre, rating, rights, etc. Royalty constraints, such as licensing rights and restrictions, are checked and enforced. Customised business rules, programme continuity and tape or asset availability are verified, ensuring a smooth and faultless delivery. Last minutes changes are made to comply with constraints.

4 / Publishing

When the programme is ready for play-out as scheduled, the content management system moves the content from storage to the play-out delivery systems. It then synchronises the content and the associated data in all the technical head-end systems: the CAS, the SMS, the EPG, the media server or automation system and the data spoolers. This ensures that the content is delivered with the right EPG, at the right price, on the right networks, to the right device, and for the right user.

5 / Reporting

Consumption data for each product, subscriber information and subscription consumptions are imported from the Subscriber Management System (SMS) and used to calculate the royalty and generate payments due to content owners. A full suite of financial reports are available to measure the sales performance of the different products. Royalty statements are computed and the required royalty statement reports are generated for the studios or other content owners.