German cable operator association Deutsche Netzmarketing GmbH (DNMG) and Swiss internet TV provider Zattoo have signed an exclusive partnership for Germany enabling DNMG’s members to offer their customers IP-based TV products for TV sets, smartphones and tablets under their own brand.
Zattoo acts as the technical service provider offering an end-to-end solution as part of the framework agreement with DNMG. The Swiss company covers the whole chain from signal ingest, encoding and transcoding to insertion of the IPTV streams into the operator’s cable network. Zattoo also provides the frontend applications for the IPTV set-top-box, smartphones and tablets.
The set-top-box is contributed by German manufacturer ABOX42 with its ABOX42 M20 platform which supports typical DVB-C features such as HbbTV and teletext.
The end-customer relations will completely remain in the hands of the network operators. Zattoo will act in the background as a technology provider. With the white label solution available immediately, network operators can quickly introduce an IPTV product with low expenses for implementation and running costs, according to the partners. No investments into their own hardware of software are required.
“That’s a milestone for DNMG and our members as the topic IPTV becomes increasingly important for cable companies and fibre-network operators,” DNMG’s managing director Ingo Schuchert said in Cologne. “We are therefore glad to have found a partner with Zattoo knowing and developing this topic like no other company in Europe.”
Zattoo has already established several B2B solutions for cable companies, mobile network operators and telcos in the past four years including Telecom Liechtenstein, Post Luxemburg, Orange Switzerland, Quickline Switzerland and netplus.ch Switzerland.
DNMG comprises 185 German network operators serving a total of around 5.5 million households with cable TV, internet and telephony.
