Belgian operator Proximus has extended its partnership with ThinkAnalytics to power its Pickx IPTV and OTT service.
The agreement extends across all platforms Android TV and other deployed STBs, Apple TV, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices.
“Having worked closely with ThinkAnalytics over five years, we are pleased to extend our successful partnership. Think360 delivers advanced search and content discovery as we focus on increasing user satisfaction and loyalty on Pickx,” said Raphaël De Beys, TV Platforms and Chapter Area Lead at Proximus. “We have already seen the power of how personalized recommendations drive viewers to content, increasing engagement, and we look forward to Think360 delivering deeper levels of personalization and a truly dynamic user experience.”
Think360 uses AI and machine learning to analyse Pickx subscribers’ interests and viewing behaviour to help users find new content. To meet the needs of the Belgian market, this includes enriching the content metadata in three languages as well as learning user preferences to deliver search and recommendations in the appropriate languages for each viewer.
Proximus is also deploying the ThinkEditorial campaign management system and ThinkUX. These solutions make it easy for Proximus to move to a content-centric, carousel-based UI populated with personalized recommendations from the ThinkAnalytics engine. Using ThinkUX, the Proximus editorial team can choose use cases – for example, ‘replay TV’, ‘here’s what you missed’, and ‘coming up’ – to dynamically change the user experience across all devices and better meet business KPIs. Proximus offers viewers ‘editorial campaign intelligence’, with editors curating content for promotion which is then personalized by Think360 to optimize the space available on the rails for each viewer.
Richard Dowling, SVP Consulting at ThinkAnalytics commented, “Our continued collaboration with Proximus is powering one of the most intuitive and intelligent user interfaces available today. Not only does the service feature linear TV, YouTube and popular streaming services such as Netflix, but it also allows viewers to create their own virtual TV channel, based on Think360’s recommendations. With our advanced AI, machine learning and voice search capabilities underpinning Pickx, combined with editorial curation and A/B testing, we ensure that Proximus can react quickly to viewing trends resulting in increased engagement.”
Proximus’ use of the Think360 content discovery platform is complemented by ThinkInsight to analyse large, complex data sets about viewing and content, and A/B testing, to better meet its business KPIs. Proximus will continue to expand its use of ThinkInsight to unlock new ways of increasing viewer engagement and to measure its success across editorial, marketing, programming and operations.
