CSG fuels new digital service for UK quad-play provider
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona: CSG Systems International, provider of monetisation of digital services, has announced that its Ascendon digital services platform will power new ways for TalkTalk TV customers to view, browse, rent or buy a wide range of video content, whether at home or on-the-go.
TalkTalk is a quad-play communications service provider offering pay television, voice, broadband, and mobile services to businesses and consumers in the UK. TalkTalk chose Ascendon to further elevate its TV offering as a competitive digital service, aligned with consumer demand for access to video content anytime, anywhere, across devices.
Ascendon will provide an intuitive app-based storefront and other services that will allow consumers to access titles from TalkTalk TV’s video product catalogue through the set-top box or mobile devices.
Aleks Habdank, MD at TalkTalk TV, said: “This is an exciting new partnership for TalkTalk TV and one that will enable us to accelerate our mobile viewing offering. The integration of the Ascendon platform complements a number of recent innovations aimed at delivering a faster, more intuitive and seamless TV experience. We led the market by being the first provider to roll out the Next Generation YouView upgrade, which over 50% of our customers are already enjoying. We’re looking forward to customers being able to enjoy even more of the entertainment they love, whenever and wherever they want, both in and out of the home.”
TalkTalk TV’s new approach to its video services will leverage the Ascendon platform to create recurring revenue streams through merchandising models such as season passes and box sets. The platform allows for future growth to deliver a unified quad-play experience to the end customer by uniting previously siloed service lines. In addition, the platform will integrate with TalkTalk TV’s existing infrastructure to complete fulfilment and provisioning of services.
Said Kent Steffen, president of global OTT business at CSG International: “For communications service providers, Ascendon can bring new, digital services to market quickly, while moving their operations purposefully toward a business model that dramatically reduces operational expenses, fully digitizes front and back offices, and unites a portfolio of services into a single customer relationship.”
The addition of Ascendon marks the latest step in TalkTalk’s ten-year partnership with CSG that spans billing, data mediation, interconnect and other services. TalkTalk’s purchase of Ascendon includes the internet TV category of solutions, which will streamline the TalkTalk TV viewing experience both on the set-top box and a through a new, optimised mobile app.
