Concurrent, Clearleap Team on VOD, Advanced Ads

Combine reporting and content delivery expertise

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/8/2009 8:00:00 AM

Video-on-demand vendor Concurrent, which provides hardware and software to large operators like Time Warner Cable and Cox, has formed a partnership with Clearleap, a venture-backed Atlanta company founded in 2008, to integrate their products to provide what the companies call a “comprehensive end-to-end view of the subscriber experience.”

According to Craig Schwabl, chief architect for data and advertising solutions at Concurrent, the deal combines Concurrent’s expertise in measuring and reporting VOD consumption with Clearleap’s Internet-based content-delivery system, which uses data centers in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles to distribute content from programmers to a multichannel operators’ video-on-demand platform or broadband portals. The integrated system could also be used to both sell and insert advanced advertising, says Schwabl.

“The partnership that we’re engaged in is really providing that closed loop,” says Schwabl. “Clearleap is in the business of the delivery of content, and we’re responsible for the collection of usage data.”

Clearleap, which was started early last year by Tandberg Television and N2Broadband veterans Braxton Jarratt and John Vecchio, has two software-based products that are currently being used by unnamed operators.

The first, "Clearflow," is aimed at speeding the process of distributing content from a programmer to a multichannel operator's video-on-demand platform or broadband portal. It handles content acquisition, management and distribution, including transcoding, and fully integrates with existing VOD and linear TV infrastructure. The second product, "Clearprofit," is a solution for inserting both local and national avails in on-demand programming using existing VOD control software.

Both products will be integrated with Concurrent’s content consumption reporting system, which was previously known as Everstream and is now referred to as MDAS [Media Data and Advertising Solutions]. While the IP-based Clearleap products have great visibility into the movement of content along most of the distribution chain, says Clearleap CEO Jarratt, up-to-date subscriber metrics was the one piece the company was missing.

“One of the big complaints you hear from content providers, when they’re looking at the performance of both their content and ads, is that it takes too long to get data,” says Jarratt.

Since Concurrent is already pulling usage data from so many VOD systems, partnering with the company is a great way to obtain subscriber usage data for the Clearflow and Clearprofit products, he says.

While the joint system isn’t currently commercially deployed, integration is already under way. Jarratt notes that Concurrent and Clearleap have several joint customers and expects that the integrated system will be live within a month or two.