Managed media services provider TVT is launching an Access Services arm to compete with Deluxe and Ericsson in the international market.

Initially targeting the UK, TVT plans to open a LA office by the end of the year to continue to service clients like Netflix and A+E Networks.

“In the UK there is extensive regulation where 80 channels require access services to comply with Ofcom rules around subtitling and audio description,” said David Padmore (pictured), previously head of Access Services at Ericsson who joins TVT as International Advisor.

“We believe there is room for a brand new option and that our good relationship with a lot of UK broadcasters means we are well placed for that.”

TVT provides content management and compliance services for UKTV and BBC Worldwide, among others.

While directly addressing the deaf, blind, hard of hearing and partially sighted audience, TVT plans to help broadcasters take greater advantage of resulting metadata like audio description.

“There is plenty of scope for us to manage and present files back to broadcasters and enable them to use rich metadata as part of their archiving, content mining and internal discovery processes,” said Padmore. 

The core of its access services offering will be based on ContentSelect, TVT’s internal content management platform. Development includes adding speech recognition tools and artificial intelligence engines to automate some of the processes.

The firm said it doubled revenues year-on-year for the quarter ending March 31 without revealing details.

TVT was founded in 1994 and remains a privately held company of 270 employees. It also runs offices in Japan, Singapore and Australia. 

 

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