Ensuring the broadcaster's live TV, catch-up TV and website content reaches it audience in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland at the highest quality on all platforms.
UTV is a commercial television broadcaster, which is part of the ITV Network. Based in Northern Ireland, it also operates in the Republic of Ireland as UTV Ireland, which means content needs to be provided across two broadcast territories. Broadcasts also need to be available across all platforms, including smartphones, tablets, desktop devices and set-top boxes, like Sky and Virgin Media, at the high quality expected by viewers.
UTV boasts a considerable online offering, including an award-winning website, which is established as one of the foremost sources of local news, as well as the live player and catch-up services for its TV content.
Tibus was tasked with providing the digital infrastructure to support UTV’s many and varied online activities.
There are three main elements to our work for UTV:
UTV viewers can catch-up on their favourite local and national ITV content using the UTV Player.
UTV viewers now expect to be able to access its content live while on the go and can do so via the Live function on the UTV Player.
UTV’s website is a hugely popular source of news for UTV viewers in Northern Ireland and Ireland, expats and international broadcasters, who often use it for reference, especially when TV bulletins have finished for the day.
Across those three formats, Tibus is responsible for supplying and managing bandwidth to make sure the content arrives on the audience’s screens in excellent quality.
We provide:
The Live Player has been a big success and really came into its own during the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when it was a hugely popular way of watching games.
The attention we pay to managing bandwidth and ensuring UTV’s infrastructure scales to meet demand ensures that UTV viewers get the same quality of broadcast on their iPhone as on their plasma TV. That is good news for anyone catching up with Downton Abbey while they are on the move, but also for UTV’s advertisers, who can rest assured that their expensively produced content is being displayed in the highest quality.
The u.tv website now gets 150 million pageviews each month from around 1 million users. The speed with which it breaks stories, its unique editorial voice and its excellent use of social media make it an attractive news outlet. It is a demanding and large website to support, but we love it.
