EBS confirms contract expansions with MultiChoice and Cyta

EBS, the full-service provider of EPG data for platforms and channels worldwide, has announced that leading platforms MultiChoice and Cyta have expanded their EPG data contracts with EBS. These expansions further highlight EBS’ commitment to providing elegant services that address the growing number of channels, platforms and viewers’ changing content consumption habits.

Platforms like MultiChoice and Cyta increasingly require greater, and more in-depth, data to meet the demands of enhanced content discovery. It’s the responsibility of every channel on both platforms to provide schedule data to enable their listings on the EPG. In the current anytime, anywhere environment, viewers expect to find content quickly, with appealing up-to-date imagery that’s changed regularly and draws them in. With so many channels fighting for eyeballs, the better programmes are presented the stronger the hook from channel to viewer.

EBS’ powerful, multi-platform, multi-territory scheduling application Pawa is fully scalable to meet the ever-changing needs of clients including MultiChoice and Cyta. The flexible system aggregates all data through a central system for consistency and ease of workflow, allowing the EBS team to edit and manage data before distributing to the platforms. The platforms then receive the schedules for their full portfolio of channels in a consistent format, with confidence in their accuracy.

Keith Bedford, EBS managing director, says: “We’re delighted that MultiChoice and Cyta have extended their contracts as it’s a clear demonstration of the value Pawa brings. The way in which platforms require channels to supply data is very specific. This includes various file formats, permitted character lengths, additional data fields, certification and flags, etc., and is therefore not a quick and easy task. By using our portfolio of data services, platforms can be confident that their EPG will include high-quality data that represents each channel’s brand and removes the pain of dealing with many different channels – and schedule formats – delivering consistent, accurate data.”