In Broadcast - November 2015 - 46


46

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 11 | November 2015

InMedia

Blitz Film & Video 'Takes
Up Arms' With Provys
Movie channels and multi-channel operations pose complex challenges, writes
Adam Zeman, Key Account Manager, Provys. But complicated rights, critical scheduling,
and difficult revenue streams are an environment suited to Provys management solutions...

R

unning movie channels has always
been an extremely thrilling and
often risky job. Not because of the
content itself, but due to more and
more complicated rights, critical
scheduling, and difficult revenue
streams.
In 2009, CineStar Cinemas (the
largest Croatian chain) and Blitz Film
and Video Ltd. (the most successful
Balkan regional film distributor based
in Zagreb) launched their first cable TV
channel, Cinemax, which soon became
the most popular in the country.
Cinemax was designed to entertain
the whole family, presenting all kinds
of films and series. Two years later,
Blitz launched the equally popular
adrenaline-charged Action & Thriller
channel and a 24-hour news show.
The programmes were broadcast
in 16:9 SD format with no movie
interruption by commercials. In 2013,
the family TV channel was transformed
into the first premium domestic movie
channels, CineStar Premiere 1 and 2,
each of them in SD and HD (1080 and
5.1 sound) versions. CineStar Premiere
2 re-plays the Premiere 1 programme
with a 23-hour lag.
With the growing number of
channels, the Blitz back-office
operations became slightly inefficient
without a proper management
system. At the beginning of 2015,
The online CineStar Channels EPG

this prompted the decision to find a
solution to this problem.
Tomislav Vuic, Content Manager at
Blitz, said: "Having growth in mind, we
had to select a future-proof software
which would cover our ever developing
needs. We were searching for a system
which would help our people to use
effective and proven workflows and
which would introduce processes
that lead to higher profitability and
efficiency. Although Provys was more
expensive than others, we selected
them after a thorough cost/benefit
analysis. Provys's renowned support
and training quality was an additional
factor in our decision making process."
Unlike many other Provys clients,
Blitz strictly required delivery of
a standard system without any
functional configuration or even
customisation. Only the initial system
settings were requested and this fact
greatly helped to keep the cost of
the implementation low. Then, ten
days of user training on programme
scheduling, rights control and content
management, followed by five days
to introduce ad sales basics, and then
Blitz was ready for lift off.
All broadcast scheduling needs
integration with the automation
system, and this part of the software
implementation brought no major
challenges as Oasys playout was
already in place, and the Oasys techies

assured Blitz of a smooth and seamless
integration with Provys.
Sending playlists with basic graphics
and logos is something absolutely
ordinary today, but planning accurate
secondary graphics, different subtitles,
and receiving correct as-run logs and
other metadata, is not among the
expectations from a low-cost traffic
system.
Needless to say, secondary graphics
and EPG exports were high on the
list of Blitz's priorities. As everyone
would expect, advertisement sales
features had the same level of
preference. Surprisingly for all
involved, the integration with the
established workflow was easy,
coherent and simple, undoubtedly due
to relatively low usage of the very wide
functionality range of the Provys sales
module.
After the implementation, we asked
Tomislav to explain the difference
in their operations in comparison
with the replaced legacy system. The
answer was clear - Provys has a set
of features to manage multi-channel
operations with an elegant lightness.
It is extremely easy to extend the
number of channels, it has simple tools
for cross-channel re-plays, templatebased secondary event planning, and
ingenious support for multi-language
playout including multi-language

Multinational European agreements

subtitles which offer unprecedented
time-saving and a much lower error
rate to all system operators.
The
ability
to
provide
TV
entertainment for several different
national environments is actually
crucial to Blitz.
Currently, the Blitz network covers
Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina,
Serbia, Macedonia, Monte Negro, and
Kosovo.
"Multi-language support was one
of our top tendering conditions." said
Tomislav Vuic. "We carefully studied
references on the candidate suppliers
and we were really impressed with the
list of Provys's clients.
"For
example,
the
global
entertainment companies such as AMC
Networks which acquired Chellomedia
two years ago, or Polsat, were a clear
sign for us that we can grow with
Provys literally without any limits.
"We are particularly delighted with
the range of functions available in the
system. Although, to start with, we
have bought licences for only a few
users, Provys system contains all the
features needed for a very large multinational operation. In other words,
it provides us with the platform for
further expansion. So, with the power
of Provys in our engines, the Blitz
fireball is ready to roll."
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnDYLBGNdjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnDYLBGNdjg
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - November 2015
