Arqiva develops cloud-based support for Freeview Play’s metadata migration

Arqiva was chosen to support the transition to cloud because of its knowledge and understanding of the Freeview Play service

Leading UK communications infrastructure and media services company, Arqiva, has created a cloud-based metadata management system for Digital UK, the organisation that leads the development of the UK’s biggest TV platform, Freeview. This system supports the migration of the Freeview Play service information platform to a highly scalable public cloud infrastructure. The solution aggregates, manages and delivers service and programme metadata from multiple sources for Freeview Play guides on connected TVs and set-top boxes, meaning viewers can seamlessly navigate between live TV and on-demand content. 

Broadcasters are demanding increased service and commercial flexibility to keep up with a rapidly changing broadcast landscape, and Arqiva’s cloud-orchestrated technology will enable Freeview to quickly trial, adopt and integrate new services in line with market demands. Designed to be reliable and scalable, the virtual metadata system will support Freeview Play’s growth as it becomes a leading player in connected TV offerings. 

The original metadata management system, which Arqiva built and operated for Digital UK, has been at the heart of Freeview Play since its launch in 2015. Arqiva was chosen to support the transition to cloud because of its knowledge and understanding of the Freeview Play service and expertise in public cloud-based solutions. Since 2019 Arqiva has been working with Digital UK on designing, developing and testing the new cloud-based platform, with the full migration process completed on 20 July 2020. 

Providing an enjoyable, flexible and intuitive viewer experience is central to what we do. This Metadata Management system now allows Digital UK to adapt to future changes quicker and allows us to efficiently scale up as the platform grows rapidly over the coming years. Arqiva’s experience and depth of understanding of Freeview’s requirements has ensured that these systems can fully meet the expectations of viewers, broadcasters and our manufacturer partners. 

James Jackson, technology director at Digital UK

As Freeview Play continues to grow in popularity, it’s more important than ever that Freeview has the right support in evolving its hybrid service towards a virtual environment. The new cloud-based metadata management system will mean Freeview can offer all its new and existing users a seamless viewing experience.

Enhancing the viewing experience is always front of mind for our customers, and this highly-scalable and flexible system will allow them to bring new ideas to market sooner. The design and build of the metadata management system that we built for Digital UK, fits within our growing cloud-based and software capabilities.

Laurie Patten, director of products and strategy at Arqiva

- ENDS -