tms_1 26/02/2014 20:06 Page 1
Recently, Morten
Trolle, general
manager of Europe
for Tribune Media
Services (TMS),
joined us to share
his take on the state
of the European TV
ecosystem today,
where things are
headed next, his own
company’s recent
integration with TMS
and the value of high
quality metadata as an
economic driver for the
business of TV.
TMS customers include MVPDs, CE
manufactures, recommendation services,
middleware providers, application developers
and more. Companies such as Time Warner
Cable, Verizon FiOS, Virgin Media UK, Com
Hem, DIRECTV Latin America, TiVo, Yahoo,
Microsoft, ThinkAnalytics, Jinni and Shazam
rely on TMS data to enable advanced search
and discovery within their consumer-facing
the quality expectations of the local
Danish market. By 2011, as new
types of players began offering TV
guides and UIs, EPG Systems was
positioned as a key disruptor. We
expanded throughout Europe in 2012
and began to focus on raising the bar
for quality.
Fortunately, these efforts paid off
– we witnessed average growth of
50% from 2010-2013, and 70% in
2013 alone.
Q. Did you foresee the need for
high quality metadata by as
many players from big to small,
or did this diversification of providers
take you by surprise?
A. Although I couldn’t predict the specific
changes we’ve seen in the types of players who
now require TV metadata, the industry’s trend
toward diversification was very clear. The
rapid changes in consumer electronics and
video delivery platforms, plus the rise of social
media, created a perfect environment for
Data Drives Discovery
rolle, based in Copenhagen, is a
technologist at heart. With a
background in systems
architecture, he launched the private
company EPG Systems in 2005. In its
early days, the start-up provided TV
listings and programme information
primarily to cable TV operators, telcos
and newspapers. This customer roster
diversified over the next several years
as the TV ecosystem underwent
dramatic change and new players
including IPTV operators, middleware
providers and application developers
entered the space. Customers today
cover the full spectrum of providers:
cable/broadband (Stofa), fibre-optic
(Waoo!), cloud-delivery (Magine),
telecoms (Siminn) and consumer
electronics (MeeTV).
Not surprisingly, EPGS’ success in Europe
caught the attention of Tribune Media
Services, a leading intern