Building on its relationship with Los Angeles-based Crown Media Family Networks, Globecast is now providing the media company with cloud playout services for the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama. Each will reach more than 150 million homes in the US.

The five-year deal solidifies Globecast’s management of the primary playout of both the linear and OTT feeds of the channels, alongside all terrestrial and satellite distribution to MVPDs and VMVPDs. Globecast is also handling the streaming of Hallmark’s TV Everywhere offering to mobile devices.

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Globecast will be providing cloud playback services for three Hallmark channels

Chris Pulis, CTO of Globecast Americas, told IBC: “Cloud playout has been talked about in our industry for over a decade and now it’s a reality. We have put in a tremendous amount of effort to understand all elements of it and how to maximise the advantages for our customers. We’ve combined our tremendous legacy in the on-prem playout and media supply chain world with the software-defined workflows of today to enable the true paradigm shift that is cloud playout. It is vital for us to understand all the dynamics of the technologies and bring our customers along on the journey in order to help make that forward leap into a ‘new normal’.”

Globecast began working with Crown Media in 2017 and the companies designed an evolution of Crown’s channels from traditional hardware-based, on-site playout to a virtual cloud platform. The new platform supports a number of different linear services including both HD and SD for all of the Crown Media channels, as well as OTT variants of the linear product.

The company has engineered a completely cloud-based solution in partnership with its major cloud service provider. Crown Media has its content library managed in the cloud, which feeds into Globecast’s media supply chain. The media management solution and automation integrates ready-to-air files to the playlist. The integrated channels are then distributed via satellite and landlines from Globecast’s Culver City facility.

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