How a Big 3 TV network handles hundreds of affiliate blackouts with LTN
Customize hundreds of feeds for regional and platform limitations while reducing manual labor and CapEx
What if you could ingest hundreds of feeds and automate their customization and distribution to digital platforms and network programs around the world? With LTN, you can.
For one of the Big 3 television networks, this means the ability to manage blackouts for hundreds of local affiliates with different content rights and limitations, eliminating manual labor and reducing CapEx. Here’s how.
The next wave of growth for a national network
LTN works with one of the largest television networks in the US to manage the distribution of their local affiliate channels to digital platforms, including Hulu and YouTube TV. This network already relied on LTN for feed ingest and distribution, and they quickly realized that LTN could help them manage blackouts more efficiently. LTN provided the foundation — now it was time to build.
Effortless ingest and distribution
The network has more than 200 local affiliates across the US, each providing both local programming (like local news) and national programming. These affiliates’ signals are seamlessly fed into the LTN Network. LTN ingests these local affiliate feeds, which are destined for platforms such as Hulu and YouTube TV. Viewers in different regions can then access their local affiliate’s content through these streaming services.
Seamless blackout management
Content rights are the lifeblood of broadcasting — but they’re getting more and more complex. Like many large networks, this one, along with its affiliates, has very specific rules about what content can be shown on each digital platform. If a local affiliate’s program isn’t cleared for streaming on Hulu or YouTube TV, LTN will automatically switch to a different feed or display a blackout message. The ability to seamlessly protect content rights and optimize the viewing experience is a big competitive advantage.
Efficient, reliable content automation
Proprietary technology and data centers can be complicated and inefficient. Instead of making a multi-million-dollar capital investment — and refreshing all of the hardware and IT that goes along with it — this network saw that LTN could do everything their own facility was doing, and more. With LTN, the network can now handle versioning and customizing hundreds of feeds more reliably and cost-effectively. Plus, they can automate what was previously a tedious manual process: LTN allows for real-time switching based on the rules set by the affiliates and the network.
