Comcast's thePlatform Unit Dominates Online Video Services for Cable Operators in North America

SAN JOSE, CA -- Adding another notch to its cable customer belt, online video technology firm thePlatform inked a deal to power broadband video for Rogers Cable. 

The company's VP of marketing Marty Roberts told us thePlatform now delivers online video for five of the seven largest cable operators including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and Cablevision. thePlatform is owned by Comcast.

That type of exposure with North America's biggest cable companies may help thePlatform extend its reach as a TV Everywhere technology partner. It's already powering Comcast's launch of TV Everywhere, which kicks off next month, Amy Banse told us.

In fact, the company also said it's added new capabilities to its TV Everywhere toolset. The new features are designed to streamline the process of authentication and authorization. Those issues in particular -- verifying who can watch which programs when -- have been cited as some of the biggest hurdles TV Everywhere faces. The company's new "authentication adapter" should help simplify the authentication process, Roberts said.

In addition, thePlatform landed 20 new cable programmers as customers. Several Comcast-owned networks are in that crop including E!, G4 and Style, but the tech firm also nabbed deals with Fox Sports Network.

What's most interesting about that partnership is Fox Sports will use thePlatform's Web tools to deliver clips and highlights from high school games and other sporting events that don't make it to the linear channel but do hold great interest for many fans, Roberts said.

We caught up with him at the Streaming Media West conference in San Jose last week.

Daisy Whitney, Senior Producer