The European Tour is set to launch a new digital channel for golf fans, European Tour TV (ETTV), through europeantour.com. Launching this month, the service will be provided by deltatre using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Azure Media Services.
The European Tour’s digital media services provider, deltatre, will initially deliver VOD streamed archive content using their video platform, Diva, and transcoding and storage will be managed through an agreement with Microsoft to use Windows Azure Media Services.
The channel will launch with the most compelling highlights from The European Tour and The Ryder Cup over the last ten years, which will grow into a library of over 500 hours of content. In the second half of 2013 live streaming of tournament coverage in territories that currently do not benefit from any local television distribution will also be made available. The ETTV service will sit behind the European Tour's free fan registration section (My European Tour) and will provide daily, curated playlists.
The launch of European Tour TV is a landmark development for The European Tour’s global coverage, enabling golf fans anywhere in the world to watch The European Tour along with highlights of the Challenge Tour, Senior Tour and Ryder Cup. ETTV will be a 24x7 online golf channel available in every territory across the entire planet.
“Meeting the expectations of our global fan base is extremely important and we wanted to find a mechanism to deliver our tournament highlights and extensive archive directly to our consumers,” says Mark Lichtenhein, the European Tour’s Head of Television, Digital Media and Technology. “We also wanted to ensure that everyone in the world is able to access European Tour video content and using the Windows Azure platform to enable us to reach fans beyond our regular broadcast footprint.”.
