Pilat Media: IBMS delivers real-time sales and programming business insight

Information Release: 18 April 2005

NAB, Las Vegas, 18 April 2005 - Not so very long ago, managing a television station or cable network was easier - get the overnights, review the pacing and skim spreadsheets, and you were good to go. Today's media environment is more complex, involving People Meters, fickle viewers, tight competition, and much narrower margins. Now, having the right information, when you need it, can make a big difference to how you manage your business. Unlike most of our competitors, Pilat Media does not constrain clients to an overnight snapshot of crucial business data, or a fixed number of reporting views.

The "IBMS Broadcaster Dashboard" provides sales, programming, and finance information that can be obtained anytime, from almost anywhere. Because the data within IBMS is captured at spot-level and is real-time, the dashboard reflects a constantly updated picture of how your network or station is performing. By presenting information graphically as well as numerically, managers can absorb the information at a glance, without having to plow through reams of reports. Most importantly, the Broadcaster Dashboard is not a one-size-fits-all solution each dashboard view can be adjusted to meet the particular business requirements of each user. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or us) to change the dashboard - the views are user-configurable.

Drawing upon a highly scalable Oracle data warehouse, updated directly from the live IBMS production database, the Broadcaster Dashboard acts as a deep repository that can retain many years of ratings and sales data, without affecting day-to-day operations or system performance. Want to see how your 6pm news performed against a competitor's Wheel of Fortune six years ago? No problem! Want to see how the new salesperson is doing in Peoria, over the last three hours? No problem! The amount and type of programming and sales data available to you is limited only by your IT hardware and by your imagination.

Back in the days of mainframe, people thought that data warehouses and reporting tools were for automakers and insurance companies. Today, the amount of data pouring into media companies is staggering - from CMRs and Nielsens, to sales of five-second bugs and embedded product placements. A combination of Pilat Media's IBMS sales, traffic and program management system and the Broadcaster Dashboard, will put you ahead of the competitive curve. And whether you call it "yield management" or some other buzzword, it all boils down to one bottom line: up-to-the-minute data, presented in a way you can use it.

-Ends-

NOTES TO EDITORS

Pilat Media's IBMS (Integrated Broadcast management System) is a comprehensive software system for managing the business of TV broadcasting. IBMS manages the entire business process including scheduling programs, selling airtime, preparing media for air, downloading media for transmission and digital services. Thus enabling broadcasters under a single system framework to increase cross- departmental harmonization, improve service responsiveness and facilitate more informed business decisions in real time to achieve strategic advantage.

Pilat Media is a six-year old, 140-strong UK software company, now an independent public company following its successful demerger from Pilat Technologies International and floatation on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in 2002.

The IBMS system was originally developed and successfully implemented by Pilat Media for BSkyB, to support their fast growing multi-channel programming needs. Pilat Media was established in 1999 to further develop and market the system as a generic product. IBMS's scope was subsequently more than doubled by the addition of the sales and traffic functionality in partnership with Network Ten of Australia. Since then Pilat Media has rapidly established itself as a rising force in the market for business management software for broadcasters. Today, Pilat Media's software solutions have been selected by over 30 broadcasters around the world, most of which are outside its UK base.

They represent a wide range of operational/business models, organizational size and transmission technologies - digital and analogue, on terrestrial, cable and satellite platforms. Clients include BSkyB (UK), five (UK), Fox Kids (Europe), digital media centre (Europe), TVNZ (New Zealand), Network Ten (Australia), Sky TechCo Partners (Latin America), Discovery Communications Inc. (International), National Geographic Channels International (USA), Playboy Enterprises, Inc (USA), CTV (Canada), Astro (Malaysia), TV4 (Sweden), Sky Italia (Italy), BBC World (UK) and here! (USA).