April 18, 2016, 03:00 (CEST)

• Ericsson expands content discovery services offering to the US, Canada and Australia
• Ericsson's global content discovery and metadata portfolio now spans more than 10 million movies and program titles covering over 35 languages
• Ericsson initiates innovation and research study into the effectiveness of content personalization

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announces the launch of its global content discovery portfolio, which will make its debut in April at NAB Show 2016 in Las Vegas.

Ericsson's portfolio of TV and VOD content discovery services including rich metadata, images, real-time triggering, analytics, 360 degree search and personalization will roll out across the US, Canada and Australia in addition to Europe, where it is already the largest provider of content discovery services. All services are delivered through Ericsson's real-time API, providing global data through one interface.

Earlier this year, Ericsson completed its acquisition of US based global TV metadata and entertainment image content provider, FYI Television. The acquisition marked a key milestone in Ericsson's ongoing TV and media growth strategy, further strengthening the company's market-leading position in content discovery. Around 150 FYI Television employees joined Ericsson as part of the acquisition.

Ericsson's global content discovery portfolio now spans more than 10 million movies and program titles covering over 35 languages. Ericsson's team of 300 editorial specialists create and deliver rich metadata, along with images from its extensive library of around 1.7 million stills, to more than 12,000 TV and VOD channels. Globally more than 200 million people interact with Ericsson's rich metadata each week.

Ericsson is also initiating an innovation and research study into the field of content personalization. This program sets out to better understand how audiences feel about recommendations today and, through a series of innovative experiments, looks to identify solutions that better serve both audiences, broadcasters and TV platforms. The research is being conducted by experts in the fields of recommender systems and human computer interaction at Ericsson's R&D facilities in Silicon Valley and Europe. The findings, which will be unveiled in late 2016, will form an integral role in Ericsson's content discovery road map.

Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson, says:

"85% of consumers tell us that they can't find anything to watch on a weekly basis; this clearly demonstrates that we, as an industry, have yet to deliver an effective and relevant solution to address this challenge.

"We believe that by combining Ericsson's capabilities and market leading position in Europe with FYI Television's US expertise, we can offer our clients highly effective, innovative and personalized content discovery solutions that will meet the growing demands of audiences worldwide. In a time of anytime, anywhere TV, where choice prevails, the role of content discovery has become even more important than ever before. Whether viewers are watching live or on-demand, at home or on the go, we will ensure they can discover the content they want whenever and wherever they want it."

Every day, people on all continents watch television programs prepared, managed and broadcast by more than 2,500 Ericsson staff based in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the US. Every year, Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services distributes more than 2.7 million hours of programming in more than 90 languages for more than 500 TV channels worldwide. Additionally, we provide more than 230,000 hours of captioning each year - over 100,000 hours of which is live.

In April 2015 Ericsson established its first broadcast and media services hub in North America in Atlanta, Georgia. The company currently provides closed captioning services to broadcasters around the world from this hub, with plans to roll out video description services over the coming months.