News

Service List Registry appoints Matthew Huntington to advisory board

31 July 2024

Matthew Huntington is joining the advisory board of the Service List Registry to support its mission to simplify how people view television and video.

SLR provides a global online platform that enables media providers to announce their services and programmes, allowing viewers to discover them through compatible devices, displays and applications.

Matthew Huntington was previously Director of Product at the broadcast infrastructure provider Arqiva. Before that he was Chief Technology Officer and Product Director at the satellite television provider Freesat. He formerly held Vice President positions at global television software companies Nagra and OpenTV, having started his career in interactive television platform services at Oracle.

“As viewing moves online, there is an urgent need for a new way for broadcasters and other media providers to reach viewers in an open competitive market. This presents a significant challenge, but also an enormous opportunity,” Matthew explained. “Through the use of open standards including DVB-I and HbbTV, the Service List Registry has a major role to play in facilitating the distribution and discovery of media services over any network to any screen. I look forward to supporting this important initiative.”

Broadcast standards have traditionally determined how scheduled channels are transmitted, but until now there has been no standard way to deliver and present such services online. This produces a fractured, frictional and frustrating viewing experience that viewers find increasingly difficult to navigate.

The role of SLR is to empower media providers to manage their own sets of services and programmes, combining traditional channels with media on demand to create and curate a consistent and coherent proposition for their market. Its aim is to enable simple service selection and programme discovery on any screen.

“I have known Matthew for many years in his various leadership roles and he brings a broad range of technology and product experience and expertise to our endeavour to simplify the way we watch television and video,” said Dr William Cooper, the founder and Chief Executive of Service List Registry Limited and an internationally recognised consultant in internet and television convergence. “This will accelerate our bold ambition to offer a comprehensive platform as a service to facilitate the transformation of video distribution.”

SLR is currently engaged with pilot projects internationally. The company welcomes wide support from across the media and technology sector and is open to partners seeking to contribute to this initiative. Further announcements will follow in due course.

More information is available at the Service List Registry web site atslrdb.com.

About the Service List Registry

The Service List Registry is a federated online directory of audiovisual media services, based on open standards. Registered regulators, media providers, and distributors can manage lists of offerings available online and through traditional broadcast networks. This enables compatible devices, displays and applications with different capabilities to discover and access relevant services from multiple sources, offering users choice, convenience and control, on any screen.