Vodafone NZ is one of Aotearoa’s leading digital services and connectivity companies and it believes every New Zealander will thrive with access to the world’s best digital services. It offers almost 3 million connections to Consumer and Business customers, and its existing mobile network covers 98.5% of where Kiwis live, work and play. Vodafone New Zealand is owned by Infratil and Brookfield Asset Management. It is now a partner market in the Vodafone Group, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies.

With the development of the Vodafone TV Gen 2 set-top box (STB) underway, Vodafone New Zealand wanted to ensure that subscribers would have access to a wide range of video content at launch. This would involve serving viewers with access to a variety of well-known local Video On Demand (VOD) offerings from a single platform. Vodafone needed video experiences for all of its VOD partners, including TVNZ, Neon, ThreeNow, and Play Stuff. It was also keen to ensure a seamless and natural experience for viewers, enabling easy navigation between the different services and the content provided by each.

Vodafone New Zealand needed a vendor that could efficiently develop and launch video services for its updated offering. Knowing Accedo had previous experience of the Vodafone TV STB made it the perfect fit for the project. Having existing relationships with local OTT vendors meant that Accedo was in a position to work with the team to develop, test, and launch exclusive video experiences to run on the Vodafone STB. Working collaboratively alongside the vendors and Vodafone NZ allowed Accedo to deliver OTT services that viewers wanted to see. The 2nd generation STB needed to offer a variety of VOD content in one place, providing easy access to a selection of video services ensuring Vodafone New Zealand could maintain its consumer appeal.

With Accedo’s knowledge and adaptive developments, Vodafone New Zealand completed the project on time and within budget. Neon/Mediaworks and TVNZ on Demand went live at the same time as the Gen 2 STB was available in the market. Accedo used its XDK2 software development kit to build the applications for Neon, TVNZ, ThreeNow and Play Stuff was developed with Accedo’s XDK4 software.