NEP Europe today announced that Norsk Rikstoto has expanded its long-standing partnership with NEP Mediabank to support the launch of its new direct-to-consumer OTT streaming service, Play. NEP Mediabank now serves as the central media asset management (MAM) platform across Rikstoto's entire media ecosystem, supporting content management and distribution for broadcast, its branded TV channel, digital platforms and OTT services.
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With the launch of NEP Mediabank's 'Play' direct-to-consumer OTT streaming service, Rikstoto now brings all distribution, broadcast, TV channel, digital, and OTT, into a single environment. Left to right are Geir Lilleberg, Lena Pettersen, Maria Otterlei, Sondre Skandsen, Espen Stensrud and Frode Martnes at the launch of Rikstoto. Photo: Mari Bull/NEP
The extension marks an important step in a partnership that began in 2008, when Rikstoto first deployed NEP Mediabank as the operational backbone of Rikstoto Direkte, its branded TV channel. Over nearly two decades, NEP Mediabank has grown alongside Rikstoto's ambitions, handling live ingest, long-term archiving, and the distribution of thousands of horse races each year. NEP Mediabank is delivered as a fully managed, around-the-clock service supported by NEP's dedicated team.
With the launch of 'Play', Rikstoto now brings all distribution, broadcast, TV channel, digital, and OTT, into a single NEP Mediabank environment. This means live horse race content is instantly available across all channels at the same time, without duplicated workflows or separate data silos, and with one clear source for rights, metadata, results, and timing information.
Frode Martnes, Executive Producer at Norsk Rikstoto:
"Launching our OTT platform is about more than adding a new channel. It is about building a direct, lasting relationship with our audience on their terms. Having NEP Mediabank as the single foundation across all our distribution means we can move faster, operate more efficiently, and deliver a seamless experience to our fans, whether they are watching on television or on their phone. Sixteen years of partnership gave us the confidence to extend it further, and the results speak for themselves."
From NEP's perspective, the move reflects a wider shift in how rightsholders approach their media operations.
Marius Borge, Key Account Manager at NEP:
"Rikstoto's decision to extend NEP Mediabank to their OTT platform reflects a broader shift in the industry. Rightsholders are moving towards a single, trusted media infrastructure that supports every distribution channel from one environment. We have been proud to run their broadcast operation around the clock for nearly two decades, and being chosen for this next step shows the trust built over time and what NEP Mediabank delivers."
Supporting Norsk Rikstoto, NEP Mediabank delivers:
- Unified and automated ingest and distribution: a single workflow captures live race content and publishes it simultaneously to broadcast, the TV channel, and the OTT platform, reducing duplication and speeding up time to screen.
- Automated, data driven content creation: NEP Mediabank generates content by combining live race footage with real time metadata, betting data, and results from Rikstoto's systems.
- Intelligent metadata enrichment: results, odds, timing, and racing data are linked to content at the point of ingest, making the archive fully searchable and enabling more personalised on demand experiences for OTT audiences.
- End to end subtitling workflow: all content assets move through a fully managed subtitling pipeline, with completed subtitles inserted directly into the platform.
- Deep archival monetisation: Rikstoto's library of tens of thousands of races, built over nearly two decades, becomes an active content asset for the OTT platform, available for replay, editorial use, and audience engagement.
- 24/7 fully managed service: as with the existing broadcast operation, the OTT environment is staffed, monitored, and supported around the clock by NEP's dedicated Mediabank team, ensuring reliability for every race, every day.
- Future ready scalability: the platform is built to grow with Rikstoto's ambitions, supporting new content formats, international racing markets, and changing audience behaviour without the need for changing platform.
NEP's global ecosystem of media services supports customers across the entire content lifecycle-from capture through distribution. NEP delivers end-to-end solutions including IP-enabled OB facilities, specialty cameras and RF solutions, media infrastructure software solutions for media infrastructure including NEP Platform and its TFC broadcast control system, equipment rentals, connectivity and transmission, production services, multi-language and alternate-feed production, ad insertion, and distribution providing scalable solutions tailored to each customer and production.
About NEP Mediabank
NEP Mediabank is a leading media asset management product and managed service platform designed for the demands of sports and entertainment. Unlike generic MAM solutions, it is built for the realities of high frequency live sports, including complex rights environments, real time data integration, multi platform distribution, and always on service requirements. It is used by leading sports broadcasters and rights holders across Europe.
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Contacts:
Patrick Brand
patrick.brand@nepgroup.com
+31 622 230 797
Susan Matis
smatis@nepgroup.com
