Ziggo and ComHem’s Emma Svalin Sahlman Win Cable Europe Innovation Awards at Cable Congress

Ziggo and ComHem’s Emma Svalin Sahlman Win Cable Europe Innovation Awards at Cable Congress

ONO receives special mention for sustainability project

(Amsterdam, 13 March) Cable Europe, the trade association representing the European cable industry, today awarded Ziggo and ComHem’s Emma Svalin Sahlman with awards for innovation and individual achievement, respectively. Caroline Van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, and Peter Percosan, Partner, Digital Strategy, presented the honours on the second day of Cable Congress, taking place this week in Amsterdam.

Ziggo won the Cable Europe Innovation Award, voted on by delegates at Cable Congress, for its Interactive Digital Cable with no STB offer. Last year Ziggo became the first operator in the world to deliver VOD and catch-up TV services to CI Plus 1.3 devices, eliminating the need for a set-top box and allowing consumers to realize the Bring Your Own Device promise.

The Innovation Award recognizes a special project that stands out in helping cable innovate and stay ahead of the customer. Other strong nominees in the category included Telenet’s SmartAid project, an innovation that leverages all existing administrative and technical information to provide a holistic troubleshooting experience across its service organizations; and GET’s basic tier package, the world’s freest and largest TV offer of its kind.

Emma Svalin Sahlman, Head of Product TV at ComHem, was honoured with the Cable Europe Fellow Award in recognition of her work in bringing TiVo to life at Sweden’s biggest cable company. In accepting the honour, she commented: “Integrating TiVo and building a completely new platform in 18 months doesn’t only require a strong leader but a great team, great management and suppliers supporting us. Now we have the strongest product on the Swedish market.”

Spanish cable operator ONO received a special mention for introducing an innovative management model and online tools especially designed to reduce power consumption and support eco-friendly attitudes and procedures within the company. Van Weede commented: “This is a special project that clearly demonstrates that the cable industry is also innovating to have a sustainable impact on the future.”

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