uC26 Release: Empowering Operators to Curate Unique Viewing Experiences
With its uC26 release, UniqCast continues to push the boundaries of flexibility and personalization for OTT and IPTV operators. This version brings editorial freedom directly into operators’ hands, enabling them to dynamically curate, personalize, and promote content in real time. From creating thematic collections and showcasing partner brands to analyzing viewer behavior through extended analytics, uC26 gives operators full creative control over their user experience.
General Version Highlights
The uC26 release introduces a set of features designed to give operators deeper control over how content is presented, discovered, and managed while enhancing security, analytics, and overall system performance. Each improvement strengthens the operator’s ability to deliver a personalized, branded, and data-driven entertainment experience.
Dynamic Catalogues & Collections
At the heart of this release lies a major innovation: Dynamic Catalogues and Collections. Operators can now group multiple dynamic catalogues, essentially smart filters, into logical collections. These collections can be displayed in dedicated screens and easily added to the app’s side menu or dashboard.
This feature transforms how operators can organize and highlight content. They can now instantly curate themed sections such as “Top Movies,” “Kids’ Favorites,” or “Weekend Sports Picks”, updated in real time based on actually available content (in their video library or in catchup recordings) and tailored to audience trends or marketing campaigns. Whether promoting seasonal content or spotlighting trending shows, collections provide a powerful tool for editorial creativity and agile marketing. They help operators respond quickly to viewer preferences and drive engagement.
Provider Branding
Brand visibility plays a crucial role in user trust and recognition. With uC26, the platform introduces expanded provider branding options across all applications. Logos can now appear directly on content cards, configurable by the operator based on ingestion settings.
This gives operators the flexibility to strengthen branding while respecting content providers’ requirements. For end-users, visible provider logos make it easier to recognize content from favorite studios, leading to increased engagement and satisfaction. For operators, it strengthens brand presence and supports partnerships with content providers.
Analytics Data for External Content Providers
UniqCast’s analytics platform, uStatia, now delivers even broader insight by tracking user interactions with external content providers. This means that every engagement, whether from internal or third-party sources, is captured and reported.
For operators, this enhancement enables data-driven decision-making across the entire content spectrum. It helps identify viewing patterns, informs acquisition strategies, and refines recommendation algorithms. It also supports more accurate reporting for licensing and revenue sharing, ensuring transparent and optimized content partnerships.
This capability plays a crucial role in enabling effective super aggregation. By tracking how users interact with external and deeplinked content, uStatia provides operators with a complete picture of the user journey, even when playback occurs within third-party environments or partner apps. This holistic insight empowers operators to optimize deep-link placements, refine cross-service recommendations, and strengthen their position as a single access point for all available content.
Security Improvements
Security remains a cornerstone of UniqCast’s platform evolution. uC26 introduces configurable options for login attempt limits and OTP-based (one-time password) PIN reset mechanisms, giving operators greater control over account protection.
These measures guard against unauthorized access and brute-force attacks while providing users a secure, convenient way to reset credentials. The result is a safer, more reliable user environment and fewer support incidents for operators.
STB App: New Ways to Showcase High-Demand Content
Set-top box applications in uC26 receive notable enhancements that enrich content discovery and operational reliability.
Enhanced EPG Presentation
In live and linear content environments, the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is a critical touchpoint for user engagement. The existing EPG highlight logic has been extended. Individual events can now feature visually categorized highlights, such as goals, fouls, or cards. The update introduces clear visual markers for different highlight types across Infobar category and EPG details views.
This allows users to quickly recognize and navigate to specific key moments within a program, while operators gain new tools to emphasize high-value or time-sensitive segments during live broadcasts.
Accurate Ad Impression Tracking
Advertising accuracy is vital to revenue performance. uC26 introduces support for multiple impression tracking points in VAST ads, ensuring that every impression is accurately recorded. This enhancement not only meets advertiser standards but also maximizes ad revenue opportunities by guaranteeing precise reporting and compliance.
Video Player Upgrade
The video player has been significantly improved to deliver better performance, extended support, and enhanced compatibility with modern frameworks, latest libraries and plugins.
Mobile, Web, and SmartTV App: Fine-tune the User Experience Anytime
UniqCast continues to expand operator flexibility across all platforms, with improvements that make customization and navigation faster and more intuitive.
UI Layout Management
Operators can now manage settings screens through UI Layouts in CSMS, offering unprecedented flexibility to tailor each application’s interface. This allows them to adapt quickly to market needs, user feedback, or regulatory changes without requiring a new app release. By controlling layouts directly from the backend, operators can fine-tune the user experience at any moment.
Simplified Content Navigation
With new category shortcuts on the dashboard, users can now reach their favorite sections in fewer steps, significantly improving content discoverability and engagement.
Alongside UI and navigation improvements, uC26 brings further security enhancements, bug fixes, and performance optimizations across mobile, web, and SmartTV applications ensuring a consistently fast, responsive, and stable viewing experience.
Backend: Optimized for Future Capabilities
While front-end improvements empower operators to shape user experience, the backend enhancements in uC26 ensure that the system performs smoothly behind the scenes.
Faster Content Loading and Navigation
Optimized data structures (materialized views) now make content loading faster and navigation smoother. Whether browsing movies, channels, or EPG data, users experience near-instant response times, even during peak hours. This optimization not only improves usability but also prepares the platform for future personalization features such as advanced filtering, sorting, and personalized recommendations.
Enhanced Security and Device Management
Security and device management have been expanded with support for different login types, device provisioning, and OTP-based PIN resets. These updates simplify multi-device access while ensuring protection and compliance. Operators can more effectively manage entitlements, resolve device conflicts, and maintain secure user sessions.
Performance & Security
Backend performance is continuously being optimized through query tuning, caching, and improved resource management, guaranteeing rapid response times even under high load. Furthermore, security measures have been significantly bolstered with improved authentication protocols, stronger encryption, and proactive monitoring, all designed to safeguard sensitive data and uphold industry compliance.
A Platform that Adapts, Learns, and Empowers
The uC26 release represents another significant step in UniqCast’s mission to give operators control, agility, and insight in a fast-moving OTT industry. By combining editorial flexibility, strong analytics, robust performance, and advanced security, UniqCast ensures that operators can create truly personalized experiences efficiently and independently.
