Persian television abroad used to need a studio and a transponder. It now needs a library you hold rights to, a weekly grid built in a browser, and an encoder for the live sessions and the tahvil countdown. Playout, graphics, the programme guide and worldwide delivery are handled in the cloud on the Cloud Playout plans, from $254 per month billed yearly with viewers never metered, and a FAST or linear channel can be on air in minutes.
The satellite generation and the streaming one
Persian television abroad built a real broadcast tradition, studios, schedules and audiences, in the satellite era. The audience it built is now on smart TVs and phones, and the generation after it never owned a dish. A streaming channel carries the tradition forward with the same grammar, a schedule, a guide, broadcast graphics, at a fraction of the cost, and with the city-level map showing exactly where the audience lives, from Westwood to North York to Stockholm.
Subtitles turn heritage into reach
Automatic subtitles on higher plans, and translate-and-dub on the Studio plan, solve diaspora television’s oldest problem: the grandchildren. The channel broadcasts in Persian, the second generation reads it in English, and the poetry evening or the Nowruz special becomes something a mixed household, or a curious neighbour, watches together. Reach stops being capped by the language.
Afghan, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bangla, Tamil and Punjabi channels use the same engine and the same weekly grid.