(Telecompaper) Ericsson introduced at IBC Ericsson MediaFirst, its new cloud-based platform for delivering content over pay-TV platforms. MediaFirst builds on Ericsson Mediaroom 2.5, the latest release of the IPTV platform it acquired from Microsoft. At the core of Ericsson MediaFirst is the Ericsson MediaFirst TV Platform, a software-defined, media-optimized platform for the creation, management and delivery of pay-TV. Currently in trials with a targeted set of operators, the platform is offered as a software as a service and will be generally available in Q2 2015. The MediaFirst TV Platform is based on open standards and is cloud-agnostic, enabling delivery on public and OpenStack private clouds. Supported by a unified backend that empowers rapid release cycles, the platform supports traditional pay TV and over-the-top content with the same user experience from navigation to accessing content across all devices. Users can create their own profiles or share user profiles with other household members, and receive tailored recommendations and content feeds based on data including user viewing history and trending content. The TV can recognize the viewer's device and dynamically customizes the experience. It also supports unified search across all types of content, including live, video on-demand, time-shift and OTT content. Services and user experiences are configured through a single operator dashboard portal, which also provides analytics to check things like campaign performance and user engagement.