Case Study: AI-Driven Content Automation with Pearl & Dean Ireland

About Pearl & Dean Ireland

Pearl & Dean Ireland owns and operates several entertainment websites, including Entertainment.ie, an Irish web company based in Dublin. The platform provides users with listings, recommendations, reviews, and news across TV, cinema, on-demand services, and events.

Initial Engagement

Digital Maturity Assessment
As part of the collaboration with CeADAR’s European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) for AI, a Digital Maturity Assessment was conducted. This assessment highlighted several opportunities for Pearl & Dean Ireland to enhance their digital capabilities using AI technologies.

Project Selection
Following the assessment, a project was selected that would have the greatest impact on Pearl & Dean Ireland’s operations — automating content retrieval and updating for on-demand streaming listings.

Test Before Invest

The Challenge
Pearl & Dean Ireland operates Entertainment.ie, which provides comprehensive TV and cinema listings. However, the site did not include on-demand program and movie listings from major Irish streaming platforms, such as RTÉ Player, Virgin Media, and TG4.

The process of manually searching for content updates and adding them to the website was time-consuming, creating inefficiencies and limiting the scope of available listings.

Scoping the Solution
CeADAR’s EDIH for AI data scientists worked with Pearl & Dean Ireland to outline the requirements for an automated solution. The goal was to create a process that could automatically gather, process, and update streaming information on their platform.

The Solution
CeADAR developed an automated Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) pipeline tailored for Pearl & Dean Ireland. The AI-powered solution was designed to:

  • Retrieve streaming data from RTÉ Player, Virgin Media, and TG4.
  • Transform the collected data into a standardised format.
  • Load the updated content into the website’s database.
  • Perform daily comparisons to detect new content additions or removals.

Results & Impact

The AI-driven ETL pipeline delivers key benefits for Pearl & Dean Ireland, including:

  • Enhanced Content Offerings: The website now includes accurate and up-to-date movie and TV listings from Irish streaming services.
  • Operational Efficiency: Automated processes replaced manual content retrieval, saving time and reducing errors.
  • Cost-Effective Management: The in-house solution empowers Pearl & Dean Ireland to manage and maintain their listings autonomously, without ongoing third-party support.

What’s Next?

Following the successful Test Before Invest phase, Pearl & Dean Ireland is in the process of deploying the AI-powered ETL solution to the live website. The company plans to continue refining its content automation capabilities, ensuring their platform remains a leading resource for entertainment listings in Ireland.

Services Provided

Pearl & Dean Ireland received fully funded access to CeADAR’s EDIH for AI services . This included expert guidance, AI technology support, and collaborative project development. The partnership equipped Pearl & Dean Ireland with the tools and knowledge to confidently integrate AI into their digital infrastructure.

 

Testimonial

“The AI-Driven Content Automation tool designed and created by CeADAR for Pearl & Dean Ireland’s entertainment.ie website, whilst still in its infancy, has already proved to be a great success for our readers & company. In an ever changing digital entertainment content delivery world, one of entertainment.ie’s key USPs is to be a “one-stop-shop” for readers to be able to view listing content and recommendations for as many providers of entertainment services as available – including cinema listings, linear tv stations, live events, and on demand streaming platforms, all in one place. 

 

With regards to on demand streaming services for Irish readers, there was no single place that showed an extensive catalogue of Irish only streaming services alongside international streaming services; RTE Player, Virgin Media Player & the TG4 Player. CeADAR’s AI-Driven Content Automation tool has now allowed Pearl & Dean Ireland to collate the full catalogues of content available to stream on these unique Irish streaming services in one place for our readers. This benefits viewers of these platforms, showing more choice and highlighting Irish produced content; the platforms themselves now have a bigger profile of their offerings; and ultimately has allowed Pearl & Dean Ireland to extend its offering.

 

Early feedback from readers is very positive, with great praise for being able to view the content of these Irish streaming platforms alongside already existing international streaming services. Early analytics shows an estimated 10-15% growth in usage. CeADAR’s AI-Driven Content Automation tool has removed a very manual and time-consuming task, enabling us to direct our resources into other important areas of the business. 

 

We found CeADAR to be thoroughly excellent to work with; they clearly understood our brief requirements and actively offered suggestions on the path to success. The team was very professional, friendly, efficient and highly technically skilled. We would wholeheartedly recommend CeADAR’s European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) for AI to any business considering making efficiencies in their business, or looking to expand their offering.”

 David Bryan

Head of IT Development at Pearl and Dean Ireland