Visual Data Media Services (Visual Data) has been awarded Apple Preferred Plus status for video delivery.

It is now one of four companies in the world to have achieved Apple’s highest partner video partner accolade.

The other companies with Preferred Plus status are Deluxe, Juice Worldwide (a division of Vubiquity) and Premiere Digital.

To qualify for Apple Preferred Plus status encoding houses must consistently meet Apple’s quality and delivery targets.

To qualify for Apple’s top ranking, an encoding house must demonstrate a minimum of 400 unique Apple IDs delivered per quarter, have a minimum package pass rate of 97%, experience no critical delivery issues and support iTunes Extras.

Visual Data managing director Symon Roue said: “The shift to TVoD and SVoD in the last three years has resulted in a rise in our digital work, which now comprises around 50% of all our deliveries.

“We’ve worked hard on our volume, capability and accuracy metrics — and Apple’s Preferred Plus award shows that our dedication and commitment have paid off.

“With digital now accounting for a significant proportion of content-owners’ revenue streams, identifying the right digital supply-chain partner has never been more important.

“Apple’s new ranking system will not only help our clients keep costs down and quality up, but it will enable us to deliver peace of mind along with perfectly encoded content.”