WAVE’s Streaming News Earns ‘OTTy Award’ From Gray
At IBC 2022 (Amsterdam, Sept. 9-12, stand 1.B79), Broadpeak will highlight how pay TV operators, content providers and OTT players can provide a compelling video streaming experience to subscribers with the company’s software deployed on-premises, offered as a service, or a hybrid of both. Broadpeak’s CDN, multicast ABR and other advanced streaming solutions “ensure a […]

AI-driven automated captioning for broadcasters continues its upward trajectory of accuracy and speed, while more recently the service is evolving toward hybrid on-prem and cloud models and multi-language translation capabilities. Above, Lexi is the cloud-hosted automatic captioning service from Ai-Media.
Wurl, which powers streaming TV, has set an agreement with Amogo Networx, a global film network, to launch the company’s new, free ad supported TV (FAST) channels across various CTV platforms including SamsungTV, LG, RakutenTV and Roku. The Wurl-powered FAST channels will distribute and monetize Amogo Networx’s programming across the United States, the European Union and […]
Is It Time For Alphabet To Spin Off YouTube TV?

Over-the-top streaming offering YouTube TV has reached a milestone of 5 million subscribers and trial customers, making it one of the most popular nontraditional live TV services in the U.S. Owned by Alphabet, five-year-old YouTube TV has differentiated itself from the competition with unique features such as a cloud-based DVR, real-time statistics for live sports, and more. Now that an increasing number of people are cutting the cord and moving to internet-based television, here’s why this might this be the right moment for Alphabet to break out YouTube TV as a stand-alone operation.
OTT Carves Out A New Local Ad Marketplace — And Advertisers Are All In

Now commanding 28% of all video viewing time, over-the-top services have exploded in popularity. Borrell Associates found that they Increased from just 13.7% of all locally spent advertising in 2021, with more than a third of local media managers calling OTT their hottest-selling digital product. Find out why OTT is commanding such rapidly growing attention — and an equally growing piece of local advertising spend — and why OTT players like YouTube and TikTok are likely to take an increasing piece of the ad pie.
Sabio Holdings Inc., a provider of connected TV and over-the-top advertising platforms validated by performance, has appointed Tim Russell as its first chief revenue officer. Russell is a veteran leader with expertise in spearheading and scaling high-performing teams to deliver success through the company’s next phase of growth. Russell will oversee Sabio’s go-to-market approach, manage […]
For RSNs, OTT Channels Must Be Just A First Step

Regional sports networks are venturing into launching their first OTT channels to tap into the cord-cutting market. It’s an important move, but one that needs to be followed up with wider streaming distribution agreements to reach as broad an audience as possible.
In 2020 Foxtel started a project to exit its aging television center facility at Macquarie Park in Sydney, Australia. The plan involved migrating its entire technology platform across two sites in the city to an all-IP platform encompassing video routing, satellite, OTT and more. After more than 12 months of market research, testing and testing various […]

For several years now cable operators have been arguing that the FCC needs to recognize the shift in children’s video consumption from “‘traditional linear television’ to unregulated online programming,” and deregulate accordingly. The 1990 Children’s Television Act set limits on ads in children’s programming and the FCC in 2004 limited the display of website addresses during children’s programming. NCTA told the FCC this week, as it did back in 2018, that it was time to eliminate those restrictions.
Taking Stock Of Local TV News, OTT And NextGen TV In 2022

This is the third year for the RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey question: What, if anything, are you doing with OTT? It’s the second year that we’ve asked what, if anything, stations are doing with NextGen TV.
Live, Local Content Is Crucial Element For OTT

Live and local content are front and center of many strategic OTT decisions being made by media companies today, and new technologies are enabling their delivery at scale.

Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA Advisory Services’ longtime SVP and chief economist, is retiring at the end of June. He talks with TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp about retrans’ slowdown, OTT’s rise and the need for broadcasters to keep their eyes on competitors coming from all directions. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Bally Sports Plus will initially be available in five markets where the company’s Diamond Sports Group’s regional Bally Sports networks carry Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. The app will cost $19.99 a month, or $189.99 a year, and enable fans to watch games without subscribing to a multichannel pay TV cable, satellite or streaming service.

NBCUniversal says that 30% to 40% of TV ad campaign’s impressions should come from over-the-top streaming in order to optimize results, based on its recent test with advertisers using data from iSpot.tv.

Local-area Red Sox and Bruins enthusiasts don’t seem at all sold on ditching pay TV for this new $30-a-month OTT service.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar, about AVOD’s $369 million quarter, which brands and categories are dominating the space so far and the likely trajectory for AVOD spending this year. A full transcript of the conversation is included.
ViewLift, a global provider of end-to-end streaming and OTT (over-the-top) solutions, has promoted Shraddha Pednekar to chief experience officer (CXO) and Sujith Vellat to chief technology officer (CTO). “With more than 12 years of combined experience at ViewLift, both Shraddha and Sujith will be instrumental for ViewLift as we continue global market expansion,” said Manik […]
Syncbak today appointed broadcast and streaming technology executive Mike Fass as vice president of broadcast services. He joins Syncbak as its streaming platform VUit continues to expand, featuring local news and content from nearly 250 local stations, covering 76% of the DMAs in the United States, through carriage deals and agreements with a majority of the […]

TV stations and groups are increasingly turning to the cloud for playout solutions, and vendors are meeting them there with SaaS options. Above: Imagine’s Aviator control interface. The cloud-based system is designed to support both linear and OTT playout.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Kym Grinnage, regional VP for Gray Television and GM of its WWBT Richmond, Va., about spot TV’s resurgence, OTT growth and how he’s reconciling widening programming needs with a newsroom still exhausted and recovering from the pandemic.

One billion smart TVs will be sold in the next four years, according to Evan Shapiro, and not one of them will need an HDMI stick or hockey puck to connect to the internet.
Firstlight Media today announced that it is collaboratively working across a suite of Google Cloud products to innovate new, cloud-native monetization, personalization and content delivery capabilities – most notably Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) – for the next generation of OTT platforms. As part of its expanding relationship with Google Cloud, Firstlight Media’s research and development […]
Broadcasters, Vendors Tout Cloud Progress At Devoncroft

While previous Devoncroft conferences took place at off-site hotels, the 2022 edition was co-located with the NAB Show and held on the Main Stage of the North Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It drew hundreds of senior executives for an afternoon of panel discussions on everything from cloud migration and IP connectivity to virtual production and blockchain technology. Above, Devoncroft Principal Analyst Josh Stinehour (left) and Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley talking technology.
Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader providing OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, announced a new collaboration with Google Cloud to streamline TV and video service deployments and operations. VO solutions are now integrated with Google Cloud Anthos, a fully managed Kubernetes-based platform that allows users to manage their data and applications […]

Streaming services are facing a growing challenge in retaining what a new Parks Associates report is calling “service hoppers” who switched between services and resubscribed to services multiple times in the previous 12 months.
SpringServe, an independent TV ad serving platform, has launched BidLink. Bidlink is designed to communicate with a publisher’s primary ad server to send dynamic programmatic demand insights from integrated video SSPs, enabling competition between traditional-direct and programmatic campaigns. Publishers can leverage BidLink’s capabilities regardless of which ad server they use. “We developed BidLink to be […]

In a post-Volicon era, monitoring and compliance tools have gone beyond just making sure content meets regulatory requirements, moving into new broadcast environments and rolling out features designed to ease workflows. Above: Vela’s Encompass product showing both channel and transport stream analysis to help ensure quality of service.
NetRange MMH, a global provider of white-labelled, turnkey smart TV and OTT ecosystems, has partnered with IK World, a Chinese OTT Set-Top Box (STB) ODM. This collaboration provides IK World with a combination of ACCESS’s NetFront Browser BE and NetRange’s NetRange Smart STB App Store on AOSP. This solution lets IK World offer rich and legally proven content […]
Unified Streaming, a provider of smart video streaming technologies, announces the general availability of its Remix VOD2Live solution on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. The new listing is available as a preconfigured solution, with a usage-based pricing model, making it easier for customers to deploy as and when they need to. The company said […]

Bitcentral’s acquisition of direct-to-consumer video publishing vendor Powr.tv this week sees the company edging closer to an end-to-end streaming publishing solution, building on its AI-powered video playlisting tool.
Ateme, a provider of video delivery solutions for broadcast, cable TV, DTH, IPTV and OTT, says that Canal+ has launched one of the world’s first deployments of OTT low-latency streaming on AppleTV 4K thanks to Ateme’s NEA solution. The project enables Canal+ subscribers to watch sports events via HD and UHD low latency streaming through the myCANAL application […]
Synamedia is integrating Ateliere Creative Technologies’ solutions into its Vivid Workflow-as-a-Service portfolio (WaaS) for enhanced delivery of low latency OTT (over-the-top) solutions. The partnership brings new integrated streaming and on-demand offerings to the market, giving video service providers a competitive advantage for attracting and retaining subscribers by providing a streamlined and simplified viewing experience across all […]

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Syncbak CEO Jack Perry about VUit, the streaming channel aggregator of local newscasts, about deals it has closed with a slate of new local partners and the prospect of hyperlocal scalability in OTT.
Three Media, a specialist media company in workflow and technology management, has added new functionality to its flagship XEN:Pipeline software suite. The business process platform, used to manage OTT, online and on demand services, now also covers linear channels, making it the ideal single-point content supply chain solution. XEN:Pipeline is an end-to-end solution for managing […]
Streaming specialist 24i has supported OTT service Cinessance to launch in the U.S. and Canada, bringing a catalog of classic and modern movies to fans of French culture and cinema. The French-film streaming platform offers consumers a curated catalogue of classic and modern movies with subtitles in French and English for $6.99/month as well as […]

Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday (Nov. 18) that her planned refresh of the record on independent content providers’ access to distribution platforms will need to include over-the-top video.
Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global provider of OTT and TV platforms, content protection and advanced data solutions, announced today that in light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and enhanced safety restrictions in the Netherlands the company will not physically participate in IBC2021. “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the health […]