TV Broadcasters, Syncbak Create OTT Innovation Alliance

Broadcast groups Morgan Murphy Media, Gray Television, Heritage Broadcasting and independent WFMZ Allentown, Pa., have formed the OTT Innovation Alliance, which plans to “create innovative ways to reach in- and out-of-market viewers using the power of OTT.”

In partnership with Syncbak, a provider of live local OTT, the OTT Innovation Alliance plans to focus on bringing new, local advertiser friendly, live- and on-demand content to OTT from their local markets, including concerts, parades, street cams and local races. The group calls this concept straight-to-OTT and it will all be available on Syncbak’s direct-to-consumer app, SBTV.

Chaired by Brian Burns, EVP-COO of Morgan Murphy Media, other charter members include: Thom Pritz, GM of Gray’s KCRG Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chris Cornelius, VP of business development at Morgan Murphy Media; Pete Iacobelli, CEO, COO and president of Heritage Broadcasting; Barry Fisher, president-GM of WFMZ; and Kevin Dunaway, VP-GM of Heritage Broadcasting.

“We’ve been laser-focused on our OTT efforts the second half of this year and we’re seeing measurable results,” said Brian Burns, chairman of the OTT Innovation Alliance. “The sky is the limit in terms of what we can do with local OTT and the time to do it is now,” he added.

“When Brian approached me about forming an OTT Alliance, it was a no-brainer to say, yes,” said Jack Perry, founder-CEO of Syncbak. “We have best streaming platform on the planet and broadcasters have the best content. In the world of OTT, they can go beyond over-the-air broadcasts and our platform gives them the tools to do just that.”

Stations participating in the alliance are also providing content for SBTVs newest channel, Politics Uncut, which takes short- and long-form political content, aired or never-aired, and mashes it all up into an unbiased, totally political OTT stream. “We’re pretty excited about Politics Uncut,” said Pete Iacobelli, CEO of Heritage Broadcasting. “Now we can deliver our political coverage over-the-top, to viewers in any market, using whatever device they want to use to watch us.”

The OTT Innovation Alliance is open to membership for stations and station groups in the United States. Contact [email protected] for details.