Fisher, Opanga Team For Mobile Video Apps

Fisher Interactive Network, part of Fisher Communications, today made an agreement with Opanga Networks Inc. to launch new technology to deliver high-quality video mobile news applications to consumers. The initial launch will be KOMOnews.com in Seattle and Fisher will add markets over the course of the year.

Opanga’s technology provides instant on-demand access to KOMO’s news video available on Android mobile devices without the delays and stalling issues found with many video streaming solutions. Based in Seattle, Opanga Networks provides mobile video distribution and optimization technologies.

“Our partnership with Opanga Networks, should allow us to meet the growing demand of our audience for high quality mobile video without overburdening the cellular networks at peak times,” said Randa Minkarah, Fisher SVP of revenue and business development. “The pre-positioning of the video resident on the phone delivers a high-resolution video experience to consumers while enabling us to serve geo-targeted, high quality video advertising. Audiences have grown weary of poor quality mobile video and want a consistently rich experience on demand.”

Previously, Fisher said, content providers have been unable to reliably deploy high-quality video content due to constraints associated with wireless network capacity. Fisher’s premium mobile video app uses Opanga’s NetRover platform to overcome pixelating and buffering problems to give its audience instant access to large amounts of video “unencumbered by video stalls or degraded signal.”

At the same time, the Opanga technology is designed to deliver content to consumers over wireless networks using only surplus capacity so that network performance is maximized and enhanced video playback can be delivered without any degrading impact to the wireless network.

“Media companies and wireless operators recognize the power of mobile devices as publishing platforms, but they also understand the impact streaming video has on wireless network performance” said Dave Gibbons, CEO of Opanga Networks.