US connected home specialist Entone is showing a product at Telco TV which accepts the reality that we’ve said all along, that with Over The Top video, there is little or no need to own network infrastructure.
So Entone has tweaked its WebVOD hybrid TV system, launched in September and turned it into two full hybrid services both called Fusion TV. There is one for the ISP who has never got around to launching IPTV, called Broadband TV edition. This is so that a local telco can sell OTT underneath existing TV services such as cable and DTH, and then there is the IPTV edition, which is for the telco that already has IPTV and wants to add internet content.
Fusion TV comes as a managed service, so sits on existing Entone servers in the cloud and speaks to Entone based home gateways, media hubs and set tops. It lets Telcos offer Over The Top video content alongside existing high definition TV programming, but in a single, unified, user experience.
The linear TV can be delivered over any traditional sources such as cable TV, IPTV or over the air broadcasts, and online media services are added such as VOD, music streaming, photo sharing, social media.
The IPTV Edition of FusionTV is based on Entone’s recently announced WebVOD which lets IPTV operators offer web based VOD services after a simple software download to Entone’s media hubs. But Entone wants to make partners of the local incumbents by getting them to sell Fusion TV bundled with their own broadband lines, without the cost of deploying a full-scale IPTV system.
‘Operators are clearly under threat from the pure-play OTT services where more and more compelling content is available online and on-demand,’ said Ameer Karim, VP of Hybrid TV for Entone. ‘Operators also understand that consumers place great value on live TV, premium content, true HDTV programming, and the ability to record their favorite shows. FusionTV unites these themes into a single user experience, whether delivered as part of a premium IPTV service or bundled with a broadband Internet service.’
Entone wants FusionTV to be sold in a bundle with high-speed Internet, Live HDTV programming, a DVR with EPG, Web media services such as VOD, photo sharing, music streaming, personal media sharing within a home network and the placeshifting of content throughout the home or on-the-go. Presumably Entone Media Hubs offer placeshifting already.
FusionTV is currently being deployed and trialed by numerous video service operators and is immediately available in all US markets. One report has it that a tier 1 operator is trialing the service as well as existing Tier 2 players.