MyBundle announced its latest customer win Wednesday, with top 10 U.S. FTTH supplier Consolidated Communications agreeing to provide the startup's streaming education and recommendation tools to its nearly 200,000 Fidium Fiber customers. 

With the deal, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based MyBundle said it now has agreements in place with nearly 200 U.S. suppliers of high-speed internet services, including CenturyLink, reaching around 13 million customers combined. 

Listen to our recorded webinar: The Bundle Is Back! Connecting Consumers, Content and Broadband in the Streaming Age

Mattoon, Ill.-based Consolidated added nearly 20,000 fiber-to-the-home customers in the fourth quarter, ending 2023 with 195,195 Fidium Fiber subscribers. (Here's the company's Q4 earnings release.)

Like many suppliers of high-speed internet services, Consolidated doesn't want to be in the business of bundling pay TV channels itself. So it's turning to suppliers of streaming aggregation, recommendation and consumer education services and tools, like MyBundle, to help its consumers navigate and transition to IP distribution of video. 

“Consolidated’s commitment to providing the right solutions for our customers with simple options, like our Fidium Fiber internet services, guided our decision to partner with  MyBundle,” said Rob Koester, senior VP of product management for Consolidated. “As the TV landscape changes rapidly, it’s important to have a partner who provides the tools necessary for selecting and getting the most out of streaming options that work for our customers.”

Added MyBundle Co-founder and CEO Jason Cohen: “MyBundle is the partner of choice for leading-edge and forward-looking broadband providers, such as Consolidated, looking to take advantage of this new era of streaming to grow and excite their broadband customer bases. MyBundle increases customer satisfaction through education and awareness of how streaming services can save a ton of money for the vast majority of households, whether that be Live TV or on-demand content.” 

NEW ORLEANS - Mattoon, Illinois-based Consolidated Communications has become the latest cable operator to sign onto MobiTV’s full IP video solution, MobiTV Connect.

The IPTV platform will service as the backbone of Consoidated’s CCiTV-branded video service, delivering content from nearly 200 local broadcast and national cable channels. Network brands in the fold include A+E, Crown Media Family, Disney and ESPN Media, FOX, HBO, Turner and Viacom.

The new service initially is available to subscribers in southern Maine with plans to expand service later this year.

The announcement was made from the Cable-Tec Expo event in New Orleans.

Related: MobiTV Adds $50M Funding Round

After launching its MobiTV Connect IPTV product nearly two years ago, MobiTV has around 90 U.S. pay TV partners, about half of which have fully deployed its end-to-end IP-based solution. Windstream and Fidelity Communications are its biggest clients to date.

MobiTV Connect is SaaS-based platform that allows for real-time enablement of new technologies, such as 4K, cloud DVR and voice control. The app-based system is designed to leverage off-the-shelf streaming hardware, like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, dispensing with expensive set-top rollouts.

"Partnering with MOBITV allows us to deliver a cost-effective next-generation TV service and enhanced user experience,” said Rob Koester, VP of consumer product management at Consolidated Communications, in a statement. “Consolidated also benefits from MobiTV’s IP delivery, which reduces the capital expense associated with additional hardware in the home and the ability to transition to the service without a major rip-and-replace installation.”

Added Charlie Nooney, CEO and chairman of MobiTV. “The customizable MobiTV Connect platform, combined with the fiber-optic network and customer service from Consolidated Communications, makes for a powerful app-based TV solution that prioritizes the user experience.”

Expanding its partnerships with OTT TV providers, Consolidated Communications said this week it is offering DirecTV Now, AT&T’s OTT TV service, across its service area.

A website for the partnership has been set up, offering new customers a free seven-day trial to DirecTV Now, a no-contract service that starts at $35 per month. Those customers may also be in line for a free 4K-capable Amazon Fire TV stick with a prepaid subscription. DirecTV Now is also starting to promote a “True Cloud DVR” beta offering that is “coming soon” and can record up to 20 hours of programming.

Financial terms were not disclosed, though it’s possible that Consolidated is getting a share of revenue, or at least a bounty, for any new DirecTV Now customers that come through its door.

The DirecTV Now deal also expands Consolidated’s strategy to offer video options to broadband-only customers, following a deal to sell fuboTV, the sports-oriented virtual MVPD, as well as HBO Now, HBO’s standalone, direct-to-consumer offering that does not require a separate pay TV service.

RELATED: Consolidated Communications Pitches HBO Now

Consolidated, which provides services, in parts of a 24-state area, ended 2017 with 783,682 data and internet connections, 103,313 video connections, and a grand total of 671,300 consumer customers.

For DirecTV Now, the marketing deal with Consolidated provides another subscriber-acquisition channel, and builds on an earlier one with Windstream. CenturyLink, which is in the process of closing down its CenturyLink Stream service, is now seeking out third-party OTT partnerships, and DirecTV Now is a logical candidate.

RELATED: CenturyLink Pulling Plug on OTT TV Beta Service

DirecTV Now ended 2017 with 1.15 million subscribers, but hasn’t broken down how many have come through telco distribution partnerships in the early going.

RELATED: Virtual MVPDs Ended 2017 with 5.3M Subs: Study

Consolidated Communications, the Illinois-based broadband and pay-TV provider, has signed on to pitch its broadband customers the fuboTV sports-centric streaming TV service. fuboTV in July announced an agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative to facilitate such arrangements, and Consolidated is the first NCTC member to come on board. 

RELATED: NCTC Reaches Pact with fuboTV

Consolidated is offering customers who sign up at fubotv.com/consolidated a 30-day free trial of the Fubo Premier service, currently offering "65+" live channels plus a cloud DVR service, after which normal pricing would kick in. Or they can get a seven-day free trial and then a $19.99 monthly price for the service for two months. The usual full price is $39.99 monthly (or $44.99 in New York and New England markets served by MSG and NESN). Customers would tap into fuboTV via computer or apps on Apple and Android devices or Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast or Fire TV. 

“Our customers crave the best in TV content when they want it and where they want it,” Rob Koester, vice president of product management, consumer services at Consolidated Communications, said in a release. “With its abundance of live, national and regional sports and must-watch entertainment channels, fuboTV delivers content that will supplement our video offerings.”

RELATED: Consolidated Launches Spanish-language OTT service Vemox

“We are excited that Consolidated is bringing our sports-first streaming TV service to its customers, and is the first broadband provider to take advantage of our partnership with the NCTC announced earlier this year,” Min Kim, vice president of business development at fuboTV, said in the release. “Our streaming package, which has the most sports for the least money, gives Consolidated customers even more reasons to love their fast, fiber-based high-speed Internet.”

RELATED: Consolidated Pitches HBO Now to Broadband SubsfuboTV launched in 2015 as a streaming soccer service and has expanded into a full-fledged virtual MVPD service, now with more than 100,000 subscribers. It recently exited a beta phase on Roku with an updated interface and is competing against the likes of other vMVPDs, such as PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, Philo, CenturyLink Stream, Sling TV and Hulu.

This story was updated on Dec. 22 to correct how the free trial periods are described.

Consolidated Communications Holdings said it’s the first U.S. service provider to offer Vemox, a Spanish-language streaming service from Olympusat

Vemox, available to Consolidated broadband customers on an a la carte basis, sells for $9.99 per month and features a VOD library with thousands of titles and more than 70 Spanish TV channels. Vemox is supported on iOS and Android mobile devices and Samsung and LG Electronics smart TVs.

Per the Vemox site, the service features 27 live TV channels in standard def, including Canal 10 Mexico, Cubaplay, EJTV, and Sopresa, and 39 in HD, including Estrella TV, TV Chile, Ultra Familia, and Ultra Macho. The offering also includes a small batch of English-language channels, including Bloomberg Television and France 24.

“Providing a robust and inclusive portfolio of content offerings is something that we consistently strive to do,” Rob Koester, vice president of consumer product management at Consolidated Communications, said in a statement. “This platform gives us the ability to provide desired programming on a full range of connected devices at home or on the go.”

Synacor said it has expanded its relationship Consolidated Communications to include a video platform and apps that will power the service provider’s next-gen TV services.

As part of the multiyear deal, Consolidated will tap Synacor’s platform to launch new native apps for tablets and smartphones that pair with the provider’s existing browser platform (also provided by Synacor), as well as support for live TV on third-party streaming platforms such as Roku players and Google Chromecast streaming adapters.  

Additionally, Synacor will supply video search and discovery services across multiple content providers and supply video encoding, digital rights management (DRM) wrapping and adaptive bit rate video services.

Synacor, which recently won a major portal services deal with AT&T, has already been supplying TV Everywhere and portal platform services to Consolidated.

Consolidated ended Q1 2016 with 114,485 video connections. It provides consumer and business services in parts of eleven states -- California, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

“Consumer expectations for superior video experiences across devices are high,” said Consolidated chief marketing officer Michael Smith, in a statement. “Synacor’s end-to-end video platform will offer a great experience to our Consolidated subscribers and allows us the flexibility to deliver even more exciting products in the future. With our expanded Synacor partnership, we will be at the forefront of the OTT/TVE space and deliver an exceptional viewing experience for customers across our entire service area.”

“It’s been our privilege to work with Consolidated Communications as their trusted, white-label technology partner,” added Synacor CEO Himesh Bhise. “Consolidated is a company dedicated to turning complex technology into the simple, affordable solutions that customers demand. We are delighted to help them continue to deliver on their digital promise through our end-to-end video solutions so Consolidated subscribers can enjoy their video on more devices than ever.”

READ MORE: Full INTX coverage.

BOSTON – The growth of media consumption on personal devices, the desire to add programming without incurring capital and content costs and aspirations to reach viewers in growing multicultural populations came together at a breakfast session at INTX on Wednesday.

A programmer-and-distributor tandem talked up the Vemox over-the-top product Olympusat is pushing that enables pay-TV providers to add live and on-demand Spanish-language programming. Jaime Montes, director of content acquisition and digital TV services at Consolidated Communications, a telco (formerly known as SureWest) with a digital-TV product, said it embraced Vemox as part of an effort to add programming in bulk without having to do many separate linear launches. He said Consolidated hopes to have a full OTT programming array – a la Sling TV – by the third quarter of the year, though it won’t replace the need for traditional TV via the set-top box for at least a decade. “It’s a complement to the linear package that we have out there.”

Olympusat Holdings CEO Tom Mohler said IP delivery of packages like Vemox gives distributors flexibility in packaging and the ability to reach mobile devices.

Christian Martinez, head of U.S. multicultural sales for Facebook, got the session started by observing that video consumption “has gone to our mobile phones.” That in turn has changed storytelling, requiring that some stories be told quickly, to audiences that are relatively young and accustomed to dealing with more than one screen device at a time. “Let’s break the mold” in terms of reaching multicultural audiences, he said.

Javier Garcia, senior vice president and general manager of multicultural services at Comcast Cable, said his business area is a key center of growth at the company. “We had the best year in multicultural ever at the company,” he said. His team is responsible for introducing new products and features at a rapid clip, he said. In addition to video tweaks – such as launching TV Japan on video on demand – those products target multicultural customers for voice services and home security, he said. A native of Colombia, Garcia said home security was a concern for his family when moving from Bogota to homes in the United States, based on their experience of living in a dangerous place.

Other speakers at the event emphasized the need to offer the right content to targeted audiences. TV One vice president of marketing & partnerships LaTanya Butler, for example, said African-American audiences are eager consumers, but expect programming to stay “true to your culture.” David Hanono, vice president of digital development at BBC Worldwide Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, said he has found that quality programming in the documentary, nature and scripted realms from the BBC translates well from “British English” into other languages. “There is tons of appetite for scripted content,” he added, an observation that Mohler of Olympusat echoed.

Condista partner Jorge Fiterre; Patrick Rivet, head of worldwide distribution at Thema-Alterna TV; and Mark Walton, president of sales and marketing at One Caribbean Television, also shared in the conversations at the session, which was produced by Multichannel News. Walton even brought a moko jumbie action figure, representing the stilt dancers that are a brightly colored fixture at carnivals in the Caribbean. Not all consumer groups – including African-American ones – are homogeneous, he said.

Applying some speed pressure on AT&T and Comcast, Consolidated Communications has launched a 1 Gbps residential broadband service in the Houston area, a follow-up to its first 1-Gig launch in Kansas City in late 2014.

CCI said its fiber-fed symmetrical 1-Gig service is available to qualified homes for $69.95 per month, when customers agree to a two-year contract. However, CCI isn’t saddling the service with construction or installation fees.

“Our continued rollout of 1 gigabit service across our markets demonstrates our commitment to meeting our customers’ expectations today, tomorrow and into the future,” said Rob Koester, CCI’s VP of consumer product marketing. “We have the network, expertise and people based in the Houston-area to deliver the fastest, most reliable, high quality service.” 

CCI is launching service in the Houston area as speed competition heats up. AT&T launched its fiber-based “GigaPower” service to parts of Houston in April, offering it for $110 per month to customers who agree to participate in the AT&T Internet Preferences targeted ad program.

Comcast has also identified Houston as a market that will soon get Gigabit Pro, an uncapped, fiber-based, symmetrical 2 Gbps service that will be available to homes within close proximity (about 1/3 of a mile) of the MSO's fiber network. Comcast said it expects to launch Gigabit Pro in Houston sometime this summer, but has not yet announced pricing.