Emeryville, Calif.-based video technology company MobiTV has announced new client deals to deploy its managed IPTV video system with two additional pay TV operators, Vast Broadband and Vexus Fiber.

Headquartered in Sikeston, Missouri, cable operator Vast Broadband serves TV/video, high-speed broadband and landline voice services to business and residential customers in South Dakota and Minnesota. It offers three tiers of bundled pay TV service, starting with a skinny $33-a-month base tier that includes around 20 channels, most of them local broadcast affiliates.

Also read: Tech vendor says its turning small cable companies like Chattanooga's EPB into virtual MVPDs

Fiber broadband provider Vexus Fiber, meanwhile, operates in Texas and Louisiana, bundling a package of 260 channels with 1-gig symmetrical broadband.

Together, these two telecoms serve 75,000 customers, MobiTV said.

“Vast Broadband and Vexus have been increasing their geography, fiber penetration and service offerings to include residential services in underserved areas,” said Charlie Nooney, CEO of MobiTV, in a statement. “They turned to MobiTV as a trusted provider with a full end-to-end platform that would enable them to continue to serve their traditional markets and, at the same time, offer enhanced IP-based services.”

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In late-March, Nooney told Next TV that MobiTV had around 120 clients for its MobiTV Connect software-as-a-service product, which effectively provides operators a custom virtual MVPD to bundle with their broadband service.

“We’re a white-label service that allows our operator clients to maintain their own channel lineup and their own branding, and basically keep control of their video service.”

Privately funded with $213.8 million, according to Crunchbase, MobiTV launched its Connect platform in July 2017 with Mississippi’s C Spire. As of March, MobiTV Connect had transport licenses with around 350 cable networks and roughly 4,000 local broadcast stations, allowing it to create highly customized channel lineups for its operator clients.

The MobiTV app-based streaming TV service platform, requiring only off-the-shelf consumer-grade CPE. It contains a user-friendly interface that can be customized according to the service provider’s content and design preferences. The Connect platform includes on-demand, live TV, catch-up TV, unlimited network DVR, and recommendations. The SaaS-based platform allows for real-time enablement of new technologies such as 4K/HEVC, cloud DVR, replay TV, and robust voice control.

“As a competitive provider, we need to offer our subscribers innovative services in double- or triple-play bundles that will meet their viewing, broadband and telephony needs,” added Larry Eby, COO of Vast Broadband and Vexus. “MobiTV has a proven product that we could launch speedily as we build out our residential fiber-to-the-home platform in newly acquired and existing markets. MobiTV Connect will enable us to differentiate our service offerings in a competitive market.”

Emeryville, Calif.-based video technology company MobiTV has announced new client deals to deploy its managed IPTV video system with two additional pay TV operators, Vast Broadband and Vexus Fiber. 

Headquartered in Sikeston, Missouri, cable operator Vast Broadband serves TV/video, high-speed broadband and landline voice services to business and residential customers in South Dakota and Minnesota. It offers three tiers of bundled pay TV service, starting with a skinny $33-a-month base tier that includes around 20 channels, most of them local broadcast affiliates.

Also read: Tech vendor says its turning small cable companies like Chattanooga's EPB into virtual MVPDs

Fiber broadband provider Vexus Fiber, meanwhile, operates in Texas and Louisiana, bundling a package of 260 channels with 1-gig symmetrical broadband.

Together, these two telecoms serve 75,000 customers, MobiTV said. 

“Vast Broadband and Vexus have been increasing their geography, fiber penetration and service offerings to include residential services in underserved areas,” said Charlie Nooney, CEO of MobiTV, in a statement. “They turned to MobiTV as a trusted provider with a full end-to-end platform that would enable them to continue to serve their traditional markets and, at the same time, offer enhanced IP-based services.”

In late-March, Nooney told Next TV that MobiTV had around 120 clients for its MobiTV Connect software-as-a-service product, which effectively provides operators a custom virtual MVPD to bundle with their broadband service.

 “We’re a white-label service that allows our operator clients to maintain their own channel lineup and their own branding, and basically keep control of their video service.”

Privately funded with $213.8 million, according to Crunchbase, MobiTV launched its Connect platform in July 2017 with Mississippi’s C Spire. As of March, MobiTV Connect had transport licenses with around 350 cable networks and roughly 4,000 local broadcast stations, allowing it to create highly customized channel lineups for its operator clients. 

The MobiTV app-based streaming TV service platform, requiring only off-the-shelf consumer-grade CPE. It contains a user-friendly interface that can be customized according to the service provider’s content and design preferences. The Connect platform includes on-demand, live TV, catch-up TV, unlimited network DVR, and recommendations. The SaaS-based platform allows for real-time enablement of new technologies such as 4K/HEVC, cloud DVR, replay TV, and robust voice control.

“As a competitive provider, we need to offer our subscribers innovative services in double- or triple-play bundles that will meet their viewing, broadband and telephony needs,” added Larry Eby, COO of Vast Broadband and Vexus. “MobiTV has a proven product that we could launch speedily as we build out our residential fiber-to-the-home platform in newly acquired and existing markets. MobiTV Connect will enable us to differentiate our service offerings in a competitive market.”

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.”

Silicon Valley-based MobiTV has partnered with UK-based set-top software maker Amino on a new solution that will enable legacy set-tops to use MobiTV’s Connect IP video platform.

Under the new solution, which will be commercially available in the fourth quarter, according to the announcement, previously deployed set-tops will be “up-cycled” with AminoOS Enable software, giving them the ability to integrate IP video experiences delivered MobiTV’s Connect video platform.

MobiTV said it has 90 operators, either in trials or deployment for Connect, an end-to-end solution designed to let smaller service providers deliver popular over-the-top services along with managed linear video products.

MobiTV recently announced a new $50 million funding round to expand distribution of its IPTV platform.

“By enabling operators to offer exciting next generation services such as MobiTV with a relatively modest additional investment, we’re extending the life of installed devices: a highly significant CAPEX benefit,” said Amino CEO Donald McGarva, in a statement.

“We continue to focus on giving operators new options for delivering video services through whichever device they choose,” said Bill Routt, COO and president, MobiTV. “Our partnership with Amino expands our approach, recognizing that both operators and subscribers need video services that bring the best of both legacy linear and OTT streaming.”

Emeryville, Calif.-based pay TV tech vendor MobiTV has raised another $50 million.

The money comes from longtime lead investor Oak Investment Partners, with Ally Financial and Cedar Grove Partners also contributing. Founded in 2001, MobiTV has raised $213.8 million to date.

After launching its MobiTV Connect IPTV product about 18 months 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.

According to Charlie Nooney, chairman and CEO of the technology company, the funding will be used to bolster MobiTV’s “leadership” position in an increasingly competitive market for turnkey, internet-based TV tech products for telecom companies stepping away from the traditional constraints of QAM video.

For example, Centennial, Colo.-based Evolution Digital announced last week that Missouri operator Vast Broadband will roll out the eVue-TV IP content delivery platform and eMerge user interface by the end of the year.

“We clearly see the competition coming,” Nooney said. “We want to keep our leadership position in this space.”

MobiTV, he added, wants to bolster its adverting, marketing and data collection wherewithal here in the U.S. It also wants to expand into markets like Europe.

“Operators are at an inflection point,” Nooney said, explaining that competition from OTT services and innovations including 4K are forcing MSOs into tough decisions on whether to double down on TV or bail on video altogether.

“They worry that if they lose a video customer, they’ll lose a broadband customer, as well,” he noted.

MobiTV’s multi-tenant solution can be deployed through either a managed service or in-network offering. MobiTV Connect offers more than 350 popular networks, including A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Crown Media Family Networks, C-SPAN Networks, Disney and ESPN Media Networks, and Viacom.

MobiTV uses a hosted methodology, transporting national programming feeds from its centralized platform in Sacramento to its MVPD partners. MobiTV also ingests local broadcast feeds and distributes them for its cable and telco service provider partners.

“We believe in MobiTV’s superior consumer experience and know that being the only true TVaaS commercially deployed solution in North America has differentiated their positioning in the marketplace,” said Bandel Carano, managing partner of Oak Investment Partners, in a statement. “They have reinvented pay TV by providing operators a platform that allows consumers to use their streaming devices or smart TV, while eliminating the requirement of a set-top box.”

Little Rock, Ark.-based telecom Windstream has partnered with OTT vendor MobiTV to launch a new technology backbone for its Kinetic TV service.

The new app-based MobiTV Connect-based platform will be a “direct replacement” for the legacy Kinetic TV underpinnings, Geoff Levy, senior VP of marketing for Windstream, told Telecompetitor.

Levy described MobiTV as a “much better platform” compared to the previous Ericsson solution, noting that it “allows for a cloud DVR.” UHD/4K and voice control will also be enabled.

Related: MobiTV Lines Up Programmers for New Video Streaming Platform

The service, Levy noted, “will have the same channel lineup and the prices will be the same.”

The MobiTV Connect service is IP-based and delivered over the operator client’s managed network. 

Users will be able to access the service via Android- and iOS-powered mobile devices, as well as Amazon Fire TV OTT hardware and Android TV-powered smart TVs. Users will also have the option of leasing for $6 a month a set-top from Windstream based on the Android TV operator tier platform.

The new service will launch in Windstream’s North Georgia footprint, followed by Lincoln, Nebraska. Kinetic TV is expected to be available across eight additional markets this year, the company said. Windstream offers Kinetic-branded internet services in 18 states.

Windstream said it will continue to support customers who want to keep using Mediaroom services delivered over IPTV or cable TV network infrastructure, but those offerings will no longer be available to new customers.

Hat tip to tech blogger Dave Zatz for spotting the coming MobiTV “Connect” HDMI streaming stick as it passed through the FCC for testing. Far as I can tell, this is the first time the device’s form factor has popped up in some public documentation. Previously, MobiTV has been sharing a doodle representation of its new doodad.

As Zatz points out, the version that made its way through the Commission looks more like a Google Chromecast than Roku Streaming Stick or the Amazon Fire TV Stick, which started shipping last week.

Among the documents posted at the FCC, there’s some internal and external views of the MobiTV Connect, as well as a user’s manual that shows some set-up screens for how to pair the streaming stick to an iOS- or Android-powered device.

What the documents don’t spell out is how MobiTV’s U.S. mobile service partners (AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless are among the possibilities) will use the white-label Connect device to deliver video to the living room.

In a recent interview, MobiTV execs told Multichannel News (subscription required) that the Connect will debut sometime in the first half of 2015, with an expectation that partners will use the device in tandem with MobiTV’s platform to deliver a curated array of live TV channels, as well as on-demand video, music and games. That makes it sound like the device could end up fueling a new set of so-called “virtual” MVPD offerings that could be delivered over-the-top.  

MobiTV has also lined up some partners to get the device built and distributed. Jabil Circuit is making the Connect device, while Amlogic is supplying silicon that provides the chipset-layer security integration needed to get HD video to the big screen. Brightstar, a logistics and supply chain company that’s a subsidiary of Sprint parent Softbank, has signed on to help MobiTV get the device into the wireless retail and consumer distribution machine.