Adding a big name to its customer list, Qwilt said Verizon Communications is deploying the vendor’s Open Caching platform as part of a next-gen content and app delivery system that will improve the streaming QoE while also supporting new bandwidth-intensive offerings such as augmented reality, virtual reality and 4K live streaming.

“As demand for data and video services increases, Qwilt’s open caching solution helps our network meet today’s demand as well as creates the scalable network necessary for the future,” Lee Hicks, VP of network planning at Verizon, said in a statement. “In fact, we’ve already seen a 20% reduction in core traffic in markets where the Qwilt solution is deployed.”

Qwilt and Verizon are both members of the Streaming Video Alliance, a group that has been developing an Open Caching specification/architecture aimed at driving scale into streaming video by caching popular content toward the edges of the network. Verizon is among the service providers that has been testing this new architecture.

RELATED: Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Architecture

Other service providers that are on board with Qwilt include Telecom Italia, Mediacom Communications, the Wi2 Division of KDDI (Japan), and Digicel. Qwilt said it has more than 100 deployments worldwide.

In a move that aims to bring more scale to over-the-top video services, Qwilt and content delivery network provider Limelight Networks have stitched together an integrated caching system that places more content toward the edge of the network and closer to the end user.

The integration combines Limelight’s CDN with Qwilt’s “open” caching in ISP networks around the world.

The linkup with Limelight will help to improve the quality of experience and lower latencies of OTT services, Qwilt CEO and co-founder Alon Maor said.

While Limelight is the first on board with such an integration, Maor stressed that the agreement is not exclusive and that Qwilt has trials ongoing with other CDN and streaming infrastructure providers. He also noted that this is a technical integration, and that no money is being exchanged as a result.

“This is a very meaningful step toward an internet that’s not just for open connectivity, but also content delivery that’s closer to the edge,” Maor said.

Related: Qwilt Takes Live Streaming, VR to the Edge

He also confirmed that the work between Qwilt and Limelight stems from an “open caching” architecture/initiative that’s been undertaken by the Streaming Video Alliance that aims to drive more scale and quality into online video.

The SVA, a group formed in late 2014, is focused on specs and best practices for video streaming. Charter Communications, Limelight, Qwilt, Verizon Communications, Viacom, Yahoo and ViaSat were among the first group of companies to get directly involved in the SVA’s open caching project.

Joe Inzerillo, executive vice president and CTO for BAMTech and a special advisor to Major League Baseball, has joined the board of Qwilt, a company that specializes in open caching systems for over-the-top and IP video apps and services.

BAMTech is the recently formed, Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

Qwilt and MLBAM are founding members of the Streaming Video Alliance, a group that focuses on standards and best practices for online video. The SVA formed in the fall of 2014, and counts Comcast and Liberty Global among its members.

RELATED: Perchance to Stream (subscription required)

As an SVA member, Qwilt is also involved in a new open caching architecture that’s designed to drive more quality and scale into live and on-demand streaming.

RELATED: Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Architecture

“Streaming video continues to grow and has become an unstoppable force of nature,” Inzerillo said, in a statement. “ Alon [Maor, Qwilt’s CEO] and I share a common vision to define and enable the new architecture for streaming which relies more on the reach, scale and quality of Internet service provider network infrastructure for content and application delivery. This new architecture, the Edge Cloud in service provider networks, is essential to the long-term scaling of content and application delivery.”

Qwilt has taken the wraps of an upgraded edge computing platform that aims to enable low-latency and boost the performance of bandwidth-intensive 4K live streaming and virtual/augmented reality apps and services.

Its Open Edge Cloud platform also comes with a set of APIs for publishers and commercial content delivery networks that work with service providers.

Qwilt is launching the upgraded software-powered platform as service operators continue to establish edge computing capacities for fixed and mobile services, Dan Sahar, a co-founder of Qwilt and the company’s VP of product marketing, said.

The new platform is made up of an edge cloud node that can site deep in the operator’s network, or even reside in a residential form-factor like a home gateway, and complement and extend centralized cloud infrastructures. That element connects to a management system that maps the nodes, and can also create a global API for the publisher ecosystem.

He said Qwilt’s new platform ties into a new “Open Caching” specification/architecture developed by the Streaming Video Alliance. Qwilt, along with fellow SVA members Charter Communications, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Verizon, Viacom, ViaSat and Yahoo are among the first that will try out a range of use cases of the specs. 

RELATED: Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Architecture

Qwilt has been offering the new capabilities via an upgrade that is being distributed to its deployment partners, which number more than 100. Announced Qwilt partners include Mediacom, Communications,  Telecom Italia, Choice Cable, On Telecom, Toyama (Japan), the Natioal Cable Television Cooperative (customer/reseller),  Conway Corp., Orcon, CallPlus, KBRO, Wananchi, Afrihost, and Digicell.

Qwilt, a maker of online video delivery and open caching products, said it has tapped former Cisco Systems exec Jesper Knutsson as vice president of sales.

In that role, Knutsson will head up Qwilt’s overall sales strategy and growth initiatives for the Americas.

Knutsson most recently was with Cisco, joining them following Cisco’s $5 billion acquisition of video software and security specialist NDS in 2012.

“The transformation from broadcast television to internet TV is at a critical juncture – a myriad of streaming content options and insatiable demand from subscribers are top of mind issues for network operators who must architect their networks to meet this demand,” Alon Maor, Qwilt’s CEO, in a statement. “We’re glad to have a sales leader like Jesper join our team and scale our sales efforts so more network operators can benefit from an open caching solution that increases network capacity and improves subscriber quality of experience. We expect his extensive industry experience and remarkable sales success will continue to accelerate Qwilt’s growth and expansion. ”

“Streaming video is ubiquitous in today’s society,” Knutsson added. “Consumers are cutting the cord and relying on OTT video for everything from Netflix to live streaming major events such as an NFL game or the Oscars. Qwilt has established itself as a leader in working with network operators to address the issues related to the industry transformation from broadcast to Internet TV. I look forward to my new role guiding Qwilt’s sales teams as we work with network operators to scale their networks for streaming video. ”

Today’s connected consumers demand the ability to watch any video, anytime, anywhere with the same quality and viewing experience they’d get from watching broadcast TV on their HD flat screen. The average American now owns four digital devices, making them more digitally savvy than ever before.

This shift in video viewing signifies that traditional broadcast TV is no longer the first screen viewing option for video content. As a result, the industry must prepare for second screen domination–current trends indicate that the majority of the world will trade in traditional TV packages to stream video from a smartphone, tablet or multimedia player.

The acceleration of streaming video is due to three forces that have aligned over the past year, creating a virtuous cycle that consists of: industry transformation, ecosystem collaboration and network economics.

-Industry Transformation – “Broadcast TV becoming Internet TV,” all TV brands are streaming, web streaming companies drive urgency, device proliferation.

-Ecosystem Collaboration – Streaming Video Alliance and Alliance for Open Media established, content providers eager to collaborate, ISPs want deeper relationships with CDNs and content providers.

-Network Economics – Fixed broadband Internet performance, mobile broadband penetration and performance, ISP investments to improve QoE.

It’s only a matter of time before more people will stream video online than will watch scheduled programs on traditional TV, according to a new study from Ericsson. This transformation is inevitable, considering the amount of emerging offerings, abundant video content and the rising demand from consumers.

This shift is also characterized by more innovation in content bundling, as partnerships form between network providers and streaming content providers, such as the Cablevision “Cord Cutter” package. The truly compelling “skinny bundle” is also gaining popularity, where consumers with traditional cable packages (who may have upwards of 180 channels and only watch 20 of them) may instead opt for a slimmed down service like Sling TV.

To help solve some of the challenges associated with the proliferation of streaming video growth, we’re seeing more ecosystem players team up to collaborate on how to best optimize content and provide a high quality online video viewing experience for consumers. More content delivery networks (CDNs) are recognizing the value of open caching in ISP networks and the need for the industry to come together in order for streaming to scale. Encouraged by forums like the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) and the Alliance for Open Media, ISPs are beginning to look at their broadband services more strategically, permitting (and even embracing) streaming content offerings from a wide variety of content providers.

Another powerful factor in this transformation is the availability of an increasing range of affordable, high performance streaming devices. With the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, streaming sticks and multimedia players like Xbox, ISPs and content providers are seeing the second screen become the first screen for streaming. This wide range of devices has also encouraged the industry to invest in new tools to measure and optimize quality of experience for consumers across a broad range of screen sizes and resolutions. Next generation wireless technologies are also contributing profoundly to this transformation as mobile streaming is one of the best possible applications of 5G or LTE.

Content continues to be king, especially in today’s binge-watching world—there is a new wave of video content emerging, resulting in a tsunami of streaming video flooding operator networks and consumer devices. The transformational forces at work in online video offerings have resulted in numerous streaming service innovations, including:

-Yahoo!’s partnership with the NFL to offer the first live streamed NFL football game

-Cablevision deal to resell Hulu

-Verizon’s new go90 mobile video

With these advancements, it is no surprise that more streaming services are surfacing in new markets across the globe. For example, Kishore Lulla, executive chairman of Eros International has pioneered the “Netflix of India” with Eros Now where viewers can access more than 2,000 films and exclusive series, including movies just released in theaters. However, this service (newly launched in September) will now compete with the streaming video giant it’s trying to emulate. Earlier this month, Netflixannounced that it has expanded its streaming empire to 130 new countries (including India), making it available to nearly every country on Earth.

Consumers want more streaming video choices, better services and the ultimate viewing experience. The industry has reached a tipping point where Internet TV will soon eclipse broadcast TV, creating a new model for digital entertainment. The content providers who have already raised the bar—with better content, packaging, delivery and user experience—are at an advantage as Internet TV continues its ascent above the entertainment landscape.

It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the industry joins in.

-Alon Maor is CEO and co-founder of Qwilt, a provider of online video delivery and open video caching solutions. 

By now you’ve probably streamed enough to consider yourself a decent judge of what online video has to offer – you’ve faked being current with the latest episode of Homeland and then binged four seasons over one weekend so you could confidently walk into the office on Monday and pretend like you knew all along how last year’s season finale cliffhanger ends. Perhaps you know how to get the best quality live stream when watching the NBA playoffs from the office.  

Maybe you understand that Roku sometimes works better than Chromecast, or you can usually choose the best browser from which to stream or you have discovered by firsthand experience why “Smart TVs really aren’t smart”.  

Very likely, you are pretty adept at knowing where to find a new show or, perhaps, a classic old show inside the vast content libraries of Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Crackle or HBO Now. And, yet, with all of this accumulated experience, you still shake your head from time to time and think it should be easier to stream.

As you reflect back on the year, it seems that streaming has become more complex and a bit more dangerous with the regular cadence of new devices, new packages and new service offerings. Without it being your intention, you realize you have active accounts with two different streaming services and you still have that nagging feeling that you’re somehow missing out.  

So, you wonder aloud how all of this will sort itself out. Have we finally reached a tipping point after which the complexity of streaming will melt away, leaving us just a couple clicks away from whatever we want to watch at any given moment in the day?

Well, you’re not alone. Around the world, people are logged into their favorite streaming service and asking the same questions. What’s next on the streaming horizon?  

Looking ahead to 2016: Our perspective after one year and countless Petabytes of streaming

After watching the world stream for the last 12 months from the vantage point of open caching systems deployed in operator networks around the globe, we had a hard time restricting our list of predictions to just seven. The industry transformation, from broadcast to internet TV, which will impact every person on earth who watches a screen, continues like a force of nature, advancing with confidence and clarity, sometimes walking, sometimes sprinting, but always moving forward.  Through it all, this transformation moves with a sense of inevitability toward a time, coming soon, when nearly everyone on the planet who watches their favorite show or live event, will be watching thanks to online video, streaming across the Internet to their screen.

Online video is entering a new era in which packaging, scale, quality and UI will make it easier and cheaper to stream.  In fact, we see 2016 as a vintage year for streaming.  A year that will be remembered as producing some of the best tasting content, packages, devices and services.  Here’s a look at what to expect in the coming year. Seven predictions for Streaming in 2016: 

1.  The year of the skinny bundle, or “Skinny Love” 

It’s common knowledge that most current TV bundles offer far more channels than the consumer needs or wants.  This “bundle inflation” has been ongoing for years.  U.S. homes, on average, receive 189 cable TV channels and only watch 17.5 of them.  Further, the increase in price of the cable TV subscription has outpaced inflation by a factor of 4x from 1995 to 20131.  So, it’s no surprise that the streaming industry has focused in on the notion of a thin or skinny bundle as the key to unlock mass adoption of streaming as an alternative to traditional cable. 

Dish Network may have been one of the first to really get it right with their skinny bundle offering through Sling TV.  However, it seems only 500,000 or so consumers have signed up which some in the industry have interpreted as evidence that the Sling’s offering is not on a trajectory for success.  So, it’s possible that Sling’s greatest contribution may have been to signal the rest of the industry to this clever packaging of streaming content. 

In December, Amazon announced its service bundle which includes Showtime, Starz, A+E Network, AMC, Ring TV Boxing and more.  In the short run, the Amazon announcement was really about providing users with a way to manage multiple streaming subscriptions through a single billing and distribution interface.  But, in the coming year, we predict Amazon will offer more creative and integrated packaging along with discounts for a bundled purchase. 

In an effort to create a more appealing bundle of streaming content, we predict many more service providers will announce and launch their version of a skinny bundle.  This has become the latest packaging tactic adopted by the streaming industry as a means to appeal to future “cord-cutters” and current “cord-nevers." These skinny bundles will come from service providers like Verizon and from content distributors like Amazon, Hulu and Sling. 

Taken together, these skinny bundles, some of which will win big and some of which will fade fast, signal a tipping point in the growth of the streaming market. Those who get it right – like Amazon and Apple – stand to grow quickly and, by doing so, take market share and become significant counterweights to Netflix in the market.

2.  New wave of unexpected direct-to-consumer streaming, or “The Great Unbundling Continues”

Every content owner will walk through their archives and consider how to unleash the value of their content library through a direct to consumer streaming offering.  As a review, we already have direct to consumer streaming offerings from big broadcast brands like ABC, CBS, Fox, HBO, NBC, Showtime, Sony and Univision.  These are predictable offerings which came in response to the “Great Unbundling”  of content in which the content brands saw the Internet as a path to independence from the cable bundle models that had reigned for decades.  

Along with the expected direct to consumer service offerings from the big content brands, get ready for more of the unexpected.  A great example – “Seeso” – the $3.99/month subscription service from NBC.

Why watch? Because Seeso includes 40 years of SNL. But wait, there is more – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock as well as both the U.K. and U.S. versions of The Office.  

The packaging in Seeso is a great example of the new freedom and creativity that content providers have to appeal to a narrow audience with a unique package of content.  Content providers can go to market quickly, test packaging and pricing easily and refine or reconfigure their service offering because they have a more efficient and flexible distribution model through Internet TV.   

In 2016, we also predict ESPN, who has experimented with OTT offerings through its partnership with Sling TV, will continue to expand its streaming services.  ESPN’s foray into OTT, through small steps, may be the most important signal yet as to the industry’s long term expectations for streaming.  ESPN has been the one holdout from an “all-in” OTT strategy given live sports appears to be the last remaining element that secures the cable subscription.  Once ESPN embraces OTT in a major way, many consumers may decide they have no good reason left to keep paying their cable bill.  

3. The NFL embraces streaming as a strategic medium, or “'Thursday Night Football' on Yahoo”

The NFL and Yahoo together established a remarkable milestone this year – the first regular season NFL game that was available only via live streaming from Yahoo outside of the two local markets, Jacksonville and Buffalo. 

While this game was arguably low stakes – played at Wembley outside of London at 9:30am ET on Sunday – it was nevertheless a successful bet for both NFL and Yahoo who each had something important to prove as they collaborated on streaming the game with remarkable scale and reach. Both the NFL and Yahoo could claim a win for this event as the audience reach, ad inventory sales, quality of streaming and flawless overall execution has proven, once again, that Internet TV can achieve comparable user experience and, in many ways, exceed the reach and engagement of traditional television.

The NFL has just announced to TV networks that it is ready to accept bids for  Thursday Night Football. The notice reportedly went to the usual suspects – CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC and Turner. But the NFL has signaled a new era by also sending bid notices to Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon. The details as to the model and expected collaboration remain to be seen. 

It’s possible that the NFL will award streaming rights on a non-exclusive basis to a digital partner like Apple in addition to the traditional broadcast rights it will award to network TV. Bidding is expected to start around $300M  for the entire Thursday Night Football package. Most in the industry believe Yahoo paid about $15M for the exclusive rights to stream a single game this year. So, we predict Web companies will compete fiercely for NFL streaming rights in 2016.  So much to look forward to in the coming year. 

We predict Yahoo or Apple will enter into a collaboration with one of the traditional networks for the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football that would serve two purposes – attract a global audience that might not have access to traditional cable TV game broadcasts and expand the U.S. audience to include those who want to watch through a different screen.  In either case, the streaming of these events will expand reach and increase engagement through social media which can be more easily and deeply integrated into the streaming experience.  

4.  Apple will launch its TV Bundle, or “The Future of TV Is Apps” 

Late this year, Apple put its TV offering on pause claiming it could not get the right pricing from the networks with whom Apple was negotiating to establish its version of the skinny bundle. This will all come together by the summer of 2016 when we predict Apple will announce and launch its streaming TV offerings. Apple will continue to promote its service by saying: “The future of TV is apps.” (Author’s note: This is a universal truth by the way, and, at the same time, a very convenient way for Apple to play to its strength.)

On the day of this announcement in the summer of 2016, Netflix stock will drop by at least 10% as another market truth – “the landscape of streaming providers will be many and no one provider will dominate” – prompts a correction to the high-flying Netflix market capitalization. 

In the coming year, expect Apple to be a force for good – negotiating more favorable rates for content, improving the TV UI, reinventing the TV remote (it’s about time) – with both the streaming industry and consumers benefiting from Apple’s entry and benevolent disruption of ecosystem economics and streaming user experience. 

5.  Amazon and streaming devices, or “Alexa Voice-Controls Fire TV Devices”
We love Fire TV and we love Alexa. So, we predict Amazon will finally deliver the much rumored and perfect mashup early in 2016 – Alexa on all Fire TV devices.   We’ve seen all the rumors about the source code hidden in the Fire TV OS 5 developer preview. Let’s do this. “Alexa, I want to binge watch every episode of Homeland right after you finish making me popcorn in the microwave.” 

6.  Amazon and original content, or “Emmys for Amazon”
Amazon has already proven its ability to deliver brilliant original content with Transparent. We predict Amazon will win at least 2 more Emmys in 2016 with its new programming.  High on our list are Hand of God, Mozart in the Jungle, The Man in High Castle and Mad Dogs. Great new programming to keep us binging through the night.  

7.    Even more streaming newcomers will pronounce themselves the "Netflix of _______"
In the wake of the remarkable success of Netflix, we predict more and more companies will define their business plan by saying they are the “Netflix of (blank).” Let’s take a quick look at a few who describe themselves (or have been described) this way already.  

--Eros, “The Netflix of India," the number one producer of local films in India, seems to already be three to five years ahead of Netflix in that part of the world. Eros releases 70 movies a year and is responsible for about 40% of India’s box office revenues. In a country where local content is king, Eros appears to already be wearing the “Netflix” mantle.  

--Meet iROKOtv, “The Netflix of Africa” that’s based in Nigeria and offers a subscription service across Africa with access to 5,000 titles. Most subscribers are actually in the U.K. and U.S.  because broadband Internet speeds in Africa are not yet able to sustain streaming services yet. iROKOtv is investing in its own local content as well with TV shows produced in Nigeria and throughout Africa. 

--Letv, “The Netflix of China,” which actually launched its streaming service years ahead of Netflix, produces its own TV series and movies. Incredibly, Letv also sells smart TVs and set-top boxes.

--Enter iflix, “The Netflix of Asia,” whose focus on mobile video and base in Malaysia gives them a unique perspective on how to service the Southeast Asian market for streaming. The reach of iflix includes Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and China.

We predict more service providers will declare themselves to be the Netflix of (the market or region they intend to dominate) in 2016. Who would not want to tap into the halo effect that such a comparison offers?   

Sources:http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0516/DA-1...

Alon Maor is CEO and co-founder of Qwilt, a provider of online video delivery and open video caching solutions. 

Qwilt, a startup that specializes in “transparent” caching systems, said it has landed a $25 million “D” round, expanding its total funding to about $65 million.

Tel Aviv/New York-based VC Disrupt-ive led the round with a $16 million investment, with help from Cisco Investments and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. Existing investors Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLC and Redpoint Ventures also contributed to the round.

Qwilt said it will use the fresh funds from this “strategic” round of funding to build scale, speed up its go-to-market strategy, enhance its flagship product, Qwilt Video Fabric, and to expand support to tier 1 operators worldwide.

Rather than serving as a specialized edge cache, such as the one Netflix uses for its Open Connect private CDN program, Qwilt’s is “transparent” (though the company styles its system as “open”) in the sense that it monitors and caches online video from multiple sources to help partners save on network transport costs.

That sort of set up will continue to come in handy as video continues to represent more and more of the composition of the Internet’s traffic. Cisco Systems forecasted in its recent Video Networking Index that video will represent 80% of all IP traffic globally by 2019.

Among MSOs, Mediacom Communications has rolled out Qwilt’s transparent video caching platform to boost the quality of online video delivered via its broadband network.  Qwilt, which said sales grew 400% year-over-year in 2014, also works with mobile carriers, telcos and university networks.

Qwilt is also a member of the recently launched Streaming Video Alliance, a group that is focused on open caching standards and streaming video infrastructure and counts Comcast, Charter, Liberty Global, EPIX among its founding members.

Qwilt, a provider of transparent caching systems, will be revving up pursuit of the wireless video market after hiring Canby Dautel to the post of vice president of strategic mobile sales.

Prior to joining Qwilt, Dautel led North American carrier sales for Acme Packet, a provider of VoIP gear and software that’s now part of Oracle that counts customers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

As an alternative to purpose-built caching systems such as the one Netflix uses for its Open Connect platform, Qwilt’s approach is transparent in the sense that it can track and monitor online video from a broad array of sources, including Netflix and YouTube, enabling the operator to manage the flow of over-the-top video traversing its networks while also cutting down on OTT video transport costs.

Mediacom Communications is among the known customers of Qwilt, and is using vendor’s video caching platform to boost the quality of video it’s delivering to customers via the MSO’s broadband network.

“Consumer appetite for mobile video is soaring. As a result of this growing demand, there is even more urgency among operators to address network challenges posed by the mobile video phenomenon,” said Qwilt CEO Alon Maor, in a statement. “Qwilt has a proven ability to solve the mobile video problem. With his decades of experience in mobile operator sales, we expect Canby’s leadership will help us rapidly expand our base of mobile operator customers.”

Amazon’s $970 million acquisition of Twitch will give it access to a company that has locked up a good chunk of live streaming traffic in the U.S., but its overall OTT video contribution apparently won’t be nearly as significant.

Qwilt, the maker of “transparent” edge video caching systems, tabulated data for the week of August 18 and found that Netflix, to no one’s surprise, was the top online video site, accounting for 56.5% of traffic, followed by Google/YouTube (17.6%).

Amazon, according to Qwilt, was third, with 4%, followed by Hulu (2.2%) and Twitch (1.7%), so adding Twitch traffic will seemingly solidify Amazon’s third-place slot while still leaving it with plenty of ground if it’s ever going to catch up to the big dogs of OTT video.

As we noted earlier, Twitch is also closing in on becoming a top ten streaming app in the U.S., accounting for 1.35% of traffic, according to Sandvine’s most recent analysis.

But Twitch is the king of live traffic, having locked up 43% of such streaming in the U.S., according to Qwilt data posted in April, labeling Twitch as “The Netflix of Spectator Gaming,” and noting that 99% of its visitors come to watch live gaming and 58% spend more than 20 hours per week on the site.

So, with Twitch, it appears that Amazon will be buying into a popular and growing online video audience that will give it a big lead on live streaming share, and bit of a rolling start as it tries to make up ground and mix it up with overall OTT leaders, Netflix and Google.

The volume of video streams originating from Amazon has tripled in the past year, allowing it to zoom past Hulu and Apple, according to data culled by Qwilt, a provider of “transparent” caching systems that counts Mediacom Communications among its customers. 

According to Qwilt’s study of U.S. MSO broadband data, Amazon Instant Video traffic jumped 278% on “some” operator networks s networks in March versus the year earlier.

The numbers come into play as Amazon looks to juice those numbers further with the launch of  Fire TV, an Android-powered box that is tightly integrated with Amazon's own video streaming and electronic sell-through services but also provides access to other apps, including Netflix, Hulu Plus and Showtime Anytime.

Despite evidence of increased usage, Amazon Instant Video is still dwarfed by traffic from Netflix and YouTube. According to a study from bandwidth management firm Sandvine released last fall, Netflix and YouTube streaming represent more than half of all downstream traffic on North American fixed broadband networks. 

Amazon, meanwhile, attributed its new spot in the Qwilt rankings to a mix of original fare and library fare, and its subscription-based Prime Instant Video offering.

“We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in great TV shows and movies for Prime members and it’s working,” said Bill Carr, VP of Digital Video and Music for Amazon, in a statement. “As part of their membership, Amazon Prime members can watch their favorite movies and television shows on an unlimited basis, and as we add original content like Alpha House,Bosch, The After, Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent, we have no doubt that customers will be even more delighted with the selection available. And now, with Fire TV, customers have the easiest way to access this content.”

In addition to the new Fire TV, Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video are also supported on Kindle Fire tablets, iPads,  Roku boxes, smart TV and Blu-ray models, as well as gaming consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.