Chip Canter, the former GM of Verizon’s ad-based go90 service, has been named global chief revenue officer of Massive Interactive, a U.K.-based maker of user experience products.

Canter, also a former NBCUniversal exec, most recently was GM of Verizon’s Digital Entertainment business.

At Massive, he will lead the company’s global sales, business development and marketing growth strategy, and will play a major role in Massive’s U.S. expansion plans. Canter will be based out of Massive’s New York Office.

Massive’s customers include AT&T, BBC, SKY, Telecine, YouView, Foxtel, Channel 5 UK, Bell Media, Sony Pictures Television, DAZN, Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, and Freeview.

“Few people understand our market landscape and technology environment like Chip does. He has dealt with the pressures faced by OTT businesses and has first-hand experience working with global media companies,” Massive CEO Ron Downey said, in a statement. “Chip joins us at a time of great growth and change and there’s no doubt he will prove to be a valuable asset in helping Massive double down on its recent success.”

Toys “R” Us failed to invest in its own digital transformation so, after 65 years, they are closing their doors for good.

Among other things, the company cited the ongoing threat of Amazon, Walmart, and Target as contributing to its demise. That these companies allegedly helped suffocate the American retail giant underscores the ruthlessly competitive environment that is the retail industry.

The TV industry is going through a digital transition of its own and some major players will inevitably become victims of disruption in the market. According to the Video Advertising Bureau’s Q1 2018 report, the number of households using only over-the-top streaming services and devices has tripled since 2013, rising to 14.1 million homes (11% of all U.S. TV households).

So what can media companies learn from Toys “R” Us to ensure their businesses don’t follow suit?

Complacency Kills

To survive in the highly competitive world of retail, Toys “R” Us needed to be more than a place to buy toys. Customers wanting the lowest price could go to Walmart. Customers wanting a unique gift or personalized guidance could go to a local boutique (where they would gladly pay a bit more for great service). Toys “R” Us didn’t provide the best value or the best experience, and they didn’t keep up with the times.

Toys "R" Us missed the opportunity to develop its own online customer experience early on. In the early 2000s, Toys “R” Us management didn’t buy into the future of the internet and outsourced their fulfillment to Amazon. This led to people buying toys on the internet in an Amazon world and not a Toys “R” Us world. When Toys "R" Us finally updated and streamlined the user experience for their website in 2017, the damage was already done.

Toys “R” Us CEO Dave Brandon admitted: "Some organizations recognize faster than others there are shifts in the ways customers want to be communicated with and the way customers want to purchase products. It probably took us a while."

A World of Competition, Choice, and Convenience

In the TV industry, there have never been more options. Not only can consumers watch what they want, when they want, where they want, but even from the service they want.

This is where I believe networks need to pay attention.

Toys “R” Us stopped providing customers with a reason to go into their stores and do business directly with them. They offered nothing more than what any customer could get from Amazon, and even pointed them in that direction. By the way, don’t underestimate Amazon as a threat in the TV space either.

If you’re a publisher and I can get your content via Amazon Channels, fuboTV, Sling TV, Pluto TV, or DirecTV Now, why would I used your owned and operated apps? As an Amazon customer, it is easier for me to just get your content through their platform with my existing payment account, and watch all content via a single interface.

Distributing your content to Amazon and other OTT aggregators can be a very successful part of your overall OTT strategy, but it should not come at the expense of your direct-to-consumer apps.

In world of unlimited choice, competition, and convenience, how do you create an experience, so valuable that customers would forgo choice and even convenience to do business directly with you?

Figure this out and direct customer relationships, higher margins, and valuable data and insight await. Don’t figure this out, your company risks becoming the next Toys “R” Us.

Experience is Everything. Get it Right

According to PwC’s Experience is Everything: Here’s How To Get It Rightsurvey, 73% of global respondents point to experience as one of the key drivers that influence their brand loyalties.

“65% of US consumers find a positive brand experience to be more influential than great advertising,” David Clarke, PwC principal and experience consulting leader, explained in the study. “The ‘experience economy’ has ushered in a new B2C mindset, steering brands beyond emphasising products and services to selling rich consumer experiences. Our findings quantify the potential ROI [return on investment] on experience investments, upwards of 16%.”

Bad experiences are driving away customers faster than you think. In the US, the survey results show that even when people love a company or product, 59% of customers say they will walk away after several bad experiences, and 32% would stop doing business with a brand they loved after just one bad experience. In Latin America that number is even higher-- 49% say they’d walk away from a brand after single bad experience.

Final Word

Your OTT brand has more value than the content you own and the number of households you're distributing to. It's time you rise to the occasion, own the experience you create for your customers, and embrace emotional connections, not just commercial ones.

Don’t lose sight of why your brand matters to the world.

Kirby Grines is the founder of 43Twenty, a strategic consulting and intelligence company focused on the OTT ecosystem 

TiVo is sunsetting the standalone Fan TV app for mobile devices and the web, as many of the search and recommendation capabilities housed there have been integrated into the new TiVo Experience 4 platform for retail devices and its MVPD partnerships.  

TiVo will be notifying Fan TV users of the decision in stages over the next 24 hours, and expects to remove the apps in the mid-April timeframe, according to Chris Thun, TiVo’s vice president of product.

TiVo doesn’t disclose active users for Fan TV, but said the Fan TV app has been downloaded millions of times during the years.

Rovi, which merged with TiVo in September 2016, acquired Fanhattan, the company behind the Fan TV product/platform, about two years earlier for about $12 million. In addition to the standalone app, Fanhattan, for a brief period, also developed partnerships with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable by which the Fan TV user interface and experience was built into IP streaming devices and a touch-based remote control.

RELATED: Rovi Halts Sale of Fan TV Boxes to TWC

The Fan TV app enables users to browse from more than 1 million shows while also guiding them to the sources of that content, including pay TV providers, programmer-run apps as well as pure OTT services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, making recommendations, and enabling users to build personalized watch lists.

TiVo, which is in the process of evaluating options that could lead to the company going private or into M&A-related activities, was not monetizing Fan TV through advertising or other means, but it has been serving as an important research tool as TiVo’s been gleaning value from usage data and incorporating those learnings into its new Experience 4 platform.

Along those lines, TiVo in January introduced a device-agnostic, app-centric platform for MVPDs that will bring the TiVo experience to a wide range of retail streaming client devices and help those pay TV partners move ahead with their IPTV transitions.

RELATED: TiVo Goes Device-Agnostic with New Platform for MVPDs

The timing of the transition to the new TiVo platform, which includes voice-based navigation, is up to the individual MVPDs, but that work is already underway, Michael Hawkey, TiVo’s SVP and GM, UX, said.

TiVo Refreshes Retail Lineup With Voice-Powered 'Vox' Devices

There’s a “common vision and functionality” between that new, more cloud-driven TiVo product and the Fan TV app, Thun said, noting that much of the rework done for the new platform’s graphical user interface can be traced back to Fan TV.

fuboTV, the sports-focused OTT TV provider, said it has issued an upgrade for its experience on Apple TV that includes an enhanced EPG, network-focused pages, and some new trick-play capabilities.

The EPG enhancements include a new vertical design that also allows viewers to look up to seven days ahead.

RELATED:fuboTV Exits Beta Phase on Roku

In the network page view, subs can see all available live and VOD content from specefici channels on the lineup (this feature is also offered by fuboTV on web browsers). The video snippet below shows how this component works:

fuboTV’s updated app for Apple TV devices also lets viewers pause live streams and resume at any point.

fuboTV noted that it saw a 53% boost in average hours streamed per user per month on Apple TV in December 2017 versus November 2017.

The OTT TV provider announced in October that it had surpassed 100,000 subscribers. Consolidated Communications is the first MVPD to pitch fuboTV to broadband subscribers via an agreement that stems from an agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative.

RELATED: NCTC Reaches Pact with fuboTV

Evolution Digital, the Colorado-based video tech company focused on tier 2/3 operators, has rolled out a series of software enhancements and upgrades for eVUE-TV, a platform that enables partners to migrate to IP-based video services.

Updates to the platform’s user interface includes improved trick-play, frame overlay on video playback, operator-managed program categorization, enhanced adult filtering and automatic HD content filtering.

The new enhanced trick play capabilities, for example, let customers rewind and fast-forward through content at customized speeds, as well as screen captures that provide image-based detail about scenes as customers use those trick-play controls. For adult content, the new stronger filtering capability automatically moves adult selections into folders that are password-protected.

Evolution Digital is also rolling out a new backoffice operations console for eVUE-TV for managing linear and VOD billing systems. That console also allows for more monitoring and the reporting of customer viewing consumption patterns, the company said.

eVUE-TV supports IP-based VOD, linear, pay-per-view and network DVR services and applications. Last fall, Evolution Digital said 23 pay TV operators were on board with eVUE-TV following a string of recent deployments with MSOs such as Cablevision of Marion County, BELD, DTC, LHTC Broadband, Tullahoma Utilities Board, Valley Telecom Group and Gold Coast Broadband. GCI, TDS Telecom and WideOpenWest are also on its customer list.

RELATED: Evolution Digital Expands Customer Roster for ‘eVUE-TV’

“These upgraded features now available on our eVUE-TV platform offer consumers an exceptional viewing experience,” Brent Smith, Evolution Digital’s president and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “eVUE-TV provides our operators new opportunities to capture audiences who want to enjoy the best television functionalities available in the industry. In the competitive cable market, Evolution Digital strives to provide operators the tools that consumers want in a TV viewing experience to help retain and attract subscribers.”

eVUE-TV runs on Evolution’s eBOX IP/QAM hybrid device as well as integrated third-party hardware.

Last year, Evolution Digital also introduced eVUE-NOW!, an app-based platform that enables its partners to offer their own skinny TV bundles to OTT-powered, TV-connected devices as well as smartphones and tablets.

You.i TV, a company that specializes in video apps and interfaces, said it is extending its work around React Native to a range of TV-connected platforms, including Roku devices, gaming consoles and smart TVs.

React Native is a Facebook-backed open source JavaScript project/development framework.

RELATED: You.i TV Revs Demo for Facebook-Backed React Native Project

You.i TV said it will use CES 2018 (at the C-Space exhibit at the Aria) to demo how this approach, underpinned by the You.i Engine One, can bring a high-end user experience to 10-foot platforms (including Roku) using the same code portability and efficiently that React Native enables on mobile platforms.

“While React Native is proving its worth in mobile, limitations on app scope, device reach and UX workflows lessen its value in broader cross-platform environments,” Andrew Emmons, VP of product for You.i TV, said in a statement.

“Roku stands as an integral part of any successful direct-to-consumer strategy,” added Jason Flick, CEO and co-founder of You.i TV.  “We believe that bringing React Native and Roku  together is a breakthrough for 10-foot cross platform strategies that can immediately improve the consumer experience.”

Last fall, You.i TV announced a $12 million "B" round led by Time Warner Investments. 

A solid user experience is a top desire from consumers on smart TVs and TV-connected streaming devices, Parks Associates found its a new “Market Snapshot” study of that sector.

Per the study, navigation was a the top reason cited by consumers in terms of which attribute drives ease-of-use in in-home entertainment devices, edging out content discovery and ease of set up. Of less importance were the number of video formats supported, whether they work with PCs and other devices, and the level of customer service (see chart).

Updated:Parks Associates said most of the data in the snapshot comes from a Q1 2017 survey of about 10,000 people, which it used to draw its conclusions about UX becoming a key focus for smart TVs and streaming players. It also drew those conclusions in part to discussions with industry execs and the firm's own insight. 

 Parks Associates said 45% of U.S. broadband homes now have a smart TV, currently the most commonly used platform for those homes when it comes to accessing online video content.

Notably, 11% of U.S. broadband homes have a “strong intention” to buy a 4K/Ultra HD TV this holiday season, though overall device sales of flat-panel TVs have flattened out, noted Jennifer Kent, director of research quality and provide development at Parks Associates.

 “As a result, we are seeing new partnerships among device manufacturers focused on ways to improve or refresh the UI of the smart TV, to make the device easy to use and a single point of content in the living room,” she said.

Recent examples include Samsung’s integration of Amazon Music into its smart TVs, and new TV products from Philips that are powered by Roku’s OS.

RELATED: Philips Launches First Roku TV Model 

The study also found that more than 50% of U.S. broadband homes find voice control appealing for entertainment and smart home devices, and voice control for all devices, including TVs, security systems and appliances.

Hulu said it has rolled out several enhancements that are tied to an effort to optimize its live TV experience on web browsers.

Chief among those additions is one-click access to Hulu’s live TV service, which was launched in beta form in May.

“The way you use Hulu on your phone or Roku is much different than the way you do on your computer, which is why we’ve been building out a live TV experience that is distinctly optimized for the Web,” Richard Irving, VP of product at Hulu, explained in a blog post. “We’ve heard that, at times, getting to live programming is not as quick or simple as you’d like it to be, so we’ve created a dedicated ‘Live’ section that lives at the top of your page. When you click into Live, you’ll be taken straight into live programming. When you leave, we’ll remember the last channel you watched.”

Irving said Hulu has also altered the Home screen for the service on web browsers, adding more “collections,” including a curated one focused on Fall TV. The details page for the web is now an overlay that lets users access info about the title and quickly toggle back to browsing.

For the web, Hulu has also added a dedicated Browse menu that lets users pick from specific genres.

Hulu said it has taken another step to help drive more live TV viewing on web browsers, announcing Wednesday that the UI for that platform has tacked on a feature that behaves a bit more like a traditional channel grid guide. 

That addition shows what’s on now and what’s next and a way to easily change channels via the grid.

Among features on the new web component, users can access the guide during live playback by selecting the icon on the lower left corner of the screen, or hover the cursor near the left side of the browser window. That opens up a scrollable list of channels along with access to a filter that lets users sort programming by sports, news or kids programming.

Hulu’s new “dynamic guide” is breaking out first on web browsers, “and we are eager to learn how you use it before we roll it out to additional platforms in the coming months,” Ben Smith, Hulu’s head of experience, explained in this blog post, noting that changes were made in part from user feedback.

The new guide view emerges as Hulu seeks out ways to drive more live TV viewing, delivered via an OTT TV service that was launched in beta form in May.

During the early months of the service, Smith acknowledged that some of Hulu’s live content felt “hidden” at times, so the first step was the live TV only web experience launched in August. That followed by a change in how the Hulu UI that centers on using recommendations to surface live TV. Smith said recent changes have boosted live viewing on Hulu by 70% since the start of August. 

Zodiac Interactive and ActiveVideo are pitching a joint solution that, they claim, can help pay TV of all sizes bring a next-gen interface/experience to any installed set-top box.

They said the joint offering builds on prior customer-specific ActiveVideo-Zodiac collaborations. Notably, Charter Communications’s Spectrum Guide for legacy set-tops as well as newer ones with IP connectivity use both ActiveVideo and Zodiac technologies. ActiveVideo operates as a joint venture of  Charter and Arris.

RELATED: Arris, Charter Close $135M ActiveVideo Acquisition

The joint solution being introduced this week and timed with the IBC show in Amsterdam, combines the cloud virtualization capabilities of ActiveVideo’s CloudTV platform with Zodiac’s PowerUp Stack software and AMS cloud platform.

Cable Bahamas, which delivers service to about 250,000 set-top boxes, is on board to rollout the new joint solution in the second quarter of 2018, and will include a mosaic guide that displays live content from multiple channels, and unify an experience across multiple devices.

“Using the integrated solution, small or large pay-TV operators around the world can deliver the industry’s most advanced services to every subscriber in a matter of months,” Zodiac CEO Brandon Brown said in a statement.

Comcast has unleashed another batch of changes and enhancements, with a focus on new functionality, to its cloud-powered X1 guide for set-tops.

Among the additions are a Notification Center that relays new account-related info to the TV screen, and a “Free-to-Me” guide view that lists only the channels that a customer subscribes to.

In addition to selecting the Free-to-Me option alongside other guide view types (sports, trending, movies, etc.), customers can also set it as their default view.

X1 also lets customers refine their search through DVR recordings by segmenting them into five categories: TV, Movies, Kids, Sports and News. The full list of recordings can still be viewed on a chronological or alphabetical basis.

RELATED: Comcast Testing ‘Manage Channels’ Feature on X1

Comcast is also starting to add new parental control locks for individual apps that are integrated with X1, including Netflix, Watchable (Comcast’s ad-based short-form OTT video service), Pandora,  sports, and voicemail.

Per this blog post from Peter Nush, VP of product management at Comcast Cable, also new are two customer-requested accessibility features.

Customers can control and increase the rate (Regular/Default, Fast, and Fastest)  at which text is spoken when Voice Guidance is enabled.  Comcast commercially launched its X1 Talking Guide, for the blind and visually impaired, in 2014.

RELATED: Comcast’s ‘Talking Guide’ Goes Live

Customers also have the option to turn on the first of several new sound cues within the X1 talking guide via Comcast Labs. When turned on, customers navigating the guide will hear a brief sound when the end of the screen is reached and they cannot navigate any further in that direction.

At the end of Q2, about 55% of Comcast’s residential video subscriber base was on X1.

Change is the new constant in the media and entertainment industry, as the fundamental nature of competition in the industry has shifted. No longer do television shows merely compete with television shows, theatrical releases with theatrical releases, video games with video games, etc. With more content now available than any of us can consume in a lifetime, all content and content offers are competing with each other in real time for a precious slice of each consumer’s time.

In this era of hyper competition and digital connectedness, a new business model is emerging, one powered by data, with the consumer firmly at its center. Data has become M&E’s secret weapon for sustaining and improving consumer engagement and satisfaction. It’s data that can reconcile a world of ubiquitous distribution with a consumer’s finite amount of time to consume content. And it’s just getting started: By 2020, data scientists estimate that for every human on the planet, there will be 1.7 MB of data being produced. Every second.

Leveraging that data is essential as M&E companies compete for consumers’ time, advocacy and money across multiple platforms. Those that know consumers best will win.

Enter cognitive computing, which has the ability to examine the choices consumers are making, and under what circumstances, in order to understand and predict what consumers will want next. Although some pundits have framed artificial intelligence and machine learning as a person-versus-machine comparison, at IBM we view the most productive implementation of AI as a symbiosis of person and machine.

Computers are good at rapidly processing enormous amounts of data and looking for hidden patterns and valuable attributes. The human brain is highly adept at other skills, such as generalization and abstraction. Together these make up Augmented Intelligence and the possibility of better decision making in all functions of business, from production and distribution to sales and marketing.

Two core domains are driving the application of machine learning. One is “audience” (customer or consumer) insight -- reaching a new level of personalization by understanding their affinities, traits, likes, dislikes, and how they respond to media. The other is “content” insight -- the enrichment of metadata and understanding what’s in the content to exploit it in new ways, in new formats and across new channels of distribution. Combine these, and M&E companies can apply cognitive insights to improve KPIs, including ad sales, content ultimates, productivity and efficiency, and margin growth.

Consider the ongoing Major League Baseball season. Using cognitive technology, media companies can now take baseball-related video content and better understand it in terms of sentiment -- including a closer look at actions that may indicate crowd excitement, or tuning in to crowd noise and the tone of the sportscaster’s commentary to gauge key moments -- and surface it to fans for a more personalized viewing experience.

Cognitive computing is a natural enhancement to existing business practices that will make day-to-day operations more effective while helping media companies create a better consumer/user experience. AI is a positive disruption, one that demonstrates the art of the possible. Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to thrive in an age of constant change -- the firms that are better equipped to extract insights from data are the likely winners.

Steve Canepa is general manager, global telecommunications, media & entertainment industry, at IBM. Image by John Lund/Getty Images.

Hulu is adding some new features just weeks after the OTT specialist launched a new experience alongside the beta debut of a live TV service that includes a cloud DVR component.

RELATED: Hulu Launches Live TV Beta

Hulu said it will trot out new features and improvements on a semi-regular basis, but here’s part of the latest round of updates available now or coming soon, per this blog post from Hulu VP of product Richard Irving:

-Viewing Progress: Via the My Stuff section, the app now tells subscribers if they are “All Caught Up” or have a new episode to view from a particular show. That’s available now on all of Hulu’s platforms.

-New Episode Badging:  Following the live TV beta launch, a badging element will tell customers if there’s something new to watch, including a green “New Episode” marker in the customer’s Lineup, Home or Browse Collections or in My Stuff views. The new badging will be rolled out next week to all platforms that support the new Hulu experience, Irving said.

-Disable Autoplay:  Though Autoplay is a tool for binge-watchers that spools up the next episode without manual intervention, Hulu subs using iOS, Apple TV and Xbox One can now toggle off that feature, with Android on deck.

Hulu has also moved the “Cast” button, for use with Google’s Chromecast technology, higher in the navigation to make it easier to find.

Tian Lim, Hulu’s CTO, recently discussed some of the challenged faced as Hulu prepared the beta launch of its new live TV service and offered some hints about what’s on Hulu’s roadmap, including  improvements and enhancements for the service’s personalization algorithm.

RELATED: Hulu’s Aim: Modernizing the TV Experience (subscription required)

ActiveVideo, the cloud video joint venture of Arris and Charter Communications, said it has notched a deal to help Japan’s J:COM roll out a new “web-like” VOD interface for the operator’s already deployed set-top boxes.

They said the new user experience will feature snappier response times and integrate personalized searches, without requiring J:COM to change out its set-top boxes.

J:COM is enabling it using ActiveVideo’s virtualized CloudTV GuideCast technology, which renders the HTML5 user interface in the cloud and delivers it to boxes as an MPEG video stream that can be supported by QAM-only or IP-capable boxes that are outfitted with the CloudTV Nano client module.

RELATED: ActiveVideo Gives VTR’s VOD Platform a Boost

The J:COM deployment is a significant one for ActiveVideo, which was acquired in 2015 by an Arris-Charter joint venture and also works with other MVPDs such as Altice USA, Liberty Global and Deutsche Telekom. Arris holds a 65% of the J.V. and serves as the sales channel for ActiveVideo's CloudTV platform outside of sales to Charter.

RELATED: Arris, Charter Close $135M ActiveVideo Acquisition

J:COM serves about 5.28 million homes in the Sapporo, Sendai, Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu-Yamaguchi regions. It's been a known customer of ActiveVideo's, but today's announcement marks the deployment phase of their relationship.

“The user interface is the customer’s point of entry to our on-demand library,” said Masaaki Agaya, GM, service planning division at J:COM, in a statement. “The power of the cloud has enabled us to offer our subscribers a next-generation UX that overnight is opening the door to engaging new viewing experiences on the same familiar set-top boxes.”

“J:COM’s success is further proof of how STB virtualization allows operators to rapidly transform user experiences for every subscriber by enabling delivery of faster, larger and more intuitive user experiences,” added Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo.

VTR, the Chile-based MSO and Liberty Global subsidiary, said VOD usage has doubled after deploying a new user interface for new and old set-tops based on ActiveVideo’s cloud-powered platform.

The new UI features richer graphics, plus the ability for subscribers to search for shows and movies by genre, actor or title.  The ActiveVideo platform, which relies on a cloud-based browser and a small set-top client, is now supported on boxes serving about 95% of VTR’s customers with digital TV.

Since the launch of the new VOD UI, which is now available to more than 1 million VTR customers, on-demand views have risen by 138% year-over-year, alongside an 11% bump in the number of customers that access VOD, and an 83% rise in views per subscriber, according to the companies.

“It just shows that UX [user experience] matters,” Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo, said, noting that the new UI was deployed across VTR’s footprint in a period of about four months.

ActiveVideo’s work with VTR follows other deployments with Liberty Global properties, including Ziggo, which is using the vendor’s platform for a new VOD UI for legacy boxes, the implementation of a mosaic guide with Liberty Puerto Rico, and enabling YouTube to run on set-tops deployed by UPC in Hungary.

ActiveVideo is jointly owned by Arris and Charter Communications, which is using the vendor’s platform to underpin a new cloud-based Spectrum Guide that will be supported by the MSO’s full complement of set-tops.

Accedo, a maker of multiscreen interfaces, said it has landed up to $10 million in additional capital through a partnership with SEB Private Equity of Stockholm that will be used to accelerate growth and expand product development.  

Accedo said the deal will allow earlier investors in the company, including Industrifonden and Acacia, to exit.

Updated: Accedo has raised about $16M in total, an official said.

Accedo also appointed video industry vet James Ackerman as chairman of the board. Ackerman is late of A&E, BSkyB, OpenTV, and the Documentary Channel. Ackerman recently served as executive chairman of Broadway Systems, an advertising management software company that was acquired by SintecMedia in 2015.

“We’re excited to partner with SEB Private Equity to go to the next level, Michael Lantz, CEO and co-founder of Accedo, said in a statement. “They share our vision of the market development and what a company like Accedo can deliver to truly transform the way consumers experience video services. We firmly believe that we’re still only in the beginning of the transformation of video consumption as we know it and we’re looking forward to continue our 12-year growth trajectory in the future.”

“It’s rare to see a transformation of an industry such as what we’re seeing in the TV industry at the moment,” added Ackerman. “The traditional value chain is evolving with new and existing players embracing OTT technologies to reach consumers and monetise video content in new and innovative ways.”

Stockholm-based Accedo has raised $11.27 million, according to CrunchBase. It was founded in 2004. 

Accedo's customers include OSN (a pay TV provider in the Middle East and North Africa); Cinépolis, a cinema chain based in Latin America; Sky Deutschland; and maxdome, an SVOD service in Germany.

Patrick Donoghue, an award-winning cable and programming exec vet who last headed up user experience efforts for Cablevision Systems’s Optimum product line, has left the operator to start up a digital-focused consulting company called Next Stop Willoughby Inc.

The aim of Donoghue’s new company is to consult with the cable and entertainment on digital media strategies and new product development.

When contacted about the new endeavor, Donoghue said via email: “I am focused on merging art and technology to create emotional connections with the user and diving deep into the emerging space between storytelling, video games, VR and filmmaking to create new and innovative experiences. After spending my early years as a cinematographer/editor and helping the industry establish the web and interactive television, I am ready to combine that knowledge to invent a new type of digital entertainment.”

As for that company name, it’s seemingly a playful homage to an episode from The Twilight Zone (“A Stop at Willoughby,” and apparently one of Rod Serling’s favorites) about Gart Williams, an “ad agency exec” who’s in a “desperate search for survival” (watch the whole episode on Vimeo).

Following a stint at Time Warner Cable to head up that MSO’s interactive television strategy,  Donoghue returned to Cablevision in 2008 as senior vice president of strategic product development, and most recently served as SVP, user experience and emerging products.  Cablevision, which is in the process of being acquired by Altice Group, has not announced who is succeeding Donoghue, who also served in exec roles at  Showtime, Viacom and Extend Media, and, in the late 1990s, cofounded ITV specialist Big Band Media.