Block Communications said it acquired the intellectual property and assets of Zone TV Inc.

The deal gives Block, which owns cable and broadband systems and TV stations, a foothold in the video-streaming business.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“With this acquisition, BCI demonstrates our commitment to a new era of video via streaming television technology.” BCI chairman and CEO Allan Block said.

Zone TV said it has distribution agreements in place with companies including Comcast, Xumo, Cox, Rogers, TiVo, Roku, iOS and Android. It also has relationships with content producers such as Magnolia Pictures. 

“BCI’s investment is a strong endorsement of the innovative, independent service we’re building,” Zone TV CEO Jeff Weber said. “This investment will allow Zone TV to aggressively pursue opportunities to attract more customers, studios and compelling new content.”

Zone TV said it is introducing a software suite under the Zone·TV Studio brand that enables content owners and video distributors to create self-branded, linear TV channels that can be personalized and customized by and for each viewer in the household.

Zone·tv Studio is an artificial intelligence-powered service for content discovery, channel curation and video delivery, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm said. The software enables a “Spotify-like” experience based on what the individual viewer wants to see. 

Related: Zone TV Uses A.I. to Program 14 Linear-Style OTT Channels

“Traditional video distribution is in a state of disruption as hundreds of direct-to-consumer streaming services are emerging, making it difficult to maintain customer loyalty,” Zone·TV CEO Jeff Weber said in the release. “Our technology means that any video distributor or content owner can build new, precisely targeted, compelling channels which enable a more relevant content consumption experience for their customers. Zone·tv studio enables the simplicity of traditional linear channel programming combined with the intelligence power of A.I. to bring new user experiences to TV services.”

Zone TV said using the software "learns what viewers love to watch and presents similar content, automatically and in real time. This unique capability empowers viewers to create their own channels with the click of the TV remote control and 'zone·ify' their own channel." A Foodies channel one viewer watches could be more about grilling than a neighbor's desserts-focused channel, based on their viewing habits.

Comcast is expanding its subscription VOD slate with the addition of Touchfit TV by Georges St-Pierre, the former middleweight Mixed Martial Arts world champion.

The fitness-focused service, which features more than 125 instructional workouts, is being delivered to Comcast’s X1 platform in partnership with Zone TV. Comcast is selling it for $4.99 per month.

Comcast subs can locate the service by saying “Touchfit TV” into their X1 voice remote of via the networks section in the X1 VOD area.

About 61% of Comcast’s residential video subscriber base is on the X1 platform.

Comcast has also teamed with Zone TV for several other SVOD services, including FitFusion by Jillian Michaels, PlayKids, TumbleBooks TV, Lion Mountain TV, Quark and XiveTV, as well as on the delivery of two seasonal “pop-up” channels Santa Tracker and Halloween Countdown.

RELATED: Zone TV Expands SVOD Deal with Comcast

Touchfit TV adds to a growing list of Comcast’s ad-free, SVOD packages that includes FX+, AMC Premiere, Acorn TV, Disney Story Central, History Vault, Here TV, Anime Network, CuriosityStream, and Up Faith & Family, among others.

Zone TV said two OTT-delivered SVOD services – Quark TV and XiveTV -- are now available via Comcast’s X1 platform for $4.99 per month each.   

Those offerings are accessible on Comcast’s VOD platform and have been integrated with Comcast’s X1 voice remote.  

RELATED: OTT Becomes A-OK on the STB 

Quark offers a mix of shows focused on science, tech and space exploration, while XiveTV delivers a collection of long-form documentaries in genres such as wildlife, history, adventure and paranormal. Shows include The Amazing World of Gravity (Quark) and An Eye on You: Citizens Under Surveillance (XiveTV).  

Zone TV said Quark and XiveTV were developed with Alliant Content, an independent programmer focused on long-form factual film and TV shows.  

Other SVOD offerings from Zone TV available via Comcast include FitFusion TV, PlayKids, Tumblebooks and Lion Mountain TV. 

RELATED: Lion Mountain TV Goes OTT on Comcast’s X1 Platform  

Zone TV said Lion Mountain TV, an SVOD service focused on African wildlife and adventure programming, is now available via Comcast’s X1 platform.

The service is initially being offered via Comcast for $3.99 per month (following a seven-day free trial), and is delivered via the MSO’s X1 platform via a public internet connection. As a standalone offering, Lion Mountain TV sells for $4.99 per month or $19.99 per year.

RELATED: SVOD Shakeout: The Survival of the Fittest (subscription required)

Shows and series on Lion Mountain TV include Caught on Africa Live, Secret Creatures of Jao, Africa’s Outsiders, Charging Back (about the endangered rhino), and Lions of Crocodile River.

A set of other SVOD services delivered via Zone TV, including PlayKids, FitFusion TV, and Tumblebooks TV, are also available through Comcast. Other SVOD services or commercial-free offerings developed through network partnerships available from Comcast include FX+, AMC Premiere, Lifetime Movie Club, History Vault, DogTV, CuriosityStream, and Up Faith & Family, among others.

Zone TV said PlayKids, an ad-free subscription VOD service, is now offered to Comcast via the operator’s X1 platform for $6.99 per month.

PlayKids content is selected based on the age of the child. The service, a brand from Movile,  offers “hundreds” of videos, including real-along stories, as well as educational activities and games designed to foster literacy, promote motor coordination and enhance social skills.

“Whether a young viewer is a 2-year-old or an 8-year-old, the TV experience for each will be unique and customized to the child’s learning level,” Jeff Weber, CEO of Zone TV, said in a statement.

Comcast X1 customers (about 60% of the operator’s residential pay TV base is on X1) can find the new offering by saying “PlayKids” into the X1 voice remote or by locating PlayKids in the network sections of the Xfinity On Demand service.

Last year, Comcast teamed with Zone TV on the intro of two other SVOD channels – TumbleBooks and FitFusion. Comcast has also used X1 to offer two other seasonal, interactive offerings from Zone TV – Santa Tracker and Halloween Countdown.

RELATED: X1 Enters the Halloween Zone

Comcast also offers ad-free services in partnership with FX Networks (FX+) and AMC Networks (AMC Premiere), as well as a mix of other SVOD offerings that include CuriosityStream, Stingray Karaoke On Demand, Stingray Classica, Disney Family Movies, Lifetime Movie Club, History Vault, DogTV, Gaiam TV, Grokker, Gaia, Kidstream, Anime Network, Here TV, Filipino On Demand, The Jewish Channel, Up Faith & Family, and Eros Now.

Zone TV said it is behind two subscription VOD channels that were recently added to Comcast’s VOD platform for set-top boxes and Xfinity Stream app and portal – TumbleBooksTV and FitFusion by Jillian Michaels.

Both services werehiding out in the open last week on this Comcast SVOD web pageand on therecently introduced “Manage Channels” featurefor the MSO’s X1 platform, but Zone TV announced its involvement in those offerings on Monday.

RELATED: Comcast Adds CuriosityStream to SVOD Lineup

Comcast is selling FitFusion (home workouts and life coaching) for $6.99 per month, $3 per month lessthan what FitFusion is selling via its own direct-to-consumer OTT product. TumbleBooksTV, an ad-free, read-watch-learn service, goes for $4.99 per month.

Comcast is not delivering those offerings into subscriber homes on set-tops using a public internet connection (like it does for YouTube and Netflix on X1 boxes) but instead uses its separately managed video network.

RELATED: Zone TV Uses A.I. to Program 14 Linear-Style OTT Channels

Zone TV, which specializes in bringing genre-based apps and content to set-tops boxes, has also worked with Comcast on bringing two thematic offerings – Halloween Countdown and Santa Tracker --– to X1 devices.

RELATED: X1 Enters the Halloween Zone

Zone TV is connecting with Comcast’s X1 platform for the scary season with “Halloween Countdown,” an OTT-delivered, thematic offering that features a mix of games, movies, “Spooky Tunes” (internet radio) and several karaoke titles from Stingray Karaoke.

It’s not the first time Zone TV has hooked up with X1, as it also the company behind a “Santa Tracker” app/service that made its way to X1 last year.

RELATED: Comcast’s X1 Takes ‘Santa Tracker’ Over-the-Top

As of Monday morning, Zone TV’s new Halloween-themed offering had yet to appear among other featured internet apps on the X1 guide alongside Netflix, YouTube and Pandora, but it came up when “Halloween Countdown” was uttered into the X1 voice remote.

Comcast will carry Halloween Countdown on X1 through the end of the month.

The offering includes Halloween Around the World, a library of short-form videos, which Zone TV said marks its first foray into original video production, that includes a tour of Colorado’s Ghost Mines and Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary.

RELATED: Zone TV Uses A.I. to Program 14 Linear-Style OTT Channels

Games titles featured include The Goblin Arena and Monster Drop, while a VOD library provides direct access more than a dozen flicks, including Casper, Coraline, Frankenweenie, Monster House, and The Addams Family. Also featured are how-to videos on things like pumpkin carving and costume making.

Zone TV specializes on bringing OTT content to MVPD set-tops, and also counts AT&T/DirecTV, CenturyLink, Telus, Bell Canada and Frontier Communications as customers.

In addition to thematic pop-up channels like Halloween Countdown, Zone TV has also introduced several niche-focused SVOD services and has developed a group of curated, linear-style “dynamic channels” offering that is programmed using A.I. techniques.

Zone TV said it has developed and launched 14 linear-style genre-focused channels that can be delivered OTT to set-top boxes and programmed using A.I. techniques.

The new offering fits into Zone TV’s new mix of what it calls “Dynamic Channels” that are curated by real people but augmented with A.I.-based programming that aims to provide a level of personalization.

Zone TV, which has acquired and licensed about 70,000 shows, said a dozen of its first 14 dynamic channels are segmented by age group and genre to “super-serve” consumers interested in topics such as food, gaming, specialty sports and kids content.

The initial slate of dynamic channel from Zone TV include Mancave; Great Outdoors; Motors: Level Up (eSports); Game On (specialty sports); Inform (interviews and documentaries); Brainiac; Expression (dance, comedy, music); Foodies; Styler; Hangout; Playground; My·zone (personalized based on a user’s favorite shows from all Zone TV channels); Zone·tv (a programming sampler of Zone TV’s dynamic channel package).

Zone TV’s plan is to offer those channels within the electronic program guide of MVPD partners.

Zone TV hasn’t announced any launches for its dynamc channels, but it has previously done work with MVPDs such as AT&T/DirecTV, Comcast, CenturyLink, Telus, Bell Canada, and Frontier Communications.

RELATED: Comcast’s X1 Takes ‘Santa Tracker’ Over-the-Top

Last week, Zone TV introduced an array of 28 subscription VOD channels that will sell for $4 to $6 per month and complement its strategy around dynamic, linear-style channels.

Integrating OTT services at the set-top level is rapidly becoming table stakes for MVPDs, as they look to shore up their role as a primary content aggregator, because it’s being driven by a mix of competitive forces, including the emergence of virtual MVPDs, Jeff Weber, Zone TV’s CEO, said in a recent interview.

Those forces are “pressuring the satellite and cable operators to move quicker than they might have moved in the past,” he said. “I see it [the integration of OTT services] very clearly as a must-have. If they don’t do anything, they do find themselves in very deep trouble.”

Jeff Weber, a former AT&T exec who played a major role in the development of the telco’s U-verse platform, has been named the CEO of ZoneTV, a company that brings “digital-first” programming to homes through a group of pay TV distribution partners.

ZoneTV, formerly known as ES3 that initially focused on the TV apps market, works with service providers such as AT&T, Telefonica, MTS, Hawaiian Telecom, Telus, Frontier Communications, Bell, and CenturyLink. It notes on its site that supports several business models, including individual subscriptions, bundles and ad-based offerings.  ZoneTV, which handles operator integration and content curation, says its content, which includes games, is accessible through the partner’s EPG.

At AT&T, Weber most recently served as president of content and advertising.

“We re-branded the company ZoneTV to leverage our leadership in this new category of television which combines the best digital-first content, brands, most popular games and newest apps into a personalized, interactive experience that is easily accessed via the Pay TV Operator’s electronic program guide,” Weber said, in a statement. “We have a clear vision, a strong management team in place and we are already working with the leading Pay TV Operators to reach millions of homes today.”

ZoneTV also announced that it has opened a new office in Santa Monica. It also has two offices in Canada – in Pickering and Toronto, Ontario.