ZoneTV, a “digital-first” video service that’s targeting integrations with MVPD set-tops, said it will be heading to NATPE next week looking to do some major wheeling and dealing.
ZoneTV, now helmed by former AT&T exec Jeff Weber, said it will be going to the show in Miami looking for 10,000 hours of content it can use toward a planned programming expansion and the coming debut of a service that will enable that content, in genres such as sports, food and lifestyles, to be delivered inside MVPD set-tops and interactive program guides alongside a pay TV operator’s regular content.
The company will be looking to broaden a library of licensed content that already includes fare from sources such as Field and Stream, Saveur and Popular Science. ZoneTV’s focus on set-tops seems to share similarities of others that are trying to integrate OTT content into MVPD guides, including Frequency, a company backed by Liberty Media as well as Wurl, which has announced WideOpenWest, Fidelity Communications and TDS among its pay TV partners.
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ZoneTV, formerly known as ES3, initially targeted Mediaroom, the IPTV middleware platform that Ericsson acquired from Microsoftin the fall of 2013 that powers pay TV services from companies such as AT&T, Hawaiian Telecom, Telus, Frontier Communications and CenturyLink.
DirecTV, now part of AT&T, was ZoneTV’s first launch partner outside the Mediaroom environment. More recently, Comcast integrated ZoneTV’s “Santa Tracker” app on its X1 platform during the holidays.
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“NATPE calls itself the ‘forum for new ideas,’ and ZoneTV is all about creating TV’s new delivery models,” Weber said, in a statement. “Our whole programming concept is fresh: developing linear programming formats that pay TV providers can add to their line-ups without having to clear or manage bandwidth for the new content.”
