North America Digital TV News

Summit Broadband to use Espial Elevate SaaS cloud platform
Dec 6, 2017 – Espial has announced that Summit Broadband has signed up for Espial’s Elevate Cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to power its video services. Summit Broadband is a fiber-optics telecommunications provider in Florida.
News categories: Espial, Summit Broadband, Matt James, Blaine Schafer, Content Distribution, Digital TV, IPTV, Mobile, Streaming, USA

User experience becomes key focus for smart TVs and streaming media players
Dec 5, 2017 – A new Market Snapshot from Parks Associates finds that makers of smart TVs and streaming media players are shifting strategies to focus on the user experience (UX) as device sales start to flatten out.
News categories: Parks Associates, Jennifer Kent, Dina Abdelrazik, Digital TV, Market Research, Set Top Box, Smart TV, USA

DIRECTV NOW reaches one million subscribers
Dec 5, 2017 – The AT&T over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, DIRECTV NOW, has officially surpassed 1 million subscribers while celebrating its first year. DIRECTV NOW was launched to bring TV lovers a new way to experience their favorite shows virtually anywhere at a great price.
News categories: AT&T, David Christopher, Digital TV, Streaming, Subscribers, USA

US military launch MPEG-4 HD STBs with Inview middleware
Dec 4, 2017 – Inview and DigitalGlue have announced the launch of DigitalGlue’s MPEG-4 HD set-top boxes used by the American Forces Network (AFN). Inview’s middleware, integrated on all of the DVB-S2 STBs, provides the user interface for the twin tuner PVR.
News categories: Inview, DigitalGlue, Diego Martinez, Ray Rodriguez, Digital TV, DVB-S2, Middleware, Satellite, Set Top Box, USA, Worldwide

BuyDRM and Bitmovin provide encoding and encryption for fuboTV
Dec 4, 2017 – BuyDRM and Bitmovin have partnered with sports-first streaming TV service fuboTV. As part of the deployment, Bitmovin will provide fuboTV with cloud-based encoding and encryption via the Bitmovin Encoding platform integrated with BuyDRM’s KeyOS Encryption Key API.
News categories: BuyDRM, Bitmovin, fuboTV, Christopher Levy, Stefan Lederer, Sung Ho Choi, Content Distribution, Content Protection, Digital TV, Mobile, Streaming, USA

Swrve adds streaming video and OTT TV to customer interaction platform
Nov 30, 2017 – Swrve has extended its platform to support digital media streaming platforms. Swrve enables organizations to drive engagement, retention, and revenue by sending ‘perfect massage, perfect time’ campaigns based on real-time customer intelligence.
News categories: Swrve, Christopher Dean, Advertising, Big Data, Digital TV, Mobile, Streaming, USA

Hiawatha Broadband Communications chooses Espial cloud platform
Nov 30, 2017 – Espial has announced that Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC) is powering its video services with Espial’s Elevate cloud-based SaaS solution. HBC is an operator in Minnesota and Wisconsin providing TV, broadband, and voice services to its customers.
News categories: Espial, Hiawatha Broadband Communications, Matt James, Dan Pecarina, Cable TV, Content Distribution, Digital TV, TV Everywhere, USA, UX

Over half of U.S. SVOD households pay for multiple OTT video services
Nov 30, 2017 – Parks Associates has released research showing that more than 50% of U.S. OTT subscription households subscribe to multiple OTT video services. Of these multi-OTT households, 81% use Netflix plus some other service or combination of services, typically Amazon or Hulu.
News categories: Parks Associates, Brett Sappington, Digital TV, Market Research, Mobile, Streaming, USA

U.S. legacy pay TV services to lose 26% of subscribers by 2030
Nov 29, 2017 – The future of U.S. residential pay-TV services will be wrought from an intensifying clash between virtual operators like Sling TV and DirecTV Now, and traditional cable, satellite, and telco pay-TV providers. Unfortunately the battle will be for a larger slice of a declining market, according to The Diffusion Group.
News categories: The Diffusion Group, Joel Espelien, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Market Research, Satellite, Streaming, USA