Espial and Harmonic partner to provide complete end-to-end TVaaS

Tuesday, July 31st, 2018
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Already proven at scale, Espial’s Elevate SaaS video platform and Harmonic’s VOS™360 media processing SaaS enable MVPDs to quickly launch IPTV and app-based TV services at a low cost

ANAHEIM, CA — The Independent Show 2018 (Booth 148) — Today Espial is announcing a partnership with Harmonic, the worldwide leader in video technology and services. Through this partnership, Espial’s Elevate SaaS video platform will fully integrate Harmonic’s VOS™360 media processing SaaS, providing MVPDs with a turn-key end-to-end solution which will give them the ability to launch new IP and OTT services quickly, risk-free, and with minimal investment.

The fully integrated offering enables control, processing, and delivery of video content and services to a broad range of devices – from set-top boxes, to media players like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire, to Smart TVs and mobile devices.

Espial’s Elevate SaaS video platform uniquely enables video services with a focus on management and control of video services, client applications, and user experience. Elevate provides operators with cloud tools for their operations, product, marketing, and engineering teams, enabling operators to grow their revenues by reducing churn, addressing underserved markets, and opening new revenue opportunities.

Harmonic’s VOS360 SaaS unifies the entire media processing chain, from ingest to transcoding, encryption, packaging, and origin. Hosted on leading public cloud infrastructure platforms, VOS360 SaaS makes it easy to prepare and deliver content from anywhere in the world. The integrated solution allows MVPDs to offer services ranging from app-based TV across a variety of consumer devices, to low cost IP set-top offerings, to cable set-top based services.

Rich Fickle, CEO & President, National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), said: “Consumers today demand the ability to view content on any device, from anywhere. Espial’s Elevate SaaS video platform, together with Harmonic’s VOS™360 solution, addresses some important requirements of our members, who need to reduce cost, risk, and time to market on new IPTV and app-based TV services. Espial and Harmonic continue to provide innovative and valuable solutions for our service provider members, helping them to retain and grow their subscriber base in an increasingly competitive industry. NCTC is pleased to have both companies exhibiting at The Independent Show, and working together to meet the needs of our member companies.”

Gary Shorman, President & CEO, Eagle Communications, said: “As an existing Espial customer, we’ve seen Espial increase the pace of innovation on its Elevate SaaS video platform – with content from Netflix, YouTube, voice support with Alexa, new user experiences and cloud tools. As an operator using the Espial Elevate SaaS video platform, we see significant value in being able to use a single solution that powers Cable, IPTV and app-based TV services. We are pleased to see Espial continue to lead the way on IP and OTT services to a variety of devices through initiatives such as this partnership with Harmonic.”

Eric Armstrong, Vice President, SaaS Solutions, Harmonic, said: “Both Harmonic and Espial have been offering next-gen IPTV and OTT services for years, and together we have an extensive list of customers who are powering millions of active subscribers and devices. Working together, we are now able to offer operators a fully-integrated solution that is proven at scale, and can help operators quickly launch next-gen video services.”

Jaison Dolvane, CEO of Espial, said: “MVPDs need to address the needs of various subscriber segments — from millennials and premium subscribers, to traditional users, and more – in order to remain relevant and competitive. The ability to price, package, segment and analyze their various offerings is critical to avoid churn, retain subscribers and grow revenues. Getting to market quickly and risk-free, using TVaaS solutions, allows operators to focus their resources on selling, improving business metrics through data, and optimizing their services offerings.”