FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   Skitter, Inc. today announced a packaged offering designed to help telecom service providers implement and test converged TV services for less than $100,000 in less than 30 days.  The Fast Start system is a bundled offering based on best practices developed with Skitter.TV’s service provider customers.  It allows telco’s to install, test and optimize TV services at minimal risk and cost.  The Fast Start system includes all the hardware, software, services and support needed to implement and deploy a basic converged video package of seven off-air or satellite TV channels and unlimited Internet TV for $99,500.

The system can typically be implemented in less than 30 days, with actual installation typically completed in less than a week. The Skitter.TV Fast Start system includes:

  • Seven Skitter Acclaim SD™ video encoders, for translating analog off-air and satellite content into an industry-standard MPEG-4 AVC digital video stream
  • A Subscriber Management Server,  including middleware for configuring service offerings and setting customer access rights,
  • A video server for streaming media via copper or fiber networks,
  • A starter pack of 250 client licenses for test-marketing services,
  • Complete installation services, and
  • Two full years of service and support.

A Fast Start implementation allows the provider to test and tune network performance, develop and package service offerings, test-market service, and plan for service launch.  Once the provider is ready to go to market, the Fast Start system provides the foundation for basic service packages, offering a game-changing alternative to “basic cable” that packages local and national linear broadcasts with unlimited Internet TV content. Telco’s can easily expand the implementation, encoding and streaming HD content and any additional satellite or off-air channels that their markets demand.

“Our mission is to reinvent TV over IP, making it possible for service providers to surpass their competitors with an entertainment services offering that brings Internet TV and live TV together, delivered to virtually any screen, said Laura Tanner, Skitter vice president of marketing.  “Skitter.TV offers advances in technology that take advantage of the growing popularity of Internet-delivered video, resulting in a completely new business model for TV services. The Fast Start system is a proof statement for what we’ve achieved.”

The Skitter.TV business model is designed to take advantage of growing consumer demand for services that converge Internet TV, video-on-demand, and live broadcast and satellite TV in one offering.  The Skitter.TV video platform achieves convergence in a common viewing interface and program guide that is accessible on the TV, on a computer or gaming console, and on smart phones.  Developed with Tier Two and Tier Three telco’s in mind, Skitter.TV combines converged, multiscreen services with advances in encoding and bandwidth requirements that make it possible for the provider to typically serve 80 percent or more of their service area via existing copper infrastructure.

“In a traditional IPTV deployment, the costs often run into the millions of dollars and implementation can take months or even years,” said Robert Saunders, Skitter president and co-founder.  “Our unique approach to both business strategy and technical infrastructure reduces the time, risk and cost of TV service deployments by orders of magnitude.”

About Skitter.TV

Skitter.TV™ is video technology enabling telecomm service providers to encode, configure, deliver and monetize converged TV services.  Skitter.TV provides a broadband TV experience on computers, televisions, mobile devices and gaming consoles.  The end-to-end video platform includes head-end hardware and software for integrated Web video, linear cable network and broadcast TV, and video-on-demand content, delivered over IP via DSL, fiber optics or wireless networks. Skitter.TV’s end-user software and program guide offer consumers premium-quality high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD) multiscreen video service that combines live and on-demand content in a unified, remote-control-driven environment.

About Skitter, Inc.

Skitter is a converged media technology company based in Atlanta, GA.  Its founders have a combined experience base of more than 50 years in computing, telecommunications and Internet technology and more than 30 years in video technology, including numerous patents in video compression.  For more information, visit www.skitter.tv.

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