Telco’s at this week’s NTCA Annual Meeting and Expo confirmed the business and technical barriers that limit the success of many traditional IPTV deployments.  In Skitter.TV’s conversations with telephone co-ops from across the country, virtually none with IPTV services in place would describe their IPTV business as profitable. In addition to losing money, telco’s reported that their IPTV deployments can’t even reach a majority of their customers.

To make matters even worse, many telco’s told Skitter.TV that aggressive competitive pricing from satellite or cable TV services can’t be matched with their IPTV offerings without losing even more money. As a result, many are now starting to lose IPTV customers. In fact, research indicates that if offered a 20 percent discount, as many as 33 percent of IPTV customers are somewhat likely or very likely to switch providers. Add up all of these limitations, then compound them by the lack of over-the-top video capabilities in most traditional IPTV systems, and it’s a formula for failure.

That’s what led many to Skitter’s booth at the show.  Skitter.TV is a converged TV platform that combines live TV with over-the-top content in an advanced architecture that can reach more customers further from the central office than ever before — at dramatically less cost than most, if not all, IPTV offerings.  Skitter.TV can help rural telco’s reach more of their market and offer a low-cost (or even free) TV service for competitive advantage — all in an end-to-end platform that simplifies architecture and reduces costs.

  • Skitter.TV offers advanced encoding technology that can transport higher-quality video on less bandwidth, with standard definition video streaming at an average 1.2 Mbps with peaks at 1.8Mbps, and high def video at an average 3 Mbps peaking at 4.5 Mbps.
  • Consumers continue to watch more and more video online, but are increasingly impatient with technical limitations that force them to watch on a small computer screen rather than in the comfort of their living room on their big screen TV. Skitter.TV breaks down the barriers, supporting Web video and live/linear TV (broadcast and satellite) in one. A single program guide and a couple of clicks on the remote control take viewers from a live football game to a Web video with ease.
  • The Skitter Acclaim Duo™ video encoder provides both an HD and SD stream in one box, with built-in off-air tuners that further reduce costs while simplifying architecture.
  • Skitter.TV also supports local programming and video-on-demand, all in one platform.

Traditional IPTV is simply not well-suited for Tier-Two and Tier-Three telco’s, many of whom serve smaller, highly dispersed populations over a larger geographic area. Skitter.TV can provide broader TV services at lower cost — a better solution for mid-market and rural telco’s.  If you already have IPTV service in place, Skitter.TV is well-suited as a supplemental service for customers not currently reachable or as an alternative package for customers considering canceling their IPTV subscription.  We’ve developed a detailed business model analysis where we can work with you to project the revenue potential of Skitter.TV specific to the business environment of the individual service provider.   Please contact us if you’d like us to conduct an analysis for your unique market.

Share