Frontier launches OTT video portal

Independent telco Frontier Communications has jumped into the over-the-top video race with a new OTT video portal called "my fitv" (www.myfitv.com [1]). The site is free and appears to be at least partly ad-based. It's available to anyone, and claims to have more than 100,000 video titles from numerous major broadcasters and programmers, along with a limited amount of local content in some markets.

"If the content is available on the Web for free, then we offer it for free," said Frontier Chairman and CEO Maggie Wilderotter, in a press release. "If it's not, then we offer a pay-per-view option through our partnership with Amazon.com."

At a time when pay TV operators are jumping into the OTT arena and having their activities closely monitored, Frontier may usurp some of the buzz from bigger-name carriers who have been dabbling with TV Everywhere-style offerings that would be available only to their subscribers. Frontier is a pay TV player, too, with its own service and additional video franchises it is gaining through a pending acquisition of Verizon Communications local telecom properties.

For more:
- Here's the Frontier press release [2]

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