Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators 2007

This year instead of our typical Fierce 15 listing of progressive startups in the IPTV space, we decided to instead focus on innovative IPTV providers, thus the change in the name to "Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators." The reasoning behind this change is simple. IPTV providers are the ones that are actually deploying the technology and making the service a reality.

This year's Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators are small telcos, the majority with 30,000 lines or fewer, that have deployed IPTV via fiber-to-the-home or hybrid copper/fiber systems.

Many of our Innovators have been among the first to employ MPEG-4 or its Microsoft counterpart in order to deliver high-definition channels to cutting-edge set-tops. They have broken ground with shared headends, brokered programming deals with multinational media conglomerates and field tested untried technology.

A lot of these companies are legacy community phone companies, some more than 100 year old, yet they were out of the gate with IPTV before the Big Bells--Verizon and AT&T. FierceIPTV conferred with several telecom industry executives in the compilation of this list, which is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather a snapshot of the diversity, history and flexibility of some of the most enduring businesses in the United States.---Deborah

And the Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators 2007 winners are...

(click a company name to read its profile)

1. Ayersville Telephone

2. Blue Valley Telephone

3. Canby Telcom

4. Citizens Telephone Coop

5. Hancock Telecom

6. Panhandle Telephone Coop

7. Pioneer Telephone
Cooperative

8. Project Mutual Telephone

9. PSC

10. Ringgold Telephone

11. Rochester Telephone

12. South Central Rural
Telephone Cooperative

13. SureWest Communications

14. Vernon Telephone

15. West Kentucky Rural
Telephone Cooperative
Corp.