SES Americom

Avail Media reports strong growth

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:51:22 -0500

IPTV and video on demand content aggregator Avail Media said earlier this week that 73 commercially launched video deployments this year used its managed video service platform. It also reported that its video-on-demand subscriber base grew by more than 300 percent to at least 1 million subscribers. The company, which works with linear content and MPEG-4 IP-based video content, grew its linear affiliate base as well, and has expanded into international deployments along with a recent expansion into more states across the U.S.

Just days after similar wholesaler SES Americom said slow adoption and poor market conditions would force it to shut down its IP-Prime service, Ramu Potarazu, CEO of Avail Media, sounded optimistic about Avail's ongoing opportunities. "With our impressive growth rate, we're able to continue to expand our platform investments and broaden our service and content offerings, even during these tough economic times," he said in a statement.

For more:
- TMCnet has this post

IP-Prime's fall raises further questions

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:37:23 -0500

Does the upcoming demise of IP-Prime cast a negative light across an entire market, or is it just a reflection of one company's inability to realize adequate returns from that market's opportunity? Is it an indictment of a business model, or an indication of how much competition has developed among companies with similar business models? And, does the planned end of IP-Prime in a way illustrate how healthy a business opportunity over-the-top video could be for small telcos?

The answers to all of the above may be "yes."

Question 1, Part 1: SES Americom's plan to end the much-touted IP-Prime wholesale service, coming just a month after the U.S. IPTV industry sought re-assurance at TelcoTV 2008, does cast a negative light on the small telco TV market amid a very challenging economy. It may take a few months to sort out whether or not any telcos will need to shut down IPTV services or kill launch plans because of IP-Prime's closure. SES Americom is giving those customers plenty of time to look for other options, but satellite may have been the best or only option for some. The company's statement that end user adoption was slow could convince some telcos that a branded, separate TV service just isn't worth it.

Question 1, Part 2: Still, SES Americom's announcement that it will end IP-Prime pretty clearly communicated that IP-Prime didn't meet the company's own ROI goals for that particular offering. It said it still believes in IPTV over satellite. Perhaps some small telcos still will use satellite, but will have different partners for content or systems integration purposes.

Question 2, Part 1: Wholesale IPTV offerings have looked especially attractive in recent months as telcos have become more threatened by landline losses, but also more cautious about the costs of investing in a new service. TV seemed to be both a customer loyalty and revenue answer, but maybe the failure of IP-Prime to collect enough usage illustrates that there are just not enough customers in this particular part of the market to support wholesale operational costs.

Question 2, Part 2: But, don't dismiss wholesale on a, well, wholesale basis. Avail Media and Falcon in particular have pressed into the market with an array of technology partners, many of whom are the biggest names globally in IPTV and video capabilities. On a related note, major network equipment suppliers also are expanding their outsourcing capabilities for the telco market. These companies certainly are armed to make wholesale IPTV work, and the fact remains that IPTV is still too expensive for many telcos to build out on their own. Yet, they must do something to offset voice revenue losses. At another level, there are locally-focused firms like Midwest Video Solutions looking to helped the smallest telco avoid the high costs and complications of providing TV service.

Question 3: If you don't think the rest of the debate is compelling, then fast-forward to the notion that IP-Prime's demise is just another reference point highlighting the increasing and somewhat surprising viability of OTT video as a component of telco broadband offerings. A Vudu executive may have been the interloper during last month's TelcoTV opening keynote session, especially sandwiched between telco TV mac-daddies AT&T and Verizon Communications, but he pointed to a business model that seems to make a lot of sense as OTT video continues to explode: Why create a cable TV-like service and then figure out how to integrate OTT video when you can skip the build-out costs and partner with a device company that can bring very un-cable-like content and additional value to your existing broadband connection. If voice is moving to broadband connections and more video is traveling over those connections, maybe the market is trying to tell you something.

For now, it is safe to say that TV and video continue to be an opportunities for small telcos, but that questions remain about the best ways to deliver and maximize those opportunities.

-Dan

SES Americom to end IP-Prime in 2009

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:58:16 -0500

In what will surely be seen as a surprising development, SES Americom has announced that it will shut down its IP-Prime transport and programming service supporting small U.S. telcos rolling out IPTV services. IP-Prime will end by July 31, 2009.

The company cited "slow adoption" of IPTV by small and medium telcos in North America, as well as the "difficult market outlook" for the service, according to IPTV news and a company press release. That negative outlook comes just days after an SES executive, speaking at an investor conference, painted the company's outlook as fairly positive, in part because it had many service providers locked into long-term contracts, and also because TV services have been broadly viewed as recession-proof.

The company said it has IPTV signal delivery agreements with 70 small telcos so far, and about 37 of them have conducted commercial roll-outs, but Rob Bednarek, President and CEO of SES Americom-New Skies, states that "with a subscriber base of less than ten thousand at the end of November and after more than 2 years of service, the consumer uptake is insufficient to justify continuing operations."

Continuing until July 31, SES Americom said, will allow telco customers to transfer their services elsewhere. Presumably there also is a chance the IP-Prime program could be sold to another party, though SES Americom did not specifically say this in its press release.

In addition to the positive comments last week, it was only last month that SES Americom touted its list of customer agreements at the TelcoTV 2008 conference. However, another trend increasingly apparent during and since TelcoTV is the possibility that more small telcos will skip IPTV launches to focus on leveraging their broadband networks with content download partners like Vudu and others.

For more:
- IPTV News has this post

SES locks in contracts, keeps positive outlook

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:07:49 -0500

SES Americom, the satellite and wholesale IPTV technology vendor behind the IP-Prime platform, seems to be maintaining a positive outlook amid increasing instances of job cuts and cost reductions around the telecom industry. How is it managing that? Long-term contracts of 10 to 15 years with its carrier customers sure help, as does the ongoing demand from end users for high-definition capabilities on top of regular programming.

The company, which also is fully funded through at least the next two years, announced last month at TelcoTV 2008 in Anaheim, Calif., that it made deals with 65 telcos in 31 states to support its IP Prime platform. The contracts were described in a Telephony story as "non-cancelable," though if a carrier customer were to fall into dire straits and bankruptcy, "non-cancelable" would be a non-factor. SES Americom does look to be in a good position with all those long-term contracts, though it is surprising that so many telcos would make such long commitments, rather than push for shorter contracts with potential extensions. Of course, many IP-Prime customers may not be big enough to have that kind of influence on their vendors.

For more:
- Telephony has an article on SES

TelcoTV 2008: IP-Prime getting more primed

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:54:38 -0500

SES Americom's IPTV programming and overlay solution, IP-Prime, could be launched by up to a dozen more telcos by the end of this year, according to an announcement from SES Americom at TelcoTV 2008. About 65 telcos in 31 states have signed up for the offering, which is endorsed by the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. SES has racked up dozens more telcos than it had done so at the time of TelcoTV 2007, which came not long after the launch of IP Prime. About 30 telcos are actually offering commercial service.

IP-Prime offers more than 200 standard definition and 50 high-definition channels sent to a telco headend or delivered as an overlay solution. SES Americom has said the solution could save rural telcos up to $10 million and the hassles of working with a content aggregator.

For more:
- Telephony has this story

Canby can add HD channels via IP-Prime

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:19:56 -0400

Oregon-based independent teclo Canby Telcom has added more than two dozen high-definition channels to its IPTV line-up. Canby got help from the satellite-based IP-Prime transport solution offered by SES Americom, in tandem with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC).

Canby's new MPEG-4 HD channels include Discovery, Disney, Showtime, Fox News, ESPN, A&E, the Food Network and a handful of local broadcast services, bringing the telco's total HD channel count to 36. The NRTC member was among the first small telcos in the U.S. to launch IPTV in 2005.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

ALSO NOTED: SES Americom loses bird; second; and much more...

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:58:20 -0400

> SES Americom has declared a "total loss" of a satellite that launched last month but fell into the wrong orbit. Article

> Verizon Communications sues Time Warner Cable, claiming TWC's ads misrepresent Verizon's fiber network. Meanwhile, Verizon bends a news story statement into an ad message. Article

Avail ready to exploit tier 2 IPTV uptake

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:59:40 -0500

North Virginia based Avail Media has secured $25 million in B round venture capital as it seeks to exploit the rush in demand for programming from tier two and three US telcos.

Avail was started by ex-Intelsat executives who saw the opportunity to deliver programming to the newly emerging IPTV carriers, most of which have had no experience with programming negotiation and distribution. Avail was formed from a merger of Aurora's Communications and BroadStream Communications in December 2006.

It closed its Series B financing last week, securing $25 million from investors, Novak Biddle Venture Partners , Valhalla Partners, Pioneer Ventures and Columbia Capital. A further $5 million had been previously raised as debt from Silicon Valley Bank. Avail is a program aggregator and enables would-be IPTV operators to focus on infrastructure deployment while leaving programming access to them. Avail is competing against the likes of SES Americom's IP Prime and also Echostar's ViP-TV which provides 300 channels from its K band satellites. IP Prime has enjoyed first mover advantage through its industry relationship with the National Rural Telecommunications Co-operative and offers a turnkey solution for any telco seeking to enter the IPTV market.

Avail is hoping the market will be big enough for several players and marketing manager Jon Romm is confident the tier two carriers and the remaining reluctant tier three players are now ready to jump into IPTV. How enthusiastic they will be if the US economy goes into reverse is to be seen, but Romm confirms that many of the regional carriers are now engaged in serious deployment negotiations.

For More:
- Avail press release of its VC funding
- Light reading has a report

Related Articles:
- Aurora's Communications and BroadStream merge to form Avail Media Report
- On the Hot Seat with Keith Galitz Report

Telcos go live with IP-Prime

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:59:50 -0400

IP-Prime is officially live. As FierceIPTV reported last week, the turnkey IPTV platform provided by two telco lobbies and SES Americom is available commercially. North Central Telephone Co-op of Lafayette, Tenn., became the first non-beta telco to launch IP-Prime. North Central is upgrading to a hybrid plant consisting of 5,000 feet of copper lines and fiber-to-the-home beyond, using loops supplied by Occam Networks in Santa Barbara, Calif.

West Kentucky Rural Telephone Co-op, a 19,000 subscriber telco in Mayfield, Ky., and BEK Communications, a 6,000-sub system in Steele, N.D., went commercial this week with IP-Prime. Both had been beta test sites for more than a year. Two more beta sites are scheduled to go commercial later this year.

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative came together with the satellite distributor in Princeton, N.J., two years ago to develop the IP-Prime offering so small carriers could launch IPTV without extensive build-outs or fierce programming negotiations. The two lobbies together represent nearly 2,000 local phone companies and rural utilities.

Telcos can opt for the entire MPEG-4 infrastructure, right down to the set-top boxes, or just the programming, which originates from SES Americom's Vernon Valley, N.J., facility. The programming option is attractive because negotiation with the likes of Fox and Disney can be brutal. Keith Galitz, president and general manager of Canby Telecom in Canby, Ore., has pegged programming as his IPTV operation's biggest expense. Galitz also said he'd be looking at IP-Prime to take Canby MPEG-4, and thus, HD capable. That's one less advantage for cable.

For More:
- The word from NRTC and NTCA is here
- Multichannel News has the summary of North Central's launch here

Related Article:
On the Hot Seat wit Keith Galitz Report

National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative's Forrer: IP-Prime to go prime time

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:24:44 -0400

Today, FierceIPTV presents coverage of the opening keynote, graciously presented by Madeleine Forrer, vice president of Video Services for the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative. Forrer elaborated on IP-Prime, the long-awaited IPTV platform developed with smaller telcos in mind.

IP-Prime goes prime time

Madeleine Forrer is unphased by IPTV naysayers.

"In 1994, if you would have said DBS would become as ubiquitous as cable, you would have been laughed out of the room," she said. "We believe IPTV will become the third great competitor.

Television delivered via closed network in an Internet Protocol format has variously been presumed to be "buggy, expensive or even impossible," she said.

Rural telcos, however, are making it work, and one NRTC member is leasing hi-def TV sets to its subscribers, she said. Others are among the first TV providers deploying MPEG-4 set-top boxes.

"IPTV is setting the tone for what can be done and viewers want to be done," e.g., bringing together localized content, video-on-demand and even online video, she said.

Forrer delivered the keynote address at IPTV Evolution in Los Angeles today, the opening day of ITExpo at the city's convention center. Forrer's perspective comes from spending more than two decades in the TV space, from launching channels on cable systems to acquiring programming for a set-top startup. She's now vice president of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative located in Herndon, Va., where she secures programming deals for IP-Prime, a turnkey, MPEG-4, IPTV platform for small telcos.

IP-Prime, a joint effort of SES Americom, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the NRTC, was launched at a telco site Monday, Forrer said. Details will be released Monday, according to a spokeswoman at NRTC.

IPTV FOR ALL

Forrer said that when the rural telco lobbies met with SES Americom, the goal was "to find a way to take a multimillion dollar problem and scale it down to a manageable size … We had to make IPTV accessible to telcos with 10,000 access lines, 5,000 access lines, 2,000 access lines."

The result was IP-Prime, one of a handful of IPTV platforms that allows telcos to launch the service without having to install a head-end or other costly infrastructure.

"This is ideal for companies in initial stages of IPTV," Forrer said. "We believe we've come up with a solution that works incredibly well in our marketplace, all the way up to 100,000 subscribers."

Forrer said telco plants meeting certain technical criteria can go from voice to IPTV service in 16 weeks with IP-Prime. SES, NRTC and NTCA provide everything--marketing, training, operational support, video, platforms and set-tops.

"IP-Prime is as close to turnkey as you can get," she said.

The system uses Scientific Atlanta set-tops and Myrio middleware. Some telco operators, notably Keith Galitz of Canby Telecom in Canby, Ore., have had problems with Myrio. Forrer said the IP-Prime group is also working with NDS Metro and Minerva, or IP-Prime can simply provide program drop-off if a telco wants to build their own head-end and use their own middleware.

The programming-only package is also available for MPEG-2 providers or others with existing head-ends.

Forrer said a DVR-enabled set-top would be available shortly, and a video-on-demand service within a few months.

"We're also talking to walled-garden providers about local weather, news, games … all delivered to TV screens," she said.

Forrer said she envisions a model where online video can be accessed on TV. Any content that crosses a telco plant "is well-suited to deliver to the set-top box."

Forrer concluded with a quote she attributed to avionics engineer Charles Kettering, who invented the electric starter, "We have a lot of people revolutionizing the world right now because they've never had to present a working model."

She also noted a survey that indicated 25 percent of American consumers are ready to check out IPTV when it becomes available.

"So here we are," she said. "We're in the place where telcos can compete with cable."

FEATURE: IP Prime to go prime time

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:58:45 -0400

IP Prime to go prime time

Madeleine Forrer is unphased by IPTV naysayers.

"In 1994, if you would have said DBS would become as ubiquitous as cable, you would have been laughed out of the room," she said. "We believe IPTV will become the third great competitor.

Television delivered via closed network in an Internet Protocol format has variously been presumed to be "buggy, expensive or even impossible," she said.

Rural telcos, however, are making it work, and one NRTC member is leasing hi-def TV sets to its subscribers, she said. Others are among the first TV providers deploying MPEG-4 set-top boxes.

"IPTV is setting the tone for what can be done and viewers want to be done," e.g., bringing together localized content, video-on-demand and even online video, she said.

Continue reading this feature here...