The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) now offers video provider members a new option in over-the-top (OTT) video through a deal with Philo, providers of an OTT video offering originally launched in the college market.
A Philo spokesperson declined to state whether NCTC’s members would get an upfront fee or recurring monthly revenue on sales of the offering, which sells for $16 a month and includes more than 40 channels traditionally available through traditional cable platforms.
Channels available through Philo include A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, ID, Lifetime, MTV, OWN, Tastemade, WE TV and others.
NCTC is a non-profit buying group for the organization’s 750 video and broadband provider members that collectively serve eight million TV viewers, according to a press release.
NCTC Philo Deal
The Philo TV offering originally launched late last year. According to a press release, the Philo offering includes:
- The ability to watch on up to three different devices at the same time
- An unlimited 30-day DVR
- A “deep” on-demand library
- The ability to pause any live channel, start programs from the beginning and watch programs that have aired in the past three days
- A “streamlined” interface that includes intelligent search
According to the Philo spokesperson, the NCTC deal is Philo’s first partnership of this kind. She noted, however, that “we are working with a number of cable operators to bring value-add products to their internet-only and cord cutting subscribers.”
Philo was named after electronic television inventor Philo Farnsworth. Investors include content providers such as A+E, AMC, CBC New Media Group, Discovery, Home Box Office and Viacom, along with Mark Cuban’s Radical Investments and others.
Philo isn’t the first OTT video service that NCTC offers to its members. Previously NCTC inked OTT video distribution deals with Sony PlayStation Vue and fuboTV.
