FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 18, 2011 (Atlanta) – Skitter, Inc. today announced that Venus Telephone Corporation of Venus, PA will implement Skitter.TV as an alternative TV services offering to the company’s current Digital TV services. In addition, Venus Telephone has selected Skitter’s Acclaim Video Encoders as the encoding platform for a pending transition from ATM-based video services to IPTV in a separate offering.
After selecting a competing IPTV middleware solution for a planned conversion from an RF-based video head-end, the company began evaluating encoding solutions in an effort to overcome performance and maintenance concerns with other encoders, according to Tim Keister, head-end manager for Venus Telephone. A combination of an increase in cord-cutting and the need to upgrade their TV service to HD both prompted the commitment to Skitter.TV.
“We decided that we needed a hybrid OTT/IPTV solution in addition the traditional IPTV platform we were in the process of implementing. We looked at a few other encoding vendors, but we weren’t happy with hardware performance and reliability. And we were also concerned about maintenance costs,” Keister said. “Once we saw the video quality from the Acclaim encoders, and evaluated the maintenance costs, we realized we could offer very high quality service without exorbitant maintenance and operations expense.”
“We had previously selected a traditional IPTV service, but over-the-top video is a compelling solution that wasn’t available from the vendor we selected,” Keister. “In our rural service area, we have enjoyed very loyal TV service customers, but over the last several months, we too have begun to see cord-cutting. With Skitter’s hybrid OTT/IPTV solution, we can offer an alternative TV package at a very competitive price, with more features, while at the same time upgrading our existing TV service to HD.”
In addition to reducing customer cord-cutting, Venus Telephone expects their Skitter.TV offering to help monetize their broadband service. According to Keister, 30 to 40 percent of their Internet traffic comes from streaming video today. The company plans to market Skitter.TV as a hybrid Web Video/IPTV option in addition to their traditional IPTV service, both powered by Skitter’s Acclaim Duo SD/HD Video Encoders.
Venus Telephone Corporation has been serving their Pennsylvania community for 100 years. The company currently has 1, 276 access lines and 700 video subscribers.
