Offering a new way for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), Internet-service providers and wireless operators to reach millennial audiences, aioTV has introduced a Web-video product centered on free, unlicensed video that could pave the way toward a broader offering weaving in licensed and subscription-TV services.
The new product, called Cuyte, will be offered for free to partners as an app that aggregates and curates freely available Web video from a variety of sources such as ABC, NBC, CBS, Maker Studios, Vevo, Vimeo and Fullscreen, assembling them into a channel-style interface. aioTV will try to monetize the offering through advertising, CEO Mike Earle said.
Were an MVPD to jump on board with the program, aioTV would build it two branded apps, one for Android and one for Apple’s iOS. The provider would submit those apps to Google Play and Apple’s App Store as their own, and would get access to the analytics and usage data they generate.
In addition to tablets and smartphones, Cuyte could also run on connected TVs, Android-powered set-tops and other TV-connected streaming players, such as the Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick. It doesn’t currently support Roku, but aioTV might look into that “at some point down the road,” Earle said.
Greenwood Village, Colo.-based aioTV said it can pull this off with free, non-licensed content by following the embedding rules of YouTube and other over-the-top video sources. The company’s patented system is designed to swap in the sources’ various streaming players and digital rights management systems without interfering or otherwise “touching” the core video asset, aioTV said.
“Their content is consumed the way they want it consumed,” Earle said. The hope, Earle said, is that the initial approach centered on free, non-licensed content will get aioTV in the door and create a future opportunity for a customized, fully converged service platform that packages OTT with an operator’s linear pay TV service, including video-on-demand and authenticated TV Everywhere fare.
Cuyte runs on aioTV’s Webvideo platform, but strips out everything except non-licensed content.
Earle said aioTV, which is working with independent cable MSO Midcontinent Communications on a service that will blend over-the-top content and pay TV, launched Cutye because it has taken longer than anticipated to get partners to deploy the company’s full system, due in part to lengthy integrations with billing and other backoffice systems.
“Hopefully, this is a way to break the log jam,” Earle said, noting that aioTV is in talks with a broad set of companies, including TV and mobile device makers, as well as MVPDs and ISPs. “It’s not limited to any particular vertical here,” he said. “But the [partner] gets presentation and branding credit.”
Video Is Eating the Internet: Cisco
Cisco Systems has released its annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, and it calls for video — lots and lots of video.
The big takeaway: Cisco predicted IP video would make up 80% of global Internet-protocol traffic by 2019, up from 67% in 2014. On a regional basis, North America is expected to lead the way with 84% of traffic coming from video, as the Middle East and Africa see a leading 55% compound annual growth rate.
Driven by the proliferation of wireless access on a device basis, smartphones will dominate video consumption, well ahead of TVs, computers and tablets.
By 2019, Cisco also expects global IP traffic to eclipse 168 Exabytes per month by 2019 (1 Exabyte equals 1 billion Gigabytes), up from the 59.9 EB per month generated in 2014.
