Broadcast giant E.W. Scripps quietly paid $14 million in January of 2022 to acquire Canadian startup Nuvyyo, maker of the popular Tablo TV OTA DVR device.
The revelation comes from The Verge, which stumbled upon the until-now unreported purchase while perusing a Scripps 10-Q regulatory filing.
“It’s a very important project to us,” said Scripps Networks chief distribution officer Jeffrey Wolf to The Verge. “It allows viewers to watch over-the-air content essentially on demand."
Tablo TV is essentially a digital video recorder connected to an over-the-air antenna. It connects on the other end to a user's Wi-Fi network, enabling them to stream broadcast signals, recorded or live, from a wide range of connected TV gadgets, mobile devices and PC browsers.
Like many broadcasters, Scripps is bullish about OTA and wants to promote the use of traditional broadcast antennas to consumers.
Further, Scripps would like to enable the usage of ATSC 3.0, a (relatively) new broadcast TV tech standard that's still not so amply supported by smart TVs and other consumer video gadgets.
As The Verge postulates, a company like Nuvyyo could be useful in making devices that help consumers connect to the so-called NextGen TV standard.
