Extend Media is aiming to capitalize on the buzz surrounding TV Everywhere with the launch of a new platform to help multichannel providers deliver TV programming online, the company announced today.
Though Comcast-owned technology enabler the Platform won the contract to power the Time Warner-Comcast trial of TV Everywhere this summer, Extend Media said it’s already inked a deal with a tier one service provider to use its new platform called OpenCase Publisher. Extend Media CEO Tom MacIsaac said the details of the deal will be released in a few weeks and by year-end he expects to have landed three to four service providers for the new toolset. Late last year Extend Media raised an additional $10 million in funding.
Extend Media is betting that the Time Warner-Comcast joint project to test online access to cable shows this summer will spur other service providers to launch similar iniatives. Though Comcast and Time Warner have said any multichannel provider can be included in TV Everywhere, many service providers will likely strike out on their own and that’s the market Extend Media wants to capture. MacIsaac said Extend Media’s new tools will ensure the right channel lineup is delivered to each consumer, handle transactions for selling HBO and Showtime to basic subcribers and manage delivery of cable shows to TVs, PCs and mobile devices.
“TV Everywhere is a more complex programming issue than much of the media coverage has suggested,” MacIsaac said in a telephone call with Beet.TV. “You also have to look at what happens after that. What happens after you have verified that you are entitled to view this content on a PC or mobile device? Then the operator has to deliver the service itself that is as robust in as many ways as pay TV is.
Extend Media’s existing customers include AT&T, Bell Canada, San Disk and Major League Baseball. The company also inked a deal with a major movie studio to deliver and manage content online and plans to announce the details in the coming weeks.
Here is the company press release.
We have republished an interview from 2007 with with founder Keith Kocho. He speaks about P2P and online video and cable companies.
Daisy Whitney, Senior Producer
