MAMMOTH, Pa. & EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens Fiber, an Internet, cable TV, and telephone provider, and MobiTV, an industry innovator in IP-based video delivery solutions, announced today that Citizens Fiber has adopted the MobiTV Connect™ Platform to deliver app-based Pay TV services. This initiative is the first step for Citizens Fiber to significantly upgrade its user experience and utilize popular consumer devices, while cutting hardware costs.
Citizens Fiber, located in southwest Pennsylvania, will begin its largest expansion in company history outside of its current rural area and into the cities of Latrobe and Greensburg later this year. Deploying the MobiTV Connect platform will be a distinguishing factor to help the Company retain existing subscribers and attract new customers in these expansion areas. Additionally, Citizens Fiber will initially test the platform with a select group of beta users before deploying the solution across its full user base, later this Spring.
“We know app-based delivery is the future of television,” says Zach Cutrell, Operations Manager at Citizens Fiber. “The partnership with MobiTV has been a healthy and beneficial relationship since day one. Their vision for where the industry is headed, attention to detail, and willingness to work with a provider of our size has been a breath of fresh air. They engineered a solution that allowed us to share costs of the necessary cross-country circuit and streaming server with another progressive thinking fiber company outside of Pittsburgh; Hickory Telephone Company. Being able to share these costs, having our own distinct customer facing applications in the App stores, and not outlaying a significant investment has been a game changer for both companies.”
Citizens Fiber has 3,500 unique subscribers across all services. The Company will utilize the MobiTV Connect Platform to transition its network’s video delivery system to an extendable IP-based approach that includes on-demand, live TV, catch-up TV, network DVR, and recommendations. The SaaS-based platform allows for real-time enablement of new technologies such as 4K/HEVC, Cloud DVR, replay TV, and robust voice control – without the high cost of constantly replacing legacy set-top boxes in the home. Customers will simply download the app and view television on any of their connected devices.
“We view IP-based TV solutions as a booster rather than a barrier to the future of television,” says Charlie Nooney, CEO and Chairman of MobiTV. “We now live within a rich device ecosystem where delivery of Pay TV services on multiple devices is now common place. MobiTV provides a solution that adjusts to a variety of connection environments (wired vs wireless) while making it simple to customize an experience for the end user, and the interchange of content simple for the operator.”
About Citizens Fiber:
Citizens Fiber is an Internet, cable TV, and telephone provider serving communities in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Established in 1906, we have remained deeply rooted in the community while investing in a 100% fiber optic network for delivering our services. Our residential products include gigabit Internet, feature rich cable television, and landline telephone services. For businesses we offer hosted phone solutions, camera systems, infrastructure cabling along with our carrier services of Internet, TV, and dial tone. With a commitment to innovation, Citizens continually offers new products to keep up with the ever-changing technology industry. Citizens has plans to expand our current area based on demand for services, and encourages interested residents in the area to check their addresses at http://www.citizensfiber.com/zones and fill out a survey.
About MobiTV:
MobiTV is a video delivery solutions expert committed to making the live and on-demand entertainment experience better across all devices and platforms. Our content delivery platform unlocks content from the traditional Set Top Box (STB) experience for Pay TV providers. We provide Pay TV providers customizable, cloud based, end-to-end streaming video solutions, allowing them to offer a high-quality video across multiple devices, cost-efficiently, with leading edge end-user experience in mind. With 17 years of industry experience, MobiTV’s hardened technology enables operations with 99.999% uptime, while ensuring video quality is optimized across all screens. Our connected media solutions are tailored for IPTV operators, as well as mobile TV and over-the-top customers (including T-Mobile, US Cellular and Reliance). For more information visit http://www.mobitv.com/
