Citizens Fiber has adopted the MobiTV Connect Platform to deliver app-based pay TV services. Citizens Fiber, located in southwest Pennsylvania, plans to begin its largest expansion in company history outside of its current rural area and into the cities of Latrobe and Greensburg later this year. The MobiTV deployment is intended to help the company retain existing subscribers and attract new customers in the 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," said 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 Co. 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, catchup TV, network DVR, and recommendations. The SaaS-based platform is designed for real-time enablement of new technologies such as 4K/HEVC, cloud DVR, replay TV, and voice control - without the high cost of replacing legacy set-top boxes. Customers 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," said 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 commonplace. 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."