NAB: Why indie IPTV is reviving

LAS VEGAS – Verimatrix used the NAB show this week to announce three new customers for its Video Content Authority System, including one independent telco, GulfPines Communications of Mississippi; a municipality, the Clarksville Department of Energy; and a service provider, ZillionTV.

Those customers represent a new boom in IPTV deployments that Verimatrix's Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer, admits caught him a bit by surprise.

"We were very nervous toward the end of last year," said Oetegenn, whose company benefits not only by selling to the IPTV provider but also by that provider's ongoing expansion. "Then last quarter, we saw it. We've exceeded our expectations in the independent space. It's a bit of a surprise, given the economy."

At the same time, Oetegenn said, the economics are turning in favor of IPTV deployments. "In general, there is a backdraft from AT&T," he said. "That is fueling a bit of deployment. But the economics have also gotten better as the technology has matured. I think independent telcos have realized IPTV is here to stay; it's not a buzzword."

Two economic factors, in particular, are aiding independents, Oetegenn said. Headend costs have come down, and there are options for companies that don't want to invest in headends, he said, such as Avail Media, which offers a content feed that is fed down to a catcher, requiring much less investment. Verimatrix partners with Avail, Oetegenn said.

The GulfPines deployment involves Falcon IP/Complete, which provides a total IPTV delivery system, including content aggregation and delivery from satellite, router and DSLAM equipment as well as middleware supporting services such as digital video recording and parental controls.

"Avail and Falcon Media can provide an end-to-end system including the content feed," Oetegenn said. "An independent can use an Avail catcher and only buy the set-top boxes for deployment or they can add local programming to the Avail system on smaller headends."

Secondly, the cost of set-top boxes is down, lowering the price of another major capital expense for IPTV deployment, Oetegenn said.

"This has been a great market for us," Oetegenn said. "In addition, we are making a big push into cable and satellite."

The only downside has been a slowdown in IPTV sales by some larger providers, Oetegenn said. This is where the tougher economy is taking a toll, but Verimatrix believes these slower deployments are "a pause as opposed to a cancellation," he said. "I think it is inevitable that they will come back around."