Cable operator Cox Communications has put the kibosh its flareWatch IPTV trial with Fanhattan's Fan TV in Orange County, Calif.
The trial's end was much more understated than its launch. Over the three-plus months flareWatch ran in the Cox franchise area, trial consumers received broadband access for $34.99 a month that also included 97 channels, including powerhouses like ESPN, Disney and Discovery. flareWatch also provided 30 hours of cloud DVR storage.
Fanhattan, which contributed a set-top box and UI to the trial, is making an effort to work with pay TV service providers to bring more content online and offer subscribers an alternative to linear video entertainment services. The company's goal, some believe, is to help service providers deliver over-the-top video applications that would be available on competitive broadband platforms.
That type of competitive play was not in evidence in Orange County where the trial was started and ended this summer with an unspecified number of users.
"This limited trial was conducted as part of Cox's ongoing customer research to determine how to best evolve our offerings to meet customers' changing needs. We remain focused on helping customers discover and connect to the things they care about in ways that are easy-to-use and reliable and we will continue to test and explore new products," Cox said in a prepared statement carried by Variety.
For its part, the story continued, Fanhattan considered the trial "successfully completed" with "excellent customer feedback and usage data to inform our broader deployment of Fan TV."
For more:
- Variety carried this story
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