EchoStar readying extensive OTT play for telcos, cable companies

EchoStar Technologies (Nasdaq: SATS), which acquired Move Networks in January for $45 million and, as a result, got the adaptive bit rate technology to stream live and video-on-demand content, is planning to roll out an over-the-top video service for service providers within the next six months.

The company said it will offer linear TV, VOD, DVR and multiscreen capabilities using content delivery networks to distribute programming to telcos and cable companies.

"We saw the next logical progression as a move to a service-based system with the pitch being, if you have a pipe--cable, fiber or DSL--and you want to provide a video service along with a data service, we'll do that from the cloud," Mike Hawkey, EchoStar's vice president of sales and marketing, told MultiChannelNews.

The Move Networks technology will allow EchoStar to deliver content to tablets, smartphones, PCs, connected TVs and game consoles.

Charlie Ergen, who runs both Echostar and Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) said during Dish's earnings call last week that "We believe we have to be in something other than a standalone video business as a company, and we are in the transition of being able to do that."

For more:
- see this MCN article

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