Illinois telco and IPTV provider MTCO (Metamora Telephone Company) has adopted new IPTV middleware from South Dakota-based Innovative Systems as a way to improve its DVR service and, in particular, satisfy "a lot of folks from the older generation" who wanted a program guide that that could be adjusted to their vision needs.
"As we have been converting customers over to the new [Innovative Systems'] APMAX middleware some of them were actually considering dropping us due to functionality issues, mainly DVR-related," said Brian Kettman, CTO for the family owned company based in Northeastern Illinois. "After seeing the difference, we were able to retain a number of customers that we would have likely lost."
MTCO, which offers packages of high-speed Internet, local phone and IPTV, recently installed a 75-mile fiber optic link between its offices in Metamora and Marseilles, Ill., an Innovative Systems news release said. The link is the cornerstone of the company's all-digital IPTV service, which launched in early 2011 and which is now being outfitted with Innovative Systems' middleware.
As it endeavors to acquire and retain IPTV customers, MTCO, like many telcos entering the video business, is learning that holding onto customers is sometimes about more than just delivering a quality, reliable TV signal. Many times, it's the little unseen things that matter the most.
Kettman said in the news release that customers "from the older generation… have really appreciated being able to resize their program guides to a larger, easier to read style." Additionally, he said, a weather app that provides on-screen access to forecasts, current conditions and radar has also proven to be popular.
For more:
- see this news release from Innovative Systems
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