Cisco furthers its cloud-based video delivery focus with OTT player FloSports

Cisco’s Infinite Video Platform is powering SVOD sports provider FloSports’ latest range of OTT apps, which it has made available on Roku and Apple TV streaming devices, the two companies announced Tuesday.

The delivery platform is cloud-based, which Cisco says helps online video providers get their content to market quickly and at lower cost. Customers get various monetization options, such as subscription-based, advertising-based, or a “try before you buy” feature that gives viewers a set amount of free viewing before they must subscribe.

According to Cisco, customers can deliver their video over all the major OTT platforms – not just Roku and Apple TV but also Google Nexus, Amazon Fire TV, smart TVs, and iOS and Android devices.

FloSports started in the mid-2000s with a library of Greco-Roman wrestling and track and field footage – the co-founders traveled around the country in an old Ford conversion van, recording video of events that at the time had little to no coverage from major sports networks.

The company now offers on-demand video of more than 19 different sports, sorted into sport-specific channels, and says it adds two to four new types of sports to its coverage each quarter. Its business model is built around a premium subscription package, but free viewing is also available.

Co-founders Martin Floreani, Mark Floreani and Madhu Venkatesan may have found their niche at just the right time: sports is driving the growth of online video – particularly live. And the potential to expand coverage to a wide range of historically neglected sports – witness NBC’s all-encompassing Olympics coverage via its TV Everywhere app – is having an upward effect on licensing costs. In fact, sports media rights are expected to increase from $15.3 billon in 2015 to $21.3 billion by 2020, a 5.5 percent CAGR, according to a recent Pricewaterhousecoopers report.

For Cisco, channeling its hardware and software expertise into cloud-based video delivery is an important move. According to its own Visual Networking Index the overall SVOD market in the U.S. will more than double between 2015 and 2020, from $25 billion to $51 billion. As the manufacturer struggles to redefine itself for a post-set top box future, attracting OTT providers to its video platform could make a key difference in its overall revenue picture.

For more:
- see this Cisco and FloSports release
- see this CableFax article

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