Major South American cable operator leverages ActiveVideo's cloud-based video platform to boost VOD usage.

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

February 17, 2017

2 Min Read
VTR Taps ActiveVideo's Cloud Video Platform

Seeking to boost video-on-demand (VOD) usage, Chile's largest MSO has become the latest cable operator to deploy a cloud-based video platform designed to improve user search and navigation on all kinds of digital cable set-tops.

VTR Globalcom S.A. -- which is a unit of the big international MSO, Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY) -- said it has tapped into a platform from ActiveVideo to deliver an upgraded user interface to its slightly over 1 million video subscribers across Chile. The ActiveVideo platform, known as CloudTV GuideCast, delivers a new user interface (UI) with richer graphics and better search and navigation capabilities on both new and old set-top boxes.

Since deploying the CloudTV GuideCast service in the fall, VTR officials say they have seen VOD usage soar without having to install any new set-tops in customers' homes. They say on-demand views have jumped 138% on a year-over-year basis, while the number of customers accessing VOD has climbed 11% and the number of views per subscriber has risen 83%.

"It shows a good UI really does get people engaged with VOD," said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo. "We did the same thing with Ziggo in the Netherlands."

Want to learn the latest on broadband technology developments? Sign up now for Light Reading's Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies event on March 21-22, at the Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver.

This is the first cable deployment announcement in a while for ActiveVideo, which is now jointly owned by Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS) and Charter Communications Inc. and has been under much tighter wraps since its $135 million acquisition closed in spring 2015. Besides VTR, ActiveVideo has now deployed some version of its cloud-based platform for three other Liberty Global units -- Ziggo, UPC Hungary and Liberty Puerto Rico. ActiveVideo also has its platform deployed on Altice 's New York systems through an earlier deal with the former Cablevision Systems, and is now launching service throughout Charter's enlarged footprint in the US. (See Charter Plots Post-Deal Future .)

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

Read more about:

Europe

About the Author(s)

Alan Breznick

Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like