Merger Marries Cable, IPTV Interests

11:05 AM -- Companies that have historically served the cable and telco industry separately with VoD and IPTV services are now joining forces.

TVN Entertainment Corp. and Avail Media Inc. announced a merger this morning. TVN’s base is solidly cable, and Avail Media’s affiliates are primarily telco TV operators, but those lines will no longer matter. The combined company will now serve both worlds and will count the most recognizable names in both cable and telco TV as its customers, including Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Cox Communications Inc. , DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV), and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).

The new company will serve a total of 230 affiliates, ranging from the largest cable company in North America to the smallest cooperative telco TV operator in the Midwest.

The new company has every intention of exploiting everything in between. Avail Media chief marketing officer Brian Matthews says the company "will enable all of [its] service provider customers to deliver the content demands of today’s marketplace, including on-demand and linear content today, hybrid delivery to a PC in short order, and shortly after that, to a mobile device."

— Bernardin Arnason, Managing Partner, Pivot Group , and Chairman, TelcoTV 2009

Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to TelcoTV 2009, the telecom industry’s premier event for the exploration of a comprehensive entertainment convergence strategy, to be staged in Orlando, Fla., November 10-12. For more information, or to register, click here.