NRTC Invests in Avail Media to Help Rural Telcos with Advanced IPTV

USA’s National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) has made a significant strategic investment in Avail Media, a Virginia-based provider of managed content aggregation services for IPTV deployments, intended to enable NRTC (News - Alert) members to access quality programming from Hollywood, network providers and independent producers, as well as help Avail Media deliver a robust IPTV transport platform.

 

Avail Media stated they have completed a merger with TVN Entertainment, a Video on Demand (VDO) Company as part of this transaction. The combined company is expected to become a major provider of end-to-end content aggregation, management and distribution offerings. The investment in Avail Media will make NRTC a major shareholder in the combined company and the cooperative will acquire a seat on their board of directors.

 

Avail Media deals in providing managed content aggregation services through a fully-integrated, head-end infrastructure for the profitable deployment of IP video. The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) represents the advanced telecommunications and information technology interests of nearly 1,500 rural utilities and affiliates in 48 states.

 

NRTC has stated that they have made this investment in Avail Media to help their telco members who have on their part made significant investments in their communities by deploying broadband through DSL and fiber. NRTC has reaffirmed its belief that IPTV (News - Alert) and next generation video services are going to be a major source of revenue to its members.

 

According to officials, the intention of the newly formed company is to help providers deliver the emerging new services that consumers want. Their partnership with NRTC makes rural American subscribers the first one to benefit from these new services.

 

“New interactive services and video over broadband are coming quickly. The Avail and TVN vision of personalized, on-demand video consumption, emerging video technologies, like over-the-top-video, combined with the extensive NRTC programming line-up, will put our members in the position to create an unrivaled entertainment experience for their customers,” said NRTC CEO Phillips.

 

NRTC members have helped the people in the rural communities for 25 years so that they are not left behind technologically and now NRTC is helping to revolutionize these rural areas technically, this time by providing the best platform for new IPTV services and the most video-on-demand content.

 

It is to be noted that NRTC with NTCA (News - Alert) recently increased the HD channel pack offering to help rural telcos and Avail Media had joined forces with Motorola (News - Alert) to accelerate IPTV rollouts in North America.