CloudTV is a software platform that delivers the web-media experience through television.
58-723: ICTV may refer to: Television [ edit ] ICTV, former company that eventually became CloudTV , a content distribution network for delivering the web-media experience through television ICTV (Ukraine) , a television network of Ukraine Imperial College Television , a British student television station Indigenous Community Television , an Australian free-to-view digital television channel Ithaca College Television , Ithaca College student-run TV station in Ithaca, New York, US Other uses [ edit ] International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses , an organisation that governs
116-445: A 33% stake – with an option to eventually own the whole company – and former Time Warner Cable shareholders would hold a 67% stake. In late March 2015, Charter announced plans to purchase Bright House Networks from Advance/Newhouse for $ 10.4 billion in a combination of cash and equities convertible to Charter stock. The deal was contingent on, among other approvals, the completion of Charter's transactions with Comcast, and
174-564: A Silicon Valley software company, as of 2014 CloudTV was available on more than 15 million devices. Announced customers included Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems (now part of Altice ) in the United States and Liberty Global in the Americas and Europe. CloudTV-powered services also are available on Philips NetTVs and on Roku players. ActiveVideo was the product of a 2006 merger between ICTV and Switched Media,
232-420: A competitor. The decision was made under goals by new chairman Ajit Pai to increase the availability of broadband in rural areas not served by high-speed Internet, but was criticized for maintaining oligopolies rather than encouraging wider competition. In May 2017, it was reported that Charter and Comcast had entered into an agreement to "explore working together in a number of potential operational areas in
290-488: A controlling interest. The company paid $ 2.8 billion to acquire Dallas-based cable company Marcus Cable . Charter Communications had one million customers in 1998. In November 1999, the company went public, trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. At the time, it had 3.9 million customers. Charter completed more than 10 major acquisitions in 1999 when it: Charter also began swapping customers with other systems to improve
348-463: A corporate partnership with Gary Wilcox and Gerry Kazma, both from Naperville , Illinois, during which Spectrum Communications (Wilcox) merged with Charter Systems (1981–1983). Through continued mergers and acquisition, Charter was consolidated in 1993 by Barry Babcock, Jerald Kent and Howard Wood, who had been former executives at Cencom Cable Television in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also incorporated in
406-601: A deal valued at $ 78.7 billion. Charter also confirmed that it would continue with its proposed acquisition of Bright House Networks under slightly modified terms. The deal was subject to regulatory approval, although the deal was expected to face less scrutiny from the FCC than the Comcast/TWC deal, as the companies were relatively smaller, and their media holdings are not as extensive as those of Comcast. The TWC and Bright House systems as well as Charter Cable were to be migrated to
464-605: A demonstration at CES, the same L’Oreal ad written in HTML5 provided the same interactive on a Roku box and on a QAM-based cable set-top box. At The Cable Show in April 2014, Broadcasting & Cable noted that Cablevision was “making notable improvements to its interactive advertising capabilities” using CloudTV. Ben Tatta, president of Cablevision Media Sales, noted that for advertisers, a benefit would be that “any application they have created for web or mobile in HTML5 can be extended to
522-550: A developer of technologies for the customization of video streams . The company was named ActiveVideo in 2008. ActiveVideo acquired the European company Avinity Systems, B.V., in 2009. In 2011, ActiveVideo announced its first consumer electronics partner, Funai Electric, manufacturer of Philips NetTVs. ActiveVideo also has announced a partnership with Sumitomo Corporation , intended to drive distribution of CloudTV in Japan and
580-506: A different version of the UI for each device, operating system and rendering engine, ActiveVideo’s approach looks to avoid that operational nightmare by requiring that it only be written once and managed from the cloud.” ScreenPlays adds that the platform enables delivery of “protected OTT streams as an integral part of channel offerings” without replacing existing customer devices. The analyst firm nScreenMedia cites advantages as: Compatibility with
638-563: A fund "for broadband expansion projects at locations to be selected by the Department and the Broadband Program Office", with half of this funding to be provided to either Charter or a competitor via a competitive bidding process. In April 2022, Charter and Comcast announced plans for a 50/50 venture to develop a streaming platform. As part of this effort, Comcast would license its Flex streaming platform and offer up
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#1732765427794696-569: A minimum of 36,250 new units per-year. The company was accused of making false statements in its progress reports, with an audit finding that Charter fraudulently declared at least 14,000 addresses already served by the company as being "new" deployments. The commission threatened the possibility of further regulatory remedies, including revocation of its cable franchises. On July 27, 2018, the NYPSC voted to retroactively reverse its approval of Charter's acquisition of TWC, thus revoking its franchises in
754-618: A native channel” within its Optimum TV service. Multichannel News reported that using ActiveVideo CloudTV StreamCast, Optimum subscribers could access Hulu on Channel 605 of the interactive program guide on “all current-generation set-top boxes.” At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2014, ActiveVideo and BrightLine demonstrated the ability to bring interactive brand experiences from American Express and L’Oreal to Roku devices. Light Reading pointed out that in
812-400: A part of Liberty Global) achieved two pay-TV firsts: delivery of interactive services such as VOD to STBs without built-in hardware, as well as to televisions equipped with CI Plus 1.3 conditional access modules, without the need of a set-top box. The innovation eliminated the need for “extra equipment, extra leads or an extra remote control” and enabled a user experience that would be “exactly
870-627: A sophisticated device." Following the acquisitions of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, Charter has restated the company's commitment to roll out the new UI across “legacy Charter markets.” Other companies that have announced that they have deployed, or intend to deploy, cloud-based UIs include: Glashart Media, a part of Dutch telecommunications provider KPN , that noted that CloudTV has helped it double subscribers and achieve VOD take rates of three items per subscriber per month, and Liberty Global. In addition, Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs),
928-502: A technology “that can always extend the capabilities of any kind of set-top box.” The technology was cited as a key enabler of Charter's 2015 agreement to acquire Time Warner Cable , with Moffett Nathanson analyst Craig Moffett saying “this deal may not have been possible, at least at this price, without ActiveVideo’s technology.” There are several solutions and products out on the market so far, which use different methodologies for each of them. One of largest subscription that has made by
986-436: A time when many consumers were cutting the cord and regional sports networks were struggling. At the same time, it announced a new distribution agreement with DirecTV that would allow that service to provide more flexible options for consumers not interested in sports programming. ESPN and sister Disney channels went dark on Charter Spectrum on August 31, 2023, interrupting coverage of the college football season opener and
1044-512: A transaction worth US$ 1.63 billion. The deal brought Charter cable systems to 375,000 customers in Colorado's mountains and Western Slope, as well as in Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Approximately one month later, on March 19, 2013, Charter announced that Liberty Media , a company controlled by former TCI CEO John C. Malone , would be acquiring a 27.3% ownership interest in the company, making it
1102-467: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages CloudTV CloudTV virtualizes CPE or STB functionality, enabling pay-TV operators and other video service providers to bring advanced user interfaces and online video experiences such as YouTube and Hulu to existing and next-generation cable television and IPTV set-top boxes and connected consumer electronics devices. A product of ActiveVideo,
1160-523: Is running Social Content Navigator on single-tuner set-tops, and observed that such a service ordinarily would require “new STBs with more power and multiple tuners.” Charter Communications, which in June 2013 had become the first pay-TV provider to commit to deploying a full user interface streamed entirely from the cloud, unveiled its cloud-based Spectrum Guide at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2015. Videonet noted that because "all set-top boxes on
1218-426: Is subject to conditions, including a requirement that Charter must not implement usage-based billing, nor use its dominant position in the market to impact the online video industry – which includes a prohibition on charging for interconnections. Charter was also required to expand its services to two million new households, with at least one million being in markets where competing providers operate. The merger
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#17327654277941276-529: Is “bringing YouTube to every single customer, thanks to clever use of the cloud.” GigaOm noted that UPC is using CloudTV to deliver YouTube to customers’ existing set-top boxes, making the approach “not only cheaper, but also a whole lot faster than transitioning each and every customer to new devices.” The UPC Hungary launch was followed by news that HBO Europe would bring HBO GO to pay-TV STBs using CloudTV StreamCast. According to Arpad Jordan, then CTO of Central and Eastern Europe for Liberty Global, usage of
1334-468: The US Open . Charter wanted to offer cheaper, non-sports packages to customers, as a way to fight cordcutting and to prepare for ESPN's potential launch of a full-service over-the-top subscription service. The dispute ended on September 11, 2023, with capitulations by Disney involving the offering of ESPN+ and Disney+ direct to Spectrum customers, along with sports-free bundles, though it also resulted in
1392-718: The Amazon Web Service (AWS). On high-density servers from Kontron and others that are based on Intel Quick Sync Video , virtual STB data center CapEx can be as low as $ 1 per subscriber. The earliest implementations of virtualized STB functionality included the Optimum iO TV Quick Views guide from Cablevision (now part of Altice ), which allows consumers to create up to 20 personalized Uis with up to nine favorite TV channels each, and Olympics UIs that offered simultaneous views of multiple channels of Olympics coverage, plus supplemental Olympic content. In 2013, Ziggo (now
1450-739: The Asia-Pacific market. Sumitomo is a 50% owner of J:COM, the largest cable system operator in Japan . ActiveVideo was acquired by ARRIS Group, Inc. and Charter Communications in 2015 and operates independently as a joint venture of the two parent companies. By virtualizing STB functionality, CloudTV enables Web-like guides and full online video experiences on existing and next-generation devices, including QAM STBs and “newer IP-capable devices, such as Charter’s new Worldbox,” Internet-connected TVs and specialized streaming boxes. Multichannel News notes that “instead of requiring operators to write
1508-468: The Charter network" would be able to display the new UI, Charter would be able to avoid choosing between replacing existing devices or limiting the new UI to a "subset of its customer base." Charter CEO Tom Rutledge explained that "the processing power of the box is no longer a relevant issue; the processing power moves to the network. That's a breakthrough. We can take any kind of device and turn it into
1566-461: The Spectrum brand following the conclusion of the merger. Liberty Broadband will invest a further $ 5 billion in Charter and will ultimately hold about 20% ownership in the combined entity. Advance/Newhouse will own about 14%, and other current Time Warner Cable shareholders are expected to hold a combined 44% stake. The merger was approved by the Department of Justice and FCC on April 25, 2016; it
1624-506: The TV.” American Express became the first advertiser to commit to the platform. Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc. , is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum . The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut . With over 32 million customers in 41 states as of 2022, it is the largest cable operator in
1682-723: The United States by subscribers, just ahead of Comcast , and the largest pay TV operator ahead of Comcast and AT&T . Charter is the fifth-largest telephone provider based on number of residential lines. It's brand of Spectrum services also include internet access , internet security , managed services , and unified communications . In late 2012, with longtime Cablevision executive Thomas Rutledge named as their CEO, Charter relocated its corporate headquarters from St. Louis , Missouri , to Stamford , Connecticut , though kept many of its operations in St. Louis. On May 18, 2016, Charter finalized acquisition of Time Warner Cable and its sister company Bright House Networks , making it
1740-666: The XClass TVs and the Xumo streaming service. In July 2023, Charter announced a major change to its cable offerings, allowing consumers to choose between the Spectrum Select Plus cable package with regional sports offerings and the Spectrum Select Signature package without, for a lower cost. Major sports networks ESPN and FS1 would still be available with the cheaper option. This move came at
1798-672: The YouTube service has exceeded expectations. Within three months of availability, more than a million minutes per day of YouTube content were being streamed to UPC Hungary STBs, with average engagement of 45 minutes per session. After nine months, 68% of subscribers had tried the service and 83% had returned for additional views. Multichannel News reported that Liberty Global could use the same CloudTV StreamCast technology to bring YouTube to its entire footprint of existing set-top boxes. In April 2016 Cablevision (now owned by Altice ) became “the first MSO to integrate Hulu into its set-tops as
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1856-534: The bankruptcy. Charter filed for a prearranged bankruptcy on March 28, 2009. The company expected the financial restructuring to reduce its debt by $ 8 billion, as well as adding $ 3 billion of new investment, and refinancing other debt. On November 30, 2009, its bankruptcy plan was approved, which extinguished its stock and cut approximately $ 8 billion in debt. That day, Charter emerged from bankruptcy despite many of its creditors' objections over its bankruptcy plan. On September 14, 2010, Charter Class A common stock
1914-611: The cable-television franchise and service for the Cerritos and Ventura , California, areas from Wave Broadband . In February 2009, Charter Communications announced that it planned to file for Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on or before April 1, 2009. The action would allow Charter to pay its debt obligations, and cancel its obligations to shareholders. Private equity firm Apollo Management expected to own most of Charter's shares after
1972-420: The commission. The company was later granted repeated extensions of its deadline. In April 2019, Charter agreed to new conditions, under which it must complete its expansion of 145,000 new premises by September 30, 2021 (being credited for 64,827 premises up until December 2018), all of which must be outside of New York City, and are subject to milestone requirements. Charter must also contribute $ 12 million to
2030-829: The company Alticast, and ActiveVideo is following it as 2nd reported subscription and running CPEs today. Alticast uses the unique way of the implementation of UI virtualization as using a stream of special "codes" instead of the encoded video stream as other solutions from ActiveVideo or Entrix. Entrix and ActiveVideo have applied their solutions to actual market abroad so far. ActiveVideo's core CloudTV platform includes two products, both of which bring next-generation user experiences to existing or new STBs or connected devices. These include ActiveVideo CloudTV GuideCast for navigation interfaces and ActiveVideo CloudTV StreamCast to support delivery of online video experiences CloudTV can run on “off-the-shelf blade servers” from vendors such as Dell, HP or Cisco, or on third-party cloud platforms, such as
2088-515: The company's largest single shareholder, largely through the purchase of interests held by investment funds following Charter's 2009 restructuring. In November 2014, Liberty's holdings in Charter as well as a small minority interest in Time Warner Cable were spun off as a separate holding company named Liberty Broadband Corporation, which as of early 2015 was 47.1% controlled by Malone. On January 13, 2014, Charter Communications said it
2146-543: The company—in an all-stock deal. As a condition of the agreement, Liberty Broadband will spin off its subsidiary GCI Communication Corp. to its shareholders. As of 2022, Charter Communications offers service to an estimated 32 million people in 41 states with significant coverage in 48 states. In November 2013, the company announced the re-branding of its residential services to Charter Spectrum, which encompassed an upgrade to an all-digital network for its video, voice and broadband services. The company relied heavily on
2204-506: The deal. The deal was rejected around the end of May 2017. Charter claimed that the deal was too low for them to accept, and Charter's largest shareholder Liberty Media stated that they were not ready to sell. In March 2017 under new FCC leadership, Charter's regulatory conditions were changed to require that Charter expand its services to 2 million households that are not currently served by any broadband provider, as opposed to requiring one million of these households to be in areas served by
2262-463: The expiration of Time Warner Cable's right of first offer to buy Bright House itself (which was not expected to be exercised in light of the merger with Comcast). However, facing potential difficulties in reaching regulatory approval, Comcast called off its merger with Time Warner Cable in April 2015. On May 26, 2015, Charter and Time Warner Cable announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement for Charter to merge with Time Warner Cable in
2320-516: The fragmentation and limitation of device resources, resolving “content experience, content protection and content delivery issues by rendering user interfaces and bridging online and pay-TV DRM and video formats in the cloud.” Light Reading has reported that Charter Communications, for example, could “use their new cloud-based video platform to deliver the OTT service to subscribers.” In June 2014, GigaOm reported that Liberty Global subsidiary UPC Hungary
2378-568: The geographic clustering of its systems. In December 1999, it signed a letter of intent with AT&T Corporation to swap 1.3 million cable subscribers in St. Louis as well as in Alabama , Georgia , and Missouri . In 2000, Charter Communications bought select AT&T cable markets, including Reno, Nevada , and the City of St. Louis. In 2001, MSN and Charter signed an agreement to offer MSN content and services to Charter's broadband customers. In
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2436-403: The removal of several networks (whose programming had already been widely available on Hulu and Disney+ or was otherwise a low priority for carriage), including BabyTV , Disney Junior , Disney XD , Freeform , FXM , FXX , Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo . On November 13, 2024, Charter announced its intent to acquire Liberty Broadband—a spin-off from Liberty Media that has held its stake in
2494-487: The research and innovation arm of Deutsche Telekom , has demonstrated how CloudTV allows it to achieve its goal of “virtualizing the set-top box and moving the execution of applications to the cloud.” With the rise of so-called over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, cable system operators have sought to create “friend, not foe” relationships by offering OTT seamlessly as part of the pay-TV service bundle. CloudTV StreamCast enables pay-TV and online video providers to overcome
2552-430: The same for all types of peripheral equipment.” In April 2014, Liberty Puerto Rico, a Liberty Global system, announced that it was using CloudTV to power Social Content Navigator, a user interface that uses viewing metrics to rank eight tiles of live video by program popularity. and underscores the value of the channel bundle by encouraging viewers to “go outside their comfort zone.” Videonet noted that Liberty Puerto Rico
2610-856: The same year, Charter received awards, including the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award from the Association for Corporate Growth, the R.E. "Ted" Turner Innovator of the Year Award from the Southern Cable Telecommunications Association, and the Fast 50 Award for Growth from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. In 2008, Charter stock failed to meet Nasdaq standards and was given warning to comply by October 13 or request an extension. Also in 2008, it acquired
2668-415: The second-largest cable operator in the country. In addition to the 1.4 million divested subscribers, Comcast also agreed to swap 1.6 million subscribers with Charter in an even, tax-efficient exchange whose intent is to improve the geographic spread of both companies. In a third part of the agreement, Comcast would spin off 2.5 million subscribers into a new publicly traded company in which Charter would hold
2726-466: The state of Missouri in 1993. In 1995, Charter paid about $ 300 million for a controlling interest in the cable television systems owned by Crown Media Holdings and acquired Cable South. In 1997, Charter and EarthLink worked together to deliver high-speed Internet access through cable modems to Charter's customers in Los Angeles and Riverside, California . In 1998, Paul Allen bought
2784-643: The state of New York. The commission cited Charter's repeated failures to meet deadlines on expansion promised as part of the TWC purchase, "attempts to skirt obligations to serve rural communities", and "purposeful obfuscation of its performance and compliance obligations to the Commission and its customers." Within 60 days, Charter was to submit a plan to divest and migrate its New York state cable operations (which serve around 2 million customers) to new owners. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge threatened legal action against
2842-497: The taxonomy of viruses See also [ edit ] ICTV2 Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title ICTV . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICTV&oldid=1258642739 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2900-551: The third-largest pay television service in the United States. In 2019, Charter ranked No. 70 in the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Charter Communications CATV systems was founded in 1980 by Charles H. Leonard in Barry County, Michigan. The original Charter system headquarters and offices were located at 1001 Payne Lake Road, Yankee Springs Township, Michigan . Leonard began
2958-542: The widest range of devices; The ability to update an app once and see it reflected on every device; Scalability for large and small service providers; and The ability to use the most advanced UI techniques available to ensure high “coolness” factors. ACG Research notes that for cable operators, CloudTV can reduce total cost of ownership by up to 83% when compared to a set-top box replacement program. Arpad Jordan, then CTO of Central and Eastern Europe for Liberty Global , described CloudTV's virtualization of STB functionality as
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#17327654277943016-465: The wireless space" in respect to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs); both providers have agreements with Verizon Wireless to re-sell its services, and Comcast announced that it would begin to do so under the brand Xfinity Mobile later in the year. The agreement includes a provision, lasting for one year, that requires the companies to receive consent from each other before performing wireless-related acquisitions or mergers. On June 21, 2017, it
3074-440: Was completed on May 18, 2016. The purchase made Charter the third-largest pay television company in the United States, behind AT&T and Comcast (the former having completed its merger with DirecTV in mid-2015). On January 26, 2017, it was reported that Verizon Communications was in talks with Charter to discuss a possible buyout. President and CEO of Liberty Media , Greg Maffei said that they were not interested in
3132-556: Was interested in buying its larger rival Time Warner Cable . After three previous attempts to buy and merge with the company, all of which failed, Charter's chief executive officer Thomas Rutledge wrote in an open letter to Time Warner Cable's chief executive officer Robert Marcus stating, "I believe we have a significant opportunity to put our companies together in a way that will create maximum, long-term value for shareholders and employees of both companies". The $ 132.50 per share offer, just above TWC's closing price at $ 132.40 on January 13,
3190-680: Was re-listed on Nasdaq under the symbol "CHTR". In 2011, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen stepped down as chairman and from the board of directors' seat, but at the time remained the largest single shareholder. Also in that year, Charter signed a multi-year deal with TiVo to deliver content via its platform. Thomas M. Rutledge was appointed as a director and president and chief executive officer effective February 13, 2012. The same year, Charter priced $ 1.25 billion senior debt, offering to pay down short- and long-term debt. On February 8, 2013, Charter announced an agreement to acquire some former Bresnan Communications systems from Cablevision in
3248-448: Was rejected. On February 13, 2014, Time Warner Cable accepted an offer of $ 158.82 per share from Comcast , avoiding a hostile takeover situation from Charter. On April 28, 2014, Comcast and Charter announced that, assuming Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable was successful, Charter would acquire 1.4 million Comcast/Time Warner Cable customers, bringing Charter's subscriber total to 30 million and making Charter, by its own count,
3306-490: Was reported that Softbank had purchased 5% of Charter's stock on the open market. In June 2018, the New York Public Service Commission fined Charter $ 2 million for failing to meet obligations it agreed to as conditions of its acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Charter was required to expand broadband service to at least 145,000 unserved or underserved residential units over four years, with
3364-480: Was reported that Charter was in talks to buy Cox Communications . On March 28, 2017, IBEW Local 3 went on strike, representing 1,800 employees. The company had proposed moving independently managed health and pension benefits to its own company plans, which union members considered would include drastic cuts for them and their families and loss of job security. The strike ended on April 19, 2022, with an outcome that some found disappointing. On March 12, 2018, it
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