America Channel Adds IPTV Carriage
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/2/2006 12:47:00 PM
The America Channel, which is seeking carriage on multichannel video providers for a 2006 launch, has struck a deal for telco carriage with Eagle Broadband for its IPTV service.
Channel CEO Doron Gorshein said it was the seventh PTV/telco video deal the channel has done, which he says represents close to 90% of the telco video market.
The emphasis on that telco coverage is no accident. Gorshein has been very vocal on the issue of cable carriage, including testifying in Washington on the telco's receptiveness versus the trouble he has had, as a start-up independent unaffiliated with one of the major cable system operators, of getting carriage for his channel.
America Channel is a charter member of a new trade group, the Association of Independent Television Programming Networks, which is lobbying for legislative and regulatory help in getting carriage.
