Midcontinent, aioTV Prepare TV/OTT Blend

Midcontinent Communications  and aioTV are collaborating on a “strategic project” that will enable the MSO to pair traditional live TV services with a fancy, new user interface and a mix of over-the-top video applications and services.  

The envisioned scenario will see Midcontinent link legacy,  QAM-only set-tops (many from Pace) to aioTV’s Android-powered, IP-connected “PassBox” via an HDMI cable. This two-box, HDMI-linked  approach will allow Midcontinent to securely pass-through its existing multichannel TV service to the PassBox and integrate them with a new interface and an array of apps without requiring the viewer to change the TV’s input.  

Midcontinent has not announced when it will introduce this new option and is still mulling how it will offer the PassBox to its video subscribers, but integration work is already underway, Mike Earle, aioTV’s CEO, said in an interview. aioTV was demoing its platform in Denver this week at a suite nearby the Colorado Convention Center, site of this week’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. 

To read the full story, visit Multichannel.com.