A Mississippi-based telco and technology services company believes it, like other IP-delivery upstarts seeking to challenge established MVPDs, is ready to turn the cable TV industry on its head in the next few weeks.
The company, C Spire, is putting the finishing touches on C Spire TV, a new streaming TV service that “eliminates the need for set-top boxes and revolutionizes how customers enjoy their favorite content.”
Cable TV companies are C Spire’s No. 1 target, says C Spire Home GM Ashley Phillips.
“It’s about time TV evolved from cable’s ball and chain mentality rooted in a bygone era,” she said.
C Spire TV’s tech is rooted in an app designed to run on Amazon, Apple and Roku, in addition to Android OS and Apple iOs smartphones and tablets.
The company hopes to attract TV consumers who wish to save “several hundred dollars a year” in set-top box rental fees.
Those fees were a big reason why former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler introduced a controversial STB proposal prior to Election Day 2016 — when few believed President Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton and take control of the White House.
With the STB plan now scrapped indefinitely and Wheeler at a D.C. think-tank, discussion over ways to revolutionize the STB — and eliminate rental fees — have shifted to the back-burner in an environment where the Federal government is leaving it up to the marketplace to determine how to best proceed.
C Spire TV hopes to push the marketplace in its direction.
“For us, new technology is only as good as its potential to improve the lives of customers,” Phillips said. “We live in a golden-age of TV content.”
C Spire TV is also integrated with the Amazon Echo voice assistant — something of growing interest to radio industry C-Suite executives.
Among the benefits of C Spire is the ability to watch on demand “local broadcasts” that aired over the past 30 days. That’s paired with a cloud-based DVR service, Phillips said.
C Spire TV is in the final stages of beta testing and will launch later this spring with availability for customers of C Spire Fiber’s gigabit internet product.
RBR + TVBR RELATED READ: Does MobiTV Have A STB Phase-Out Tool?
