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OCTOBER 3, 2006 -- Optical Entertainment Network (OEN), provider of IPTV and IP broadband services optimized for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), has announced a Sales Agent Program that will make its FISION service of 400 digital IPTV channels available to FTTH communities around the US.
Through the FISION Sales Agent Program, OEN will monitor and deliver FISION programming from its digital IPTV headend in Houston, TX, throughout the US to FTTH communities seeking IPTV programming content. OEN will maintain ownership of the subscriber and will provide customer support for sales, programming, and technical calls. According to OEN, its Sales Agent Program eliminates the considerable capital expenses and management resources required for FTTH communities to build, maintain, and operate their own video headend and the need to negotiate IPTV agreements with content providers.
"By becoming a sales agent for our FISION IPTV service, FTTH communities across the country can now add our FISION-branded IPTV video services to their voice and data package. The Sales Agent Program accelerates the time to enter the triple-play market for an FTTH provider," explains Albert J. Estrada, chief marketing officer of Optical Entertainment Network. "OEN's Sales Agent Program is a perfect fit for municipalities, independent network owners, public utilities, competitive communications service providers, rural telecommunications providers, and real estate developers across the United States."
According to market research firm Render, Vanderslice and Associates (RVA), FTTH deployments passed over 4.0 million U.S. homes in April of '06, an increase of almost 1.4 million homes in six months. This is the most rapid growth of FTTH deployment to date, with more than 230,000 additional homes passed every month. Over the same time period, FTTH communities grew from 656 to 936 in the U.S. alone.
"Until now, it has been cost prohibitive for small to medium-sized FTTH communities to build their own headend and offer IPTV services," adds Estrada. "It can cost $3-5 million to build a digital IPTV headend and a year or more to acquire competitive IPTV agreements with leading cable TV networks and content providers."
OEN will be sending up to a 3.5-Gbit multicast signal to subscribers across the US. Through the Sales Agent Program, OEN forms a distribution sales agent relationship with an FTTH provider. The FTTH provider, after acquiring the rights to deliver video-based services within their community, markets FISION-branded IPTV programming services within a bundled package.
OEN claims its FISION is the first and only integrated service for IPTV, Internet, voice, video-on-demand (VOD), and other broadband applications, designed specifically to take advantage of the benefits of FTTH technology. It is also the only service to make all of its content available for distribution to other communities in the US. OEN has acquired programming agreements for IPTV distribution from popular cable television networks and will deliver 400 television channels, including over 50 channels of High Definition Television (HDTV) to subscribers.
In addition to featuring popular television networks, FISION's programming line-up also includes NFL Network, The Anime Network, MTV Urge, HDNet, HBO HD, The Africa Channel, Discovery, and Discovery Health in addition to offering channels in 13 foreign languages. FISION also will deliver over 50 channels of Hispanic TV programming.
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