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ICN Business News
Great Lakes Data Systems has been named an Approved Provider for billing, subscriber management and provisioning by the National Cable Television Cooperative Solutions from GLDS include both stand-alone and cloud-based billing, subscriber management and provisioning capabilities. GLDS currently serves more than 130 NCTC member operators, along with hundreds of additional operators worldwide. For more information, visit www.glds.com.
Barbara S. Esbin has been named a partner of the Cinnamon Mueller law firm (CM), assuming the role of managing partner of the firm's growing Washington, D.C., office. Esbin joined the firm in 2010 after an extended tenure as a senior FCC attorney, and work as a Senior Fellow and Director at the Progress & Freedom Foundation. Esbin's practice includes representing the ACA, and she also advises a wide range of cable and telecommunications clients. With offices in Chicago, D.C., and St. Louis, the firm concentrates its practice on the small and medium-sized cable sector, and serves as outside counsel to the ACA.
Rural TV, a network devoted to rural interests internationally, was launched February 15. This is Rural Media Group's second 24/7 television network building upon the success of RFD-TV, which recently celebrated its 11th anniversary. Rural TV's daily program schedule focuses on the business of rural America and includes international programming.
BlueHighways TV, the independent network that explores the people, stories, traditions and music of America, has announced a carriage agreement with the National Cable Television Co-Operative which will make the network available to NCTC's nearly 1,000 member cable system operators. BHTV's original programming, available in both standard and high definition, invites viewers on a journey to discover the vast treasure of music, art, culture and entertainment that helps to make America's communities so diverse. For more information, visit www.bluehighwaystv.com.
Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. has completed the acquisition of the business of R.L. Drake for a purchase price of approximately $6.5 million. Drake's net sales for 2011 were approximately $10.0 million. With offices in the US and Canada, (and based in Franklin, Ohio) R.L. Drake designs and manufactures products sold throughout the world.
SubscriberWise, the nation's largest issuing consumer reporting agency for the communications industry coined the term "Subscriber Evasion" to identify the problem of individuals providing false or limited information when applying for service with the nation's cable and telecom operators. SubscriberWise empowers CSR's to instantly and accurately respond to payment and credit characteristics with appropriate options for every subscriber. An audio file involving a parental identity theft can be heard at: www.subscriberwise.com/subscriber_evasion.wav.
Azar has announced release of their new web application, CATvMaster Digital Service Center, which provides customers who have an existing billing system a low cost alternative to the traditional digital service bureaus for provisioning subscriber premise equipment in an easy to use browser based application with the added benefit of combining the provisioning of multiple products from a single interface. This feature allows for a significant savings in time and resources if the operator currently has to provision video and high speed data equipment separately. For more information, visit www.azarinc.com.
Bill Hysell has joined American Support as the company's new senior vice president for business development. Hysell has spent more than three decades in the cable industry, including serving as vice president and general manager for Prime Communications and more recently as vice president of business development for Comcast.
Evolution Digital, a supplier of digital solutions for bandwidth reclamation and next generation advanced set-top boxes, has announced a multi-year agreement with NCTC to provide members lower price per unit by aggregating member orders for their SD and HD uDTAs and TiVo Premiere DVRs. Evolution provides solutions for small-to-medium size cable operators to stem the loss of subscribers to DBS and telco competition. By using Evolution's low-cost DTA converter, operators can reclaim analog bandwidth and use that additional bandwidth to enhance their HD and high-speed data offerings. For more information, visit www.evolutionbb.com .
WealthTV, the luxury lifestyle and entertainment network, has announced the launch its linear 3D lifestyle and entertainment channel branded WealthTV 3D. . The life-like 3D channel features a broad range of programming including adventure travel, automotive programming, compelling documentaries, culinary delights, boys toys, live events, and much more. WealthTV 3D has also produced a number of sports related programs, from off-road racing to championship boxing. WealthTV recently renewed its NCTC affiliation agreement For more information, visit www.wealthtv.com.
Imagine Communications has announced a system upgrade to their ICE Video Platform. The new platform upgrade provides system operators with a single unified appliance for processing HD and SD IPTV streams as well as Adaptive Bit Rate streams for multiscreen delivery. Built with Imagine's ICE-Q Advanced Video Compression, the high density platform doesn't sacrifice picture quality or reliability features. Full decode/encode with metadata pull-through on all channels enables optimized scene change detection while making full utilization of original encode parameters. For more information, visit www.imaginecommunications.com. |