MobiTV, Inc. (previously known as Idetic, Inc.) operated as a provider of live and on-demand video delivery solutions, with its headquarters located in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley, California, Berkeley and Oakland, California, Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisc ...

. Founded in 1999 by Paul Scanlan, Phillip Alvelda, and Jeff Annison, Mobi TV was a privately held company supported by

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

. Charlie Nooney held the roles of CEO and Chairman of the company on October 15, 2007.

History

MobiTV was one of the first companies to bring live and on-demand TV to mobile devices through partnerships with numerous content providers and carriers such as Sprint and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. In 2016, MobiTV introduced The MOBITV CONNECT Platform, an IP delivery service which allows cable operators to deliver video to connected retail devices such as

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

Amazon Fire TV Amazon Fire TV (formerly stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since November 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed v ...

and select

smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV or, rarely, CoTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features that allow users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart T ...

s, as well as Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, in place of a traditional

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

. The company has raised $163.8 million in eight funding rounds from investors including Adobe Ventures, Ally Bank, Gefinor Capital, Hearst Ventures, Leader Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint, and

Oak Investment Partners Oak Investment Partners is a private equity firm focusing on venture capital investments in companies developing communications systems, information technology, new Internet media, Health care, healthcare services, and retail. History The firm, ...

. In February 2017, they raised $21 million from repeat investors Ally Bank and

Products

Sprint and Sprint TV

Sprint launched Sprint TV in November 2003, which could stream live video and audio at 15 frames per second using MobiTV's technology. The service launched with content from

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

, Weather Channel, E! Entertainment, and others. Sprint and MobiTV were recognized with an Engineering Emmy Award for Sprint TV in 2005. In October 2007, MobiTV and Sprint resigned their deal, in which MobiTV offers Sprint TV, Sprint TV Extra and Sprint TV en Vivo. In April 2010, MobiTV and Sprint announced the availability of Sprint TV for

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

users, with access to content from

Mobile,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

, ABC,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and others. Shortly after, MobiTV announced the application surpassed one million downloads on the

Apple App Store The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...

, which it attributed to the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

tournament. Sprint announced the availability of the new Sprint Spot content application powered by MobiTV in April 2017 for Android device users.

MobiTV application offering

In November 2003, MobiTV offered a $10 per month live and on-demand television service available to wireless subscribers, first offered via Sprint. MobiTV was the wireless television delivery providers for many major U.S. carriers, including Sprint Nextel, Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Alltel, as well as

Telcel RADIOMÓVIL DIPSA, S.A. DE C.V., doing business as Telcel, is a Mexican wireless telecommunications company, owned by América Móvil, founded in 1984 and based in Mexico City. Telcel holds concessions to operate a wireless network in all nine g ...

, the largest mobile carrier in Mexico, by 2006. In 2005, MobiTV signed a deal with satellite operator

SES Americom SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator of North American geosynchronous satellites based in the United States. The company started as RCA Americom in 1975 before being bought by General Electric in 1986 and then later acquired ...

to extend its service to customers in Canada, Europe and Latin America. MobiTV and Orange, a former UK mobile network operator, launched the first multi-channel mobile TV service in the UK in 2005. This was MobiTV's first entry into the European market. MobiTV and

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

launched an online TV service offering 20 live and on-demand channels delivered via broadband connections in 2006, expanding on the existing deal between the companies. In 2007, MobiTV worked with AT&T to bring the U-verse IPTV service to mobile phones, and later expanded the service to be available through PCs. In other partnerships, MobiTV worked with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

to bring the live television service to

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

-powered phones and devices in 2006. Also that year, it was reported that MobiTV's technology powered

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

's mobile television offering in Portland and Boston. MobiTV's subscriber base surpassed 4 million in 2008, and the company announced a unicast/multicast system for their service, which decreased time lag between changing channels. On June 3, 2009, MobiTV announced that their live television service has upwards of 7 million subscribers, and the service was available on 350 handheld devices and through 20 different carrier networks. MobiTV saw a 49 percent increase in daily viewership in 2009, which it attributed to the growth of live events available to viewers through its service. At the CTIA wireless conference in October 2010, MobiTV announced that it would be expanding its offerings beyond the mobile device, to television sets and personal computers.

The MOBITV CONNECT Platform

In July 2016, the Company announced The MOBITV CONNECT Platform. C Spire announced that it was the first US cable operator to sign on to utilize the platform. C Spire launched the new virtual pay TV service to consumers in July 2017. The service employs a unicast IP delivery platform that features a fully integrated CMS, DRM, Media Player, nDVR, content policy, identity management, billing and authentication. Charlie Nooney was recognized as a "Digital All Star" by ''Broadcasting & Cable'' in February 2017 for his leadership over the product's introduction. ''Cablefax'' also recognized the service as the winner in the Connected TV/Smart TV Solution category of their annual Tech Awards. In December 2017, the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) announced that they selected MobiTV as a partner to provide IP-based video to its members. NCTC President and CEO Rich Fickle noted that "the deal represents NCTC's most advanced all-IP solution to-date". NCTC members DirectLink, Citizens Fiber, USA Communication, and Hickory Telephone signed on with MobiTV as of December 2017.

Advertising technology

MobiTV launched an advertising platform in 2005 that allows local affiliates and advertisers to re-purpose national TV ads for local markets.

Mobi4BIZ

MobiTV launched Mobi4BIZ in 2008, featuring live and on-demand content from

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

Fox Business Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American conservative business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios ...

and TheStreet.com, available on RIM's

BlackBerry Bold The BlackBerry Bold was a line of mid-range and high-end smartphones developed by BlackBerry Limited. The lineup was launched in 2008 with the BlackBerry Bold 9000. In 2009 the Form factor (mobile phones), form factor was shrunk with the 9700 and ...

MobiTV2

MobiTV announces at CES in 2006 that MobiTV2 will be made available to Sprint and

Cingular AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed in April 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless serv ...

subscribers, featuring improved audio and video quality, and a programming guide.

XM satellite radio application

MobiTV developed the

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable ...

applications for

Alltel Alltel was a landline, wireless service provider, wireless and general Telephone company, telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel pr ...

and Cingular, which both launched in 2006. Cingular partnered with MobiTV and

Music Choice Music Choice (abbreviated as MC) is an American television music service that digitally broadcasts audio-based music channels and video-related content to cable television providers in the United States. In 2019, it reached 65 million household ...

to offer mobile radio stations to customers with the Nokia 6620 or Sony Ericsson S710 and Z500a devices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mobitv Mobile telephone broadcasting Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Mass media companies established in 1999 Technology companies established in 1999 1999 establishments in California Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021