Products / Services

New customer destination site helps affiliates manage, market, and monetize their video offerings

Reston, Virginia, November 11, 2008 - Avail Media, the only customer service-focused aggregator and provider of both linear and video on demand (VOD) MPEG-4 IPTV content, today announced the launch of its customer portal, Avail Advisor. Taking a best-practices approach, Avail Advisor provides the company’s 110 global affiliates with all of the tools necessary to successfully plan, deploy, and market profitable video services. Key features include:

• Channel Lineup Builder: A step-by-step tool for the development of a robust, competitive, tailor-made channel lineup that appeals to specific subscriber demographics, taking into account incumbent operations, marketing demands, and subscriber trends.
• Avail Business Modeling Tool: An ROI calculator that helps affiliates make informed business decisions about each aspect of their investment in a successful video deployment.
• Launch Wizard: Creates a company profile, identifying affiliate-specific information to streamline and automate (where applicable) all aspects of the deployment, including technical installation, ecosystem integration, content acquisition, etc.
• Marketing Roadmap: A best-practices report that provides affiliates with strategies that work for the successful marketing of video services and comprehensive customer service representative (CSR) training that assists in subscriber acquisition, upsell, and marketing activities.
• Marketing Collateral Marketplace: An online, full-service marketing resource that allows affiliates to quickly and cost-effectively produce branded, customized marketing collateral to publicize their services.

The portal also includes forums, where Avail Media affiliates can interact, share experiences, and discuss deployments with each other, with ecosystem vendors, and with Avail Media’s executive team and staff.

“Our close customer relationships help to differentiate our services. Through our experiences with a diverse range of wireline, FTTH, and other service providers who have launched successful IPTV offerings, we have developed a unique view into the components of a successful service launch,” said Ramu Potarazu, CEO, Avail Media. “Avail Advisor offers our affiliate partners the tools they need to effectively manage their services – from channel lineup development to the tactical elements of marketing IPTV services against incumbent MSOs and DBS providers.”

Avail Advisor also includes a repository of useful information and resources for the company’s roster of global affiliates, including gateway installation and site preparedness requirements documents, whitepapers, forms, and content rights tracking tools. Within the channel lineup builder section of the portal, for example, affiliates can leverage the automated content rights paperwork process enabled through Avail Advisor, a streamlined system to acquire transport rights to the linear channels in their lineup. The portal also includes a content rights tracker that provides an up-to-the-minute status check on transport rights in the lead-up to commercial launch.

“Market positioning an IPTV service in today's competitive environment is one of the biggest challenges faced by IPTV providers," said Bernie Arnason, Managing Partner of Pivot Media LLC. "By providing Avail Advisor, Avail Media is providing critical tools that help address these challenges." Avail Media possesses an extensive content library, including transport rights from the top national programmers, including ABC-Disney, Turner, NBC Universal, MTV Networks, and Fox Cable Networks, which is complemented by its VOD rights from the major Hollywood movie studios, such as Buena Vista/Disney, DreamWorks, Lionsgate Films, MGM, NBC Universal, New Line Cinema, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.

Based in Reston, Virginia, Avail Media is the emerging leader in providing managed content aggregation services through a fully-integrated, head-end infrastructure for the profitable deployment of IP video. Avail Media is the only company today to deliver to telco and cable affiliates a combined MPEG-4 linear IPTV, HD Overlay (MPEG-2/4) programming solution, and Video On Demand (VOD) solution. The Avail Media solution includes a full content lineup of live television programming with hundreds of channels, all quality-encoded in MPEG-4, IP-encapsulated, encrypted, combined with VOD, and designed for future value-added services. Avail Media's system has been designed for use by video providers of multiple types - whether triple-play, quad-play, or pure video play. For more information, please visit www.availmedia.com.