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App Nation Part II: MVPD Apps Here’s a representative view* of authenticated apps developed and launched by multichannel video programming distributors, along with a review of platforms currently supported by those apps. For a similar view of programmer apps, please see the Nov. 30 issue of Multichannel News (“App Nation”). By Jeff Baumgartner

App iOS (mobile9)

Android (mobile9)

Web Browsers

Roku10 Apple TV**

Amazon Fire TV

Android TV

Chrome-cast

Xbox 360

Xbox One

PS 3 PS 4 Other/Notes

AT&T U-Verse

1 2-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kindle Fire tab-lets, Fire Phone, Windows 8 tablet, Samsung Gear

CenturyLink Prism TV

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --Kindle Fire tablets, Nook HD, Nook HD+

Charter Spectrum TV

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Cox Contour

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

DirecTV

1-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kindle Fire tablets, Apple Watch

Dish Anywhere

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Kindle mobile devices

FiOS Mobile

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

FiOS TV

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players, LG smart TVs

Optimum (Cablevision)

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

PlayStation Vue

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

TWC TV

-- -- -- -- -- --Kindle Fire tab-lets, Samsung smart TVs

Sling TV

-- -- -- -- Kindle Fire

Stream TV (Comcast)4

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Continued on page 24

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24 / DECEMBER 14, 2015 /broadcastingcable.com/next-tv

App iOS (mobile9)

Android (mobile9)

Web Browsers

Roku10 Apple TV**

Amazon Fire TV

Android TV

Chrome-cast

Xbox 360

Xbox One

PS 3 PS 4 Other/Notes

Suddenlink2Go

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Xfi nity TV Go (Comcast)

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Kindle Fire

Xfi nity TV (in-home)

1-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

In-home app, cloud DVR, Apple Watch

1: Support for iOS also optimized for Apple Watch. 2: Includes Android Wearables. 3: Smartphones and tablets. 4: At press time, Comcast’s Stream TV skinny bundle (broadcast TV stations, plus HBO and a cloud DVR for $15 per month) was available in the Boston and Chicago areas. Comcast expects to launch Stream TV in its other markets by early 2016. *Have an update or an addition? Next TV will run an updated version of this chart on a semi-regular basis. If your app has added a platform, or if your app is not represented on this chart and want it considered for inclusion, please send information about the app, including supported platforms, via email to Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner via email at: jbaumgartner@nbmedia.com. **Any generation. SOURCE: Companies, Next TV research.

Continued from page 23

IF THE SUPER Bowl were to evolve into a tentpole event that was exclusive to Internet

streaming, would the under-lying infrastructure buckle under the strain?

It most certainly would, according to Joe DePalo, senior vice president, CDN engineering and operations at Limelight Networks and a founding board member of the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA). That group, created last year, counts such members as Comcast/NBCUniversal, CableLabs, Charter Commu-nications and Verizon Communications.

The Super Bowl, of course, has been streamed. The most recent one — NBC Sports Live Extra’s stream of the New England Patri-ots’ win over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX — averaged 800,000 viewers per minute and 1.3 million concurrent users on PC Web browsers and tablets.

But that was complementary. The vast ma-jority of football fans watched the game the traditional way — on TV.

If the Super Bowl ever became exclusive to streaming, the numbers would shoot through the roof, and the underlying systems would

not be able to handle it, DePalo said. Yahoo!’s international streaming cov-

erage of the Oct. 25 Jacksonville Jaguars-Buffalo Bills game in London drew 15.2 mil-lion unique viewers. That was for a regular season game of marginal interest that kicked off at 9:30 a.m. — not exactly prime time.

If Yahoo were to do a similar effort for an NFL playoff game, the streaming require-ments “would be crazy,” he said.

But that’s one of the tasks on the SVA’s docket — how to create best practices and recommendations to help streaming scale to massive levels. “There are many competitors there [that are part of SVA] from an infra-structure perspective, but we all can … agree

that there’s not there’s not enough capacity or regional capacity or infrastructure to do the things they want to do,” he said.

Still, DePalo insists that the SVA’s aim is not to cre-ate a standards body, but to establish “business infl u-ence” through best practic-es and recommendations while building some agreed upon metrics for elements such as streaming quality and performance.

The SVA held its last quarterly meeting last month at Fox Studios in Hollywood. Current-ly, 80 or so members are involved in a dozen different working groups spanning areas like “open” caching, security and quality metrics.

And while there are some big names on SVA’s membership roll, there are some missing notables — Netfl ix, Amazon, Goo-gle and Microsoft.

DePalo said he has made personal contact with some of them, including Google and Netfl ix, and they are in the show-me phase, holding off until the SVA produces its fi rst public recommendations.

“We have not been told no by anybody we’ve asked,” DePalo said. ◆

Streaming Video Alliance Aims for Scale Industry organization makes progress in its fi rst yearBy Jeff Baumgartner

More than 80 members gathered for the SVA’s latest quarterly meeting at Fox Studios in Hollywood.

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