Broadstream Communications--a company that specializes in providing outsourced video headend and content distribution and management services to telcos looking to deploy IPTV (note: it touts its outsourced IPTV solutions as allowing smaller operators to offer sophisticated IPTV services without the huge upfront capital and operational expenses associated with a self-built and maintained IPTV headend system)--says that it has signed separate content agreements with the Hallmark Channel, the Hallmark Movie Channel, OLN, the Tennis Channel, Bloomberg Television and the Golf Channel. The agreements will allow Broadstream to offer the channels to its telco and ISP customers through its IPTVConnect transport service. According to Broadstream, IPTVConnect centralizes the aggregation, real-time digital (MPEG-4 AVC) encoding and IP encapsulation of programming content, so that it can be distributed via DSL, fiber and other broadband networks. The company says that its platform offers over 200 video and audio programs through agreements with every major broadcaster and programmer in the US (its other programmer partners include ABC Cable Networks, ESPN, Turner Cable Networks, Showtime Networks, Discovery Networks, and NBC Universal). Broadstream's outsourced IPTV solution also includes its Bstream middleware, which features an EPG and what the company describes as a "unique service management solution."
