US fibre provider Consolidated Communications has introduced its next-gen TV service CCiTV to residential and SME business customers in its California and Illinois service areas.
Putting context into the launch, the company said that as reported by Nielsen in June, overall television viewership rose by more than one billion hours a week at the height of Covid lockdown. Now as states reopen, connected TV viewership across smart TVs and internet-connected devices continues to be higher than lockdown levels. Even as consumers feel safer outside, the new normal appears to include a higher dose of connected TV.
CCiTV offers viewers a customisable, cloud-enabled TV experience that supports individual preferences and viewing recommendations. It claims a feature-rich viewing experience, including restart/replay TV, voice-activated remote controls, HD with 4K compatibility and cloud-based DVR storage to enable viewing of content any time, anywhere, plus nearly 200 live, local, national and premium channels.
Rob Koester, senior vice president of consumer product management at Consolidated Communications, said: “We are proud to bring the best of local and streaming TV to our customers, especially during this time when so many of us are at home more than ever before.
“CCiTV delivers what our customers want, while removing the two biggest customer pain points with traditional providers – weather-related outages and never-ending fees on the bill. Customers have the flexibility to watch on a TV, computer, tablet or phone and use their own streaming device, like Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, or receive a set-top box from Consolidated.”