FLO TV president Bill Stone is giving the morning keynote at Streaming Media West. Stone spent most of the session discussing the company’s history to this point and the value prop of their mobile TV service, later speaking about future plans. FLO TV’s multicast distribution model takes the data traffic off of the carriers and the compay now has a nationwide network which they are using as the backbone of their own distribution network for personal mobile televisions.
Archived video of the session is available below:
On Content & Usage:
“we’re a content distribution company, not a content production company.” The company has tapped Amanda Congdon as a spokesperson and they are experimenting by adding some original content from My Damn Channel and other new media companies but Live news and sports from their network partners drives the most usage. On average Stone said people watch almost 30 minutes per day with usage peaking at 1PM and stays relatively consistent from 2pm – 10pm.
On Devices:
Devices: Expanding from carriers to direct to consumer devices. There are more rear seat entertainment devices in the U.S. than iPhones. Also going after existing devices through software upgrades. Currently 10 devices, will be more in the years to come.
Newest product is FLO TV Personal Television – manufactured by HTC.
On subscription numbers:
“I’ve got two customers…AT&T and Verizon..they don’t send each other Christmas cards…but I will say we have many millions of devices out in the marketplace.”
On Business model:
“99% of our revenue is subscription based 1% is ad based, we receive time from the networks that we can insert our ads in…we don’t envision an ad supported model supporting the significant money we’ve invested in the network.”
“We offer a business model where broadcasters and operators can come together.”