ActiveVideo Gives VTR’s VOD Platform a Boost

VTR, the Chile-based MSO and Liberty Global subsidiary, said VOD usage has doubled after deploying a new user interface for new and old set-tops based on ActiveVideo’s cloud-powered platform.

The new UI features richer graphics, plus the ability for subscribers to search for shows and movies by genre, actor or title.  The ActiveVideo platform, which relies on a cloud-based browser and a small set-top client, is now supported on boxes serving about 95% of VTR’s customers with digital TV.

Since the launch of the new VOD UI, which is now available to more than 1 million VTR customers, on-demand views have risen by 138% year-over-year, alongside an 11% bump in the number of customers that access VOD, and an 83% rise in views per subscriber, according to the companies.

“It just shows that UX [user experience] matters,” Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo, said, noting that the new UI was deployed across VTR’s footprint in a period of about four months.

ActiveVideo’s work with VTR follows other deployments with Liberty Global properties, including Ziggo, which is using the vendor’s platform for a new VOD UI for legacy boxes, the implementation of a mosaic guide with Liberty Puerto Rico, and enabling YouTube to run on set-tops deployed by UPC in Hungary.

ActiveVideo is jointly owned by Arris and Charter Communications, which is using the vendor’s platform to underpin a new cloud-based Spectrum Guide that will be supported by the MSO’s full complement of set-tops.