Zixi, the industry leader for enabling dependable, live broadcast-quality video over any IP network, and provider of the award-winning Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP®) today announced that Family Entertainment Television, Inc., a leading family entertainment company reaching over 75 million households through Family Entertainment Television (FETV) and Family Movie Classics (FMC), has deployed Zixi, replacing satellite distribution to deliver content to 50 affiliates across the United States.
Family Entertainment Television, a provider of family entertainment content with a top 50 Nielsen-rated audience, has seen substantial popularity growth in recent years, driven by demand for high-quality, timeless programming. By leveraging Zixi-as-a-Service (ZaaS) in FETV’s operations, content distribution has been streamlined by eliminating the need for satellite infrastructure and seamless transitioning to a cost-optimized cloud infrastructure while maintaining the reliability associated with legacy delivery. Primary to this transformation is the Zixi Broadcaster, which acts as the conduit for content from on-premises sources to the cloud where the SDVP efficiently processes and disseminates content to affiliates, all overseen by ZEN Master, the control plane ensuring operational efficiency and end-to-end visibility.
FETV’s previous distribution workflow relied on satellite uplink, necessitating 24×7 maintenance while partners outside the satellite coverage zone had to receive streams via alternate methods. As more satellite spectrum is allocated to 5G and capacity becomes scarce and costly, FETV needed to revamp its distribution workflow. The company’s growth demanded a dynamic content delivery system with substantially reduced total cost of ownership and the ability to scale and adapt to changing business requirements. The transition to IP-based distribution facilitated by Zixi’s SDVP not only expedites the addition of new affiliates but also enhances operational agility while optimizing costs. By replacing satellite with streamlined on-premise servers for content onboarding to cloud and tapping into the expansive Zixi Enabled Network, which consists of over 1,000 media companies and 400 technology partners, FETV significantly reduces time-to-market from weeks to mere hours.
Zixi’s renowned reliability and scalability, supported by patented features such as Hitless Failover and protocol efficiency, ensure seamless content transport. The ZaaS platform delivers all the benefits of SDVP while providing a cost-optimized cloud infrastructure, reducing the time and resources required for system architecture and allowing for more the primary focus and investment in business and revenue generation. Zixi’s protocol optimization minimizes egress costs and computational overhead, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership for FETV. The intuitive interface of ZEN Master empowers engineers and operators with the necessary tools to orchestrate, control, and monitor signals across the distribution network. The advantages of the Zixi protocol, fortified by patented hitless failover, ensure reliable signal transmission. Proprietary null compression technology has further enabled the reduction of egress costs, unlocking additional opportunities to develop new business models and generate revenue.
“The broadcast landscape is continuously evolving, and the inflexibility of satellite delivery no longer aligned with our needs,” said Adam Sumrall, Executive Vice President of FETV and FMC. “After evaluating the economics and superior total cost of ownership offered by Zixi’s platform, transitioning to IP became a strategic imperative.”
“Zixi’s vast experience in delivering large-scale workflows is extremely valuable to our customers,” said Tim Wilson, Senior Director of Sales at Zixi, adding, “From inception to execution, our team of experts were by FETV’s side throughout the entire journey, making the switch to IP an effortless process.”
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About FETV
About FETV: Launched in 2013, FETV is home to a 24-hour schedule of beloved and timeless television series and movies carried across cable, satellite and virtual platforms reaching 50 million homes. Launched in 2021, FMC features a 24-hour schedule celebrating the depth and variety of movies from the 1930’s through the 1980’s, and is currently available in 25 million homes. FETV and FMC are independently owned and operated by Family Broadcasting Company based in South Bend, Indiana with an office in New York City.
About Zixi
Zixi provides the cloud based and on-premises Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP®) that enables reliable broadcast-quality video delivery over any IP network, any protocol, any cloud provider and any edge device. The company offers technologies for broadcasters, enterprises, over-the-top video providers, sports leagues, service providers, cable operators and Telcos around the world, giving them the lowest TCO in the industry. Many of Zixi’s clients are delivering and managing thousands of streams, and there is no other alternative in the market that can provide 99.999%+ reliability at scale. Zixi simplifies building and managing congestion-aware live video routes on any network, with support for 18-protocols across any operating environment, with products that are purpose built to provide market leading performance, universal interoperability and an operational control plane that simplifies management and orchestration at scale. With 15+ years of innovation and expertise, the Zixi Enabled Network has grown to over 1000+ media customers and 400+ OEM and service providers that deliver 20,000+ channels daily, with 110,000+ deployed instances in over 120 countries, gathering over 9 billion data points a day while delivering over 100,000 live sporting events a year. This powerful ecosystem of the largest media organizations in the world exchanging live video allows for the creation and acceleration of new content acquisition, business models, and opportunities to reduce cost and generate revenue.
