AT&T has announced its plans to acquire streaming platform Quickplay for delivering video content.
Quickplay Media is a video streaming platform, which powers over-the-top video and "TV Everywhere" services that helps customers to stream video content to devices such as smartphones. The latest acquisition will help AT&T in its upcoming streaming services such as DIRECTV Now, DIRECTV Preview and DIRECTV Mobile.
"Our strategy is to deliver video content however, whenever and wherever," says John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group. "Quickplay's multitenant IP distribution infrastructure, combined with AT&T's leading scale in IP connected end points, will allow us to host and distribute all forms of video traffic."
Stankey added that the acquisition is aimed at offering viewers with high-quality video watching content via the Internet.
Wayne Purboo, the CEO and founder of Quickplay, says that the company has spent over a decade to develop the technology for delivering premium content over any network to any device. The partnership with AT&T will help the company to scale and enhance the platform.
AT&T is planning to retain over 350 Quickplay employees. Stankey suggests that Quickplay has talented people, and their skills and know-how will be significant to the U.S. carrier for executing their video strategy.
AT&T will launch DIRECTV in the fourth quarter of this year. DIRECTV customers will be able to access content without enrolling to an annual contract and without a satellite box or a set-top box. DIRECTV is expected to increase stiff competition with rivals such Comcast's Stream, Hulu, Sony PlayStation Vue and more.
AT&T has existing relations with the Toronto-based Quickplay. The streaming platform also has other customers such as Bell, Rogers, Telus, Samsung, Vodafone, Sirius XM, Bloomberg Television, AccuWeather and more. AT&T has confirmed that the latest acquisition will allow Quickplay to continue serving its existing customers.
In 2015, Quickplay announced that it has reached a billion viewers. In 2015, the company also claimed a 44 percent year-over-year growth and 65 percent year-over-year increase in video-on-demand hours.
The demand for satellite and cable TV has witnessed a decline in the last few years. More customers prefer watching video content via Internet-based services, which can be viewed not just on TVs but also on laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
It remains to be seen how well the acquisition will help AT&T in scaling its video streaming services.
Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr
