Type Public Industry Digital television Founder Mark Cavicchia | Traded as OTC Pink: TVTV Area served The world Founded 16 July 2006 | |
Headquarters Fort Myers, Florida, USA Key people Edward D. Ciofani (Chairman & CEO) | ||
WhereverTV is an Over the Top (OTT) internet television platform provider located in Fort Myers, Florida focused on delivering linear television programming to SmartTVs and digital media receivers, and tablets via the public Internet.
Contents
The company has been providing access to free live streaming TV channels on the internet since 2007 through its Global Interactive Program Guide (officially trademarked as Global IPG) internet TV software, allowing registered users to watch TV online. In 2011, the company began selling subscription services for live television from Morocco and Greece. In 2013, it began selling Arabic TV subscriptions. WhereverTV announced plans to launch two additional services for 2013: a software application aimed at managing US and international channels to portable and stationary internet connected devices, and a traditional US based subscription service.
WhereverTV has since evolved into an alternative to fixed location subscription services such as those offered by cable companies and satellite television providers. Subscribers are able to personalize their viewing choices, subscription services and watch from any location that has Internet access. The company provides both wireless television and hard wired accessibility to TV on internet.
Services
WhereverTV's core business is subscription-based, internet television services. The Company's content packages are similar to traditional cable and satellite companies. Viewers can choose from a series of service bundles, paying more money for more channels. A la carte programming is available for in-language programming, including Greek and Arabic television channels.
Free TV Online Internet Television
WhereverTV provides access to free streaming live internet TV channels. Registered users of the Company's GlobalTV service can watch online television for free.
History
The concept for what was to become WhereverTV was created by Mark Cavicchia while he was living in Shanghai, China after becoming frustrated with the complexities of trying to stream the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament live on AOL by connecting his laptop to a big-screen television. He vowed to create an easy to use, portable channel guide that would work across devices and geographies and allow users to organize and watch TV online anywhere in the world. Upon returning to the United States in 2006, he wrote the patent application for WhereverTV's core technology - the Global Interactive Program Guide.
The WhereverTV Receiver
To promote its Global Interactive Program Guide concept, the Company wrote its own firmware to run on the popular, open-source Neuros OSD hardware that was white-labeled and renamed The WhereverTV Receiver. The first public demonstration of the WherverTV Receiver was made on 9 July 2008 at the Consumer Electronics Association's 2008 SINOCES trade show in Qingdao, China. Subsequently, the WhereverTV Receiver debuted at the 2009 International CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was covered by media outlets around the world, including the USA, Poland, Israel, Brazil and the Middle East.
Recognition
WhereverTV was named to 2010 Always-on's On-Media 100, the Top 100 Private Companies that are pioneering the next generation advertising and marketing Internet services. The WhereverTV Receiver was named one of the 30 Most Innovative Products at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. WhereverTV's CEO was also invited to testify at a Federal Communications Commission hearing on Broadband and the Digital Future.