ACADEMIA

Fisher Interactive Network announced an agreement with Opanga Networks Inc. to launch groundbreaking new technology that delivers high-quality video mobile news applications to consumers. The initial launch will be for KOMOnews.com in Seattle and Fisher will add markets over the course of the year. Opanga's technology radically improves mobile video playback quality for consumers, providing truly instant on-demand access to KOMO's news video available on Android mobile devices, without the delays and stalling issues found with most video streaming solutions. Based in Seattle, Opanga Networks is a technology innovator of mobile video distribution and optimization technologies that enable consistently high quality video -- regardless of the quality of the 3G or 4G coverage.

"Our partnership with Opanga Networks should allow us to meet the growing demand of our audience for high quality mobile video without overburdening the cellular networks at peak times. The pre-positioning of the video resident on the phone delivers a high resolution video experience to consumers, while enabling us to serve geo-targeted, high quality video advertising," said Randa Minkarah, Senior Vice President of Revenue and Business Development with Fisher Communications "Audiences have grown weary of poor quality mobile video and want a consistently rich experience on demand."

Previously, content providers have been unable to reliably deploy high-quality video content due to constraints associated with wireless network capacity. Fisher's premium mobile video app uses Opanga's NetRover platform to overcome pixelating and buffering problems to give Fisher's audience instant access to large amounts of video providing an outstanding user experience unencumbered by video stalls or degraded signal. At the same time, the Opanga technology is designed to deliver content to consumers over wireless networks using only surplus capacity so that network performance is maximized and enhanced video playback can be delivered without any degrading impact to the wireless network.

"Media companies and wireless operators recognize the power of mobile devices as publishing platforms, but they also understand the impact that streaming video has on wireless network performance," said Dave Gibbons, CEO of Opanga Networks. "Fisher is truly an innovative media company and is leading the way for others. They understand that media companies need to embrace technologies that preserve the networks performance for all users yet at the same time provide a wonderful and consistent mobile viewing experience for their consumers. We're really thrilled to be working with Fisher to deliver their great local content to mobile devices."