Television Broadcasters Announce OTT Innovation Alliance In Partnership With Syncbak To Lead the Growth Of Live Local OTT Nationwide

Charter members announce 24/7 political channel called Politics Uncut with raw local political news and highlights from markets across the country.

New York, NY – October 16, 2019 — Broadcast groups Morgan Murphy Media, Gray Television, Heritage and independent powerhouse WFMZ, today announced the formation of an OTT Innovation Alliance. The group plans to create innovative ways to reach in- and out-of-market viewers using the power of OTT.

In partnership with Syncbak, the world leader in live local OTT, the OTT Innovation Alliance plans to focus on bringing new, local advertiser friendly, live- and on-demand content to OTT from their local markets, including concerts, parades, street cams and local races. The group calls this concept straight-to-OTT and it will all be available on Syncbak’s direct-to-consumer app, SBTV.

Chaired by Brian Burns, EVP & COO at Morgan Murphy Media, other charter members include: Thom Pritz, GM of Gray Television’s Cedar Rapids, IA affiliate KCRG; Chris Cornelius, VP of Business Development at Morgan Murphy Media; Pete Iacobelli, CEO, COO and President of Heritage Broadcasting; Barry Fisher, President and GM of Allentown, PA station WFMZ-TV; and Kevin Dunaway, VP and GM at Heritage Broadcasting.

“We’ve been laser-focused on our OTT efforts the second half of this year and we’re seeing measurable results,” said Brian Burns, chairman of the OTT Innovation Alliance. “The sky is the limit in terms of what we can do with local OTT and the time to do it is now,” added Burns.

“When Brian approached me about forming an OTT Alliance, it was a no-brainer to say, yes,” said Jack Perry, founder & CEO of Syncbak. “We have best streaming platform on the planet and broadcasters have the best content. In the world of OTT, they can go beyond over-the-air broadcasts and our platform gives them the tools to do just that.” added Perry.

Stations participating in the alliance are also providing content for SBTVs newest channel, Politics Uncut, which takes short- and long-form political content, aired or never-aired, and mashes it all up into an unbiased, totally political OTT stream. “We’re pretty excited about Politics Uncut,” said Pete Iacobelli, CEO of Heritage Broadcasting. “Now we can deliver our political coverage over-the-top, to viewers in any market, using whatever device they want to use to watch us.” added Iacobelli.

The OTT Innovation Alliance is open to membership for stations and station groups in the United States. Contact ottalliance@sbtv.com for details.