[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Global Takeoff Inc., a leading global provider of converged digital entertainment and advertising solutions, today announced YCast.TV, an over-the-top (OTT) service that delivers live TV and video-on-demand to TVs, PCs, smartphones and internet tablets within minutes of setup. For the first time, broadcasters and content owners have a seamless solution for monetizing video content, which eliminates long time delays traditionally associated with video content distribution.

In 2010 over 700,000 subscribers abandoned cable services and six out of eight cable operators suffered their worst quarterly subscriber losses ever, according to a SNL Kagan report. Thus, broadcasters and content owners are scrambling to expand their reach by leveraging OTT internet technologies. At the same time, internet-savvy consumers are starting to expect to have all TV and video content delivered to any internet-enabled screen -- anywhere in the world.

“Until now, complex technical barriers have prohibited many content providers from distributing live television programs to internet-enabled devices” said Uday Reddy, founder and CEO of Global Takeoff. “But with YCast.TV, local TV stations can immediately expand the reach of their daily news shows, sports events and entertainment content beyond regional boundaries. YCast.TV also gives movie producers the ability to increase sales and reduce piracy by distributing films online the same day the show premiers. Video content owners of all sizes can now tap into the global reach of the internet and monetize their content everywhere.”

YCast.TV enables content owners and aggregators to acquire the source signal, encode and stream video to more than a billion internet-enabled devices, including desktop and laptop PCs (Windows, Macintosh), internet set-top boxes (Roku, Boxee), smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows), internet-enabled tablets (iPad, Android), gaming consoles through an application (XBOX, PS3, Wii), iPod/iPod Touch and ConnectedTV (Samsung).

“Global Takeoff has been a great partner for Roku,” said Jim Funk, VP of Business Development at Roku. “Customers are increasingly using Roku to access live regional and ethnic programming that they connect with wherever they live. YuppTV has become one of the most popular international brands on Roku.”

The YCast.TV service produces instantaneous content monetization through advertising and subscriptions. YCast.TV content partners also benefit from geo-blocking content and DRM (digital rights management) security systems. Content providers have access to online subscriber management and customer profile reports. YCast.TV runs on a highly scalable and reliable architecture that can support up to 1 million live streams simultaneously.