Revenues are down at Espial Inc., the small Centretown tech firm that designs software for cable companies and television manufacturers, but the company says the business is on its way up.
Espial reported revenues of $3.1 million for its third quarter ending Sept. 30.
That's an 18-per-cent decrease from the third quarter of 2011.
“We expect that there will be some choppiness in our results, but long-term we’ve got a really good portfolio of customers,” says Kirk Edwardson, director of marketing for Espial.
“We’re hopefully expanding that portfolio of customers and we have the technologies that ride right into where everyone is trying to get to.”
The company got in on the ground floor of the Internet protocol TV market.
Espial didn’t invent it, but it was able to capitalize on its humble beginnings.
Espial president Jaison Dolvane started the company in 1997 as a software developer for Internet-ready appliances like digital televisions, mobile phones, set-top boxes (the small boxes that connect your television to a satellite or cable feed), and even automotive systems.
Today, Espial develops software to be incorporated into smart TVs.
These televisions allow viewers to share files and download video and other content from the Web.
Espial also develops software, called “middleware,” that allows service providers to send IPTV signals into households.
IPTV subscription is a service Ottawans won’t be able to enjoy for at least a couple more years, says Mario Mota, formerly vice-president of broadcast and media research with Decima Research Inc., who now runs a consulting firm that provides market research for Canadian broadcasters.
Ottawa’s fibre optic networks need upgrades before a steady stream of video content could be “pushed through” to homes from service providers.
To be able to deliver the capacity that TV requires, major changes to the infrastructure of these networks is needed.
“It’s not simply a voice line, or broadband Internet,” says Mota. “When you’re delivering TV and offering video-on-demand, you need way more capacity.
“It’s a huge capital investment up front, with payback down the line” in the form of decreased maintenance costs for the providers, says Mota. “But I’ve yet to see that savings passed on to consumers.”
As of March 2012, there are about 11.8 million households in Canada that subscribe to a television service. Of those subscriptions, 935,000 are IPTV. That accounts for an height per cent market share.
“IPTV is continuing to grow, and growing at a very healthy rate,” says Mota. “Bell and Telus are growing and they’re taking competitors customers away from the cable competitors in their markets.”
Though the Canadian IPTV market is a slow-growing one, the company sees hope in foreign markets.