Affiliate Rights vs. Transport Rights

— Written by Emily Call, MVS

Do you know the difference between transport rights and affiliate distribution rights? 

Transport rights are granted by programmers, such as A&E, ESPN-Disney, Warner Media, etc. to headend and transport companies, which is MVS’s core business.  

MVS is required to obtain transport rights from the programmer before provisioning signals from the headend to pass through a fiber optic network, to then be dropped off at an affiliate member’s location.  The location in which the signal passes from MVS’s network to a member location  is referred to as a mutual meet point, or also as a point of presence (POP) location. This partnership between MVS and an affiliate member, enables an affiliate to provide a lower cost, lower risk television or streaming solution to their end users.  

These mutual meet points, or POP locations can be found on both a local and national scale today, as MVS and its owner partners have strategic relationships to connect to affiliates locally, as well as at metropolitan locations, such as Minneapolis (aka-511 Building) or Chicago (aka-Equinix). These metropolitan areas are typically where larger data center’s house other carrier networks, allowing an affiliate to cross connect into MVS’s network.  In short, consider it comparable to how a broadband company gains access to Netflix and Amazon Prime content, in order to provide those services.

And though it may sound a bit unrealistic, MVS’s signal originates from a shared headend, in rural Wisconsin! Want to learn more about that?  Subscribe to our newsletter to continue to learn more about MVS. 


On the other side, the affiliate distribution rights are another piece of the puzzle, and are also granted and required by a programmer, such as A&E, ESPN-Disney, Warner Media, etc. in order for an affiliate to provide a television offering, be it streaming or traditional IPTV. 

An affiliate, in most cases, would consist of being a telephone company, an internet provider, an apartment owner, University or municipality; and as a matter of fact, MVS currently partners with all of these types of entities today. 

Does this all sound overwhelming? Don’t worry!  MVS can navigate all of this for you, so you don’t have to! MVS has amazing strategic partners in the industry that can acquire these affiliate distributions rights on your behalf.

MVS and its partners will do all of the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on your end users.  We’ll do what we do best, so you can do what you do best! Doesn’t that sound great? Reach out to MVS today and let’s get started working together on a path toward offering what you and your customers want — a simple solution, with one bill, through a single program package or app, all from a local provider like you! 

Get to know MVS, and partner with us!  Click the links on our website to learn more about MVS and how we can help. 

  

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