Flycast’s mobile broadcast network collects entertainment content from a variety of sources, including audio and video, and delivers it to iPhones, Blackberrys and Android-based cells. Unlike Pandora-like Internet radio stations, Flycast has contracts with 1,500 channels, the promise of limitless video content and its already a popular app on iPhones.
With 3.3 billion mobile devices and 900 million PCs, the market for Flycast huge. The company hopes to launch 3.0 on Apple this June, which will be a real game changer in the world of mobile video watching, says Roy Smith, VP of marketing.
The company hopes to have 4.5 million users by year end. “Our mantra is to provide entertainment to people on the go wherever they are,” Smith explains. “Riding in car, walking to store, in a jet, we can provide entertainment. We call it the Comcast for mobile devices.”
What makes Flycast unique is it leverages the wireless Internet to provide content, a death knell to satellite radio, which charges for satellite use. The goal is to be available on all smartphones and improve the service as the phone technology advances. Revenues are generated through targeted advertising to individual users. “It’s revolutionary,” Smith quips.
The Flycast management team includes CEO Sam Abadir, formerly of LiquidSite, an award-winning ad tech company; Joe Monastiero, co-founder of Intervideo and Robert Hoke and Smith, co-founders of Turtle Beach Systems, a sound card supplier to Dell computers in the 90s.
Flycast has raised $3 million to date from angel investors and hopes to close on another $3 million round this spring with the help of BlueTree Allied Angels in Pittsburgh. The company is based in Lancaster and has an office in San Francisco.
Source: Roy Smith, Flycast
Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
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