The city of Indianola, Iowa, is well-known among hot air balloon enthusiasts as the permanent host of one of the nation’s largest National Hot Air Balloon Events. However, for the residents of this bedroom community located just south of Des Moines, what truly stands out is the Indianola Municipal Utilities’ comprehensive suite of utility services. To further support its citizens, IMU is introducing local app-based streaming with the MG-TV solution from Innovative Systems.

Kurt Ripperger, the Communications Director at IMU, confirms that the organization has considered its future in video services. Ultimately, they decided to enhance their existing system rather than abandoning it. The rationale behind this decision is minimal video churn among IMU customers and the fact that they are a municipality providing a valued service as a local entity.

Bundling increases customer satisfaction at IMU, and Ripperger supports the data from the Annual Rural Subscriber report, which indicates higher satisfaction scores for customers who bundle additional services with their broadband. This is especially beneficial for IMU since all its utilities are included in a single bill for customers.

For the over 800+ video customers, Ripperger is excited to move to MG-TV, which will offer an app-based experience and allow IMU subscribers to use their Amazon, Apple, and Roku consumer devices. In evaluating streaming middleware vendors, IMU team felt the Innovative solution was a more mature product for a quicker go to market deployment. IMU utilizes the eLation OSS/BSS solution, which is tightly integrated with MG-TV support tools, allowing CSRs to troubleshoot and assist customers in a single-screen scenario.