Over-the-Top

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week, NBC Universal's VP of digital distribution, Michael Aaronson, provides a detailed overview of how the broadcaster brought interactive TV coverage of the Winter Olympics to AT&T U-verse TV, Cablevision, Comcast, DirecTV, DISH Network, Oceanic Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV.

In addition:

Widget Realm, a company that offers content publishing services for desktop apps, mobile devices and connected TV sets, on Tuesday launched its "Broadcast-It-Yourself" service for Internet-connected devices running the Yahoo! Widget Engine. According to the company, the new service will enable any developer to easily create and distribute TV widgets to millions of connected TV's and other connected devices. "Yahoo! and Widget Realm are going to enable an explosion of interactive television content," Widget Realm CEO, Brian Powell, said in a prepared statement. "We're excited to be working with the Yahoo!

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of the latest broadband video and over-the-top (OTT) news:

In an interview with Bloomberg News that was published Wednesday, Anthony Wood, CEO of over-the-top company, Roku, revealed that the company hopes to raise $30 million in private funding this quarter from Menlo Ventures and other sources, and that it may go public next year--though he added that it is not currently working with an investment bank and has yet to set a date for an IPO.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that in 2008 acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service/platform, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with Canadian movie theater chain operator, Cineplex Entertainment. According to the company, the deal sees Cineplex licensing the Roxio CinemaNow platform to power a new movie streaming and download service at http://www.cineplex.com, that will make content available on a range of connected devices and that is scheduled to launch later this year. The service will be targeted at the Canadian market.

In a posting on over-the-top-TV specialist Boxee's corporate blog, Wednesday, CEO Avner Ronen announced that the company plans to release a payment platform this summer that will allow users to purchase content "with one click on the remote." According to Ronen, the content partners the service will launch with (note: Ronen did not identify them) will offer shows, movies and channels that were previously unavailable to Boxee users, and will be able to package and price their content "as they wish," including offering it on a pay-per-view or subscription basis.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

According to a report Tuesday by All Things Digital's Peter Kafka, over-the-top-TV specialist, Vudu, is in "meaningful" acquisition discussions with a potential buyer, believed to be Wal-Mart. Kafka's report cited unnamed sources, and added that Vudu executives had "declined to comment" and that Wal-Mart's press center had not answered his inquiries as his report went to press.

Online TV search engine developer, SetJam, announced Tuesday that it is working with major media companies (which it did not identify) to build a suite of specialized "TV Everywhere" widgets that it says will transform static entertainment sites into "on-demand interactive TV watching destinations." "TV and movie content owners are bringing their vast libraries online," SetJam CEO, Ryan Janssen (who was formerly COO of online financial tool builder, Angelsoft.net), said in a prepared statement. "Our 'TV Everywhere' widgets provide the glue between their offerings and the entertainment sites that people already use to help create the most powerful TV broadcaster in the world--the Internet."

Concert.TV, a free VOD service which is devoted to live music performances, music documentaries and music "lifestyle" programming and which is carried by Comcast, Cox, Charter, Verizon FiOS TV, Insight, DISH Network and DirecTV (giving it a reach of approximately 30 million homes), on Monday announced a media content partnership with Guitar World magazine. According to Concert.TV, as a result of the deal, new content from Guitar World's "vast" video archive will appear on its service every month, including interviews with high-profile guitarists ranging from blues icon, Buddy Guy, to Metallica's Kirk Hammett.

Cloud-based interactive TV specialist, ActiveVideo Networks, announced last week that it has expanded its relationship with its long-term partner, TAG Networks, in order to extend enhanced gaming experiences to broadband-connected consumer electronics devices.

A number of companies last week announced plans to offer interactive TV applications on supported Samsung HDTV's, Blu-ray players and Home Theater Systems through Samsung's recently updated Internet@TV over-the-top (OTT) platform, and its newly announced Samsung Apps app store service (note: for more on the latter, see the article published on itvt.com, January 7th). They include:

Yahoo! last week announced 1) new distribution partnerships for its Yahoo! Widget Engine platform; 2) the release of a Widget Development Kit (WDK); and 3) new content partnerships for the widget platform. "Consumers are in love with their televisions, watching more TV, and demanding Internet connectivity to further enhance their viewing experience," Arlo Rose, senior director of Yahoo! Connected TV, said in a prepared statement. "Yahoo!

Due to the volume of news generated by last week's Consumer Electronics Show, and because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week's column features Peter Flood, head of business development for North America at Playcast Media, discussing how that company's technology enables video games--including sophisticated console games--to be played on legacy set-top boxes.