samsung

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:

A number of pieces of connected TV news came across [itvt]'s desk, Tuesday. Here is a brief--and by no means exhaustive--round-up (note: also see "Vudu Unveils Vudu Apps OTT Service," "ActiveVideo Networks in Deal to Provide Blockbuster with Cloud-Based User Interface," and "Showtime Networks, Betfair Launch Interactive TV Widgets"):

Here is a brief round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

As was widely anticipated, 3D TV has emerged as one of the major themes of this year's Consumer Electronics Show--and a number of pieces of 3D TV news came across [itvt]'s desk, Tuesday. Here is a brief round-up:

The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF)--an industry group that is attempting to bring together telcos, consumer electronics manufacturers, and network infrastructure providers, in order to develop specifications for an open, end-to-end solution that will facilitate development and deployment of interactive, personalized IPTV services (note: the organization, whose founding members include Ericsson, FT Group, Nokia Siemens, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Telecom Italia, recently published the Architecture Specification for IPTV infrastructure elements and services to be included in Release 2 of its OIPF Specifications--see the article published on itvt.com, September 8th--and also recently published the Profi

Video content security and optimization specialist, Widevine, said Monday that it has secured $15 million in new funding from Liberty Global, Samsung Ventures (the venture capital arm of Samsung Group) and an unnamed "third corporation" described in a Widevine press release as "the world's...second largest satellite provider." The company, which has raised close to $52 million to date, says that its technologies are playing a "central role" in the delivery of video over-the-top to Internet-connected retail consumer electronics devices and in the "TV Everywhere" strategies of cable, satellite and telephone companies (note: the "TV Everywhere" distribution model seeks, via authentication technology, to ma

Rallypoint, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in developing widgets for Internet-connected HDTV's, announced a promotion Monday that will see a $59.99 annual subscription to its Rallycast Fantasy Sports widget included free with the purchase of any new Samsung 7100 model or higher LCD or LED HDTV at consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy. In order to obtain their free subscription, Samsung HDTV customers must ask a Best Buy sales assistant for a Rallycast activation card (SKU #9437068) and take it with them to the register when they check out.

Rovi (formerly Macrovision--for more on the company's name change and the repositioning it heralds, see the interview with Rovi chief evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle, that was published on itvt.com, July 16th) announced Monday that it has signed a multi-year, multi-country EPG technology and patent licensing agreement with Samsung Electronics.

Video rental company, Blockbuster, and Samsung Electronics America announced Tuesday that they are partnering to provide over-the-top access to Blockbuster's broadband VOD service, Blockbuster OnDemand, on select new Samsung HDTV sets, home theater systems and Blu-ray players. The companies also said that, as part of their agreement, Blockbuster OnDemand will have preferred positioning on Samsung's Blu-ray interfaces, and that Blockbuster will sell Samsung Blu-ray players with integrated Blockbuster OnDemand service in "thousands" of its corporate-owned and franchise stores, as well as on its Web site.

DVD rental service provider, Netflix, last week announced another over-the-top deal for its service with a consumer electronics company: starting in the fall, subscribers to Netflix's unlimited plan (priced from $8.99 per month) will be able to instantly watch more than 12,000 streamed movies and TV episodes on Sony Electronics' Bravia Internet-connected HDTV sets, as well as on previous Bravia models equipped with Sony's Bravia Internet video link module, the company said. The other CE companies that have recently signed OTT deals with Netflix are Microsoft (for the Xbox 360), LG Electronics, Roku, Samsung, TiVo and Vizio. "Sony has been a world leader in consumer electronics for decades," Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, said in a prepared statement.

The US's second-largest cable operator, Time Warner Cable, and consumer electronics giant, Samsung, announced Monday that they have signed a "letter of commitment" for the continued development, purchase and deployment of Samsung tru2way-enabled set-top boxes, including the MSO's first second-source DVR. "We look to offer our customers advanced set-top boxes with features that are simple and easy to use," Mike Hayashi, Time Warner Cable's EVP of advanced engineering, said in a prepared statement.

Consumer electronics manufacturer, Samsung, says it is set to launch a Twitter widget on Internet@TV, an Internet-based TV widget service which it announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and which is based on the Yahoo! Widget Engine (note: the service, which is available on Samsung's LED 6000, 7000 and 8000-series HDTV sets, as well as on the company's 6- and 7-series LCD screens, offers a range of JavaScript- and XML-based mini-applications, including widgets for Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Finance, USA Today, YouTube, eBay and Showtime Networks).

Consumer electronics giants, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Panasonic,
announced last week that they are collaborating on the development of
a standardized specification for radio frequency-based remote controls
for audio-visual consumer electronics devices. Together with Freescale
Semiconductors, OKI and Texas Instruments, the companies have
formed an RF4CE (stands for "Radio Frequency for Consumer
Electronics") Consortium that will attempt to create a new protocol to

enable the development of radio frequency remote controls that offer
richer communication, increased reliability and more flexible use.