OTT

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week and next, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week and next, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

OTT video infrastructure provider, Sonic Solutions, said Tuesday that Haier, a Chinese manufacturer of home appliances and consumer electronics, has chosen its RoxioNow platform to enable delivery of a library of Hollywood movies and TV shows over the Web to a new line of Haier-branded Blu-ray players and HDTV sets. "Digital movie services powered by the RoxioNow platform will play an important role in our next-generation connected devices and help make it easy for consumers to browse, purchase and enjoy the best in digital entertainment from the comfort of their living rooms," Doug Lane, president of Haier Digital Products Group for the Americas, said in a prepared statement.

TiVo last week announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Suddenlink, the eighth-largest cable company in the US, that calls for the latter to deploy co-branded TiVo Premiere DVR's (note: TiVo bills the Premiere as combining linear TV, DVR, VOD and Internet-delivered video into a unified experience delivered via an Adobe Flash-based user interface), as well as TiVo-developed non-DVR client set-top boxes. This represents the first time that TiVo has provided an operator with non-DVR hardware.

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

OTT specialist, Roku, has launched a contest that is designed to encourage the development of channels (apps) for its platform. The contest invites developers to build apps in six categories, with the winner of each category receiving $5,000 and an overall winner receiving an additional $5,000.

DVD rental/OTT video company, Netflix, and Relativity Media, the financing and production company behind such current-release movies as "Get Him to the Greek" and "Grown Ups," said Tuesday that they have signed a long-term agreement, under which major theatrically released films owned by Relativity will be licensed exclusively to Netflix for streaming to its subscribers on its "Watch Instantly" service during the pay-TV window (note: Netflix subscriptions that include the "Watch Instantly" service are priced from $8.99 per month). Until now, such films have been distributed via Relativity's studio releasing partners to premium TV channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz.

Syabas, a Fremont, Calif.-based company that specializes in over-the-top set-top hardware and software, said last week that it has pushed back the ship date for its new PopBox OTT set-top box to July 23rd. The box, which features a user interface design from Moxi UI designer, Dewey Reid, and which will be priced at $130 and $150 for Ethernet and WiFi versions respectively, was previously expected to be available by the July 4th weekend.

Web-based on-demand music listening service, MOG, said Tuesday that it has secured its first consumer electronics partnership--with OTT specialist, Roku (note: last week, Roku--which also offers Pandora's linear streaming music service--announced a deal with Clearleap to bring cable operators' VOD services to its set-tops, and also announced the launch of five new channels on its platform--see the articles published on itvt.com, June 25th and 27th).

Althea Systems--a San Francisco-based start-up that bills itself as "focused on building solutions that simplify online video discovery and consumption across multiple screens," and which says it recently raised $3 million in a Series A funding round--on Monday announced the official launch of a "social video browser" called Shufflr. According to the company, the browser, which is located at http://shufflr.tv and which is designed for watching OTT video in "lean-back" mode, "blends learning algorithms and social graphs to steer videos towards you from all over the Web," and provides viewers with video recommendations, a social video feed and a trending video feed.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers. We will resume our regular format and publishing schedule tomorrow (Tuesday).

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.