Macrovision is now Rovi, and they've got a new media guide for the CE Industry

Macrovision officially changed its name to Rovi, and they announced a new media guide for the CE industry. Called "Liquid," the new media guide solution is comprised of three distinct, but integrated solutions: a Television Content Guide, a Broadband Content Guide and a Personal Content Guide.

The Television Content Guide is a linear broadcast television discovery solution that CE manufacturers can embed into their devices. The Broadband Content Guide connects users to their favorite full length television and movie content for both free and paid services, as well as additional content including Internet video, popular music, social networking and other Internet destinations. The Personal Content Guide not only helps consumers navigate their media collections, but it also gives them the ability to share their content from the ease and comfort of their television screens.

Liquid integrates Blockbuster OnDemand, so this is definitely being positioned squarely at the connected TV market.

The Liquid guide is planned to be available for CE manufacturers in early 2010 as an entire package or individual modules.

Cable Show Lunch -- Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities and Challenges in the Evolution of TV

Going to the Cable Show?

Join research firm Parks Associates at a lunch presentation, Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities and Challenges in the Evolution of TV, on Thursday, April 2 at 12:45.
Sponsored by Macrovision and Hosted by Parks Associates

Moderated by: Jayant Dasari, Research Analyst, Parks Associates

Speakers include:
Bob Benya, Senior VP, Video Product Strategy, Time Warner Cable
Jeff Bonin, Vice President & GM, Alticast
Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Macrovision
David Grubb, VP Business Development, Motorola
Steve Necessary, VP Video Strategy, Cox Communications

REQUEST INVITATION TO ATTEND:
http://parksassociates.com/cableshow/

This special lunch session, sponsored by Macrovision, discusses the challenges for operators as they develop and deploy innovative services and business models. In addition, the participants will address the impact of open standards such as tru2way, both in the short term on operators’ ability to develop interactive applications and their long-term influence on the evolution of the TV viewing experience.

One-third of U.S. broadband households interested in connected set-top

Parks Associates special session at Cable Show presents best strategies for service providers --

Connected set-top boxes are growing in popularity, with 33% of all U.S. broadband households interested in this platform, according to Parks Associates. The international research firm notes this news is good for service providers, which have this device at the core of their current service strategies.

Parks Associates is hosting a special lunch session, Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities and Challenges in the Evolution of Television, sponsored by Macrovision, on Thursday, April 2, at the Cable Show in Washington, DC.

Session Speakers:
> Bob Benya, SVP, Video Product Strategy, Time Warner Cable
> Jeff Bonin, VP & GM, Alticast
> Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Macrovision
> David Grubb, VP Consumer Strategies, Motorola
> Steve Necessary, VP Video Strategy, Cox Communications

Panelists will address challenges in building ARPU and best strategies in developing innovative television services that will interest consumers and lower churn.

“The cable providers have a unique challenge – continuing to innovate at the pace that consumers are adopting new forms of entertainment technologies that may not currently be available through their provider,” said Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist for Macrovision. “Many of the new technologies out in the market now have generated great interest, but for these emerging technologies to be a viable solution for the end consumer, they need to be deployed to the mass market – cable can provide this.”

“Up to 7% of broadband households are willing to pay $3-$6 more per month for a connected STB,” said Jayant Dasari, analyst with Parks Associates and session moderator. “They want to stream music, view photos, and watch Web video through their television, and carriers can capture that consumer interest by leveraging the set-top to deploy these services.”

For more information on the session, and to request an invitation, go to http://www.parksassociates.com/cableshow

Parks Associates hosts special lunch session at The Cable Show, April 2

Parks Associates is supporting the Cable Show '09 from April 1-3, 2009 in Washington D.C.

Parks Associates Research Analyst, Jayant Dasari will be moderating a special lunch session Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities and Challenges in the Evolution of Television on April 2nd from 12:45 PM - 2:00 PM.

This special lunch session, sponsored by Macrovision, discusses the challenges for operators as they develop and deploy innovative services and business models. In addition, the participants will address the impact of open standards such as tru2way, both in the short term on operators’ ability to develop interactive applications and their long-term influence on the evolution of the TV viewing experience.

Confirmed speakers include:

>> Bob Benya, Senior VP, Video Product Strategy, Time Warner Cable
>> Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Macrovision
>> David Grubb, VP Business Development, Motorola
>> Jeff Bonin, Vice President & GM, Alticast
>> Steve Necessary, VP Video Strategy, Cox Communications

For more information about this special lunch session, click here.
Request invitation by clicking here.

The Cable Show '09 is the built-for-business event that brings together leaders spanning the wide-ranging telecommunications, digital media and television sectors. Whether you've got a cool WiMAX app, a smart idea for a VOD channel or a better way to manage IP bandwidth, the people you'll do business with are at The Cable Show. Join over 12,000 cable professionals on April 1-3, 2009 in Washington, DC for unparalleled opportunities.

Visit thecableshow.com for more information.

Oregan Networks Unveils Onyx Browser for Connected TVs

Oregan Networks announced the Oregan Media Browser 4.0, which they've dubbed Onyx. It's aimed at the DTV and set-top box markets and provides "simplified accessibility to multiple sources of trusted Internet and personal content on TVs through a single resident TV application that requires minimal set up and can be easily 'called up' in the form of a widget and dismissed without leaving regular broadcast channels or switching TV inputs."

Interesting times in which we live. I talked to Steve Tomlin, Chumby's CEO, this afternoon. He gave me an update on the widget development that they're doing, which includes work and demonstrations with major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, Freescale, Marvell, and Samsung.

I also touched base with Panasonic and got the update on the VIERA Cast applications that they are bringing to both DTVs and to Blu-ray players. The addition of Amazon.com Video On Demand content is a significant value to that particular solution.

On Tuesday, I caught up with Mike Harris at AnySource Media, a company that has developed a platform to bring in Web content to a connected TV. It's very different from other approaches, in that the "normalization" of content is done in the cloud and not on the TV itself, giving TV manufacturers greater ability to create rich content libraries and not subject users to just a few offerings. There is also an ad component to what AnySource is doing, and I think this story is going to play out in a significant way as the connected CE platforms develop. For CE manufacturers to differentiate and potentially get access to growing ad revenues, they're going to need to be able to use assets like navigational pages and on-screen guides for ad real estate. I think that's also the beauty behind the Macrovision Neon CE guide. Obviously, the main goal of the guides will be to help consumers discover and organize all kinds of digital media assets, but it will be interesting to see how the ad revenues work in this realm.

Macrovision's Announcements

Macrovision had several announcements from last week, including:

It introduced its next generation Interactive Program Guide (IPG) that can help consumers enable access to broadcast, personal and premium content from one screen. This next-generation IPG is being developed under the project name “Neon" and is aimed at the consumer electronics industry.

Neon features include:

• Rich program descriptors and cover art for TV shows
• A personalized TV "dashboard" called My Guide
• DVR functions for recording and playback of broadcast TV• Smart Recommendations to help consumers discover new programs
• Secure streaming of premium Internet content over the home network

In addition, Neon features graphical rich interactive advertising for promoting relevant program and products to consumers. This capability offers new, recurring advertising revenue opportunities for CE manufacturers.

Other news included:

• A new CE-based program guide that brings the seamless integration and delivery of digital content to Internet-connected televisions. Macrovision demonstrated how the guide helps users access Internet content, such as that from CBS.
• Macrovision's Guide Daily will be incorporated into SANYO's digital TV product line.

A compilation of Macrovison's announcements is available here.

tvCompass bringing CBS content to mobile Internet devices

You may know tvCompass as the company that developed the ESPN Remote. At CES, I talked to them about several announcements, including a Widget publishing platform, bringing CBS content to devices like the ESPN remote, using Macrovision's guides to bring EPGs to new devices (like the iPhone), and turning the iPhone into a cool remote controller by partnering with Zilog.

Qualcomm's CEO says future gadget will be a connected gadget

Qualcomm's CEO provides his thoughts on the future of connected devices. (Read Full Article)

"There is a place in the world for other kinds of connected devices beyond the mobile phone. You are going to see small lightweight computing devices, you are going to see smarter smartphones," said CEO Paul Jacobs.

"It makes sense to me to have a connected satnav device rather than an unconnected Satnav" Jacobs told Pocket-lint, confirming Qualcomm is working with satnav manufacturers on devices for the future. "Just as the connected PDA killed the unconnected PDA, the same will happen here. You are going to have up to date street maps, you’re going to be able to search. The same things will happen with cameras. The Flip [a cheap digital video camcorder] could offer you the ability to share video without the need for a computer by automatically uploading content over a network by what appears to be by magic, just like the magic experienced downloading a book with the Kindle."

At Parks Associates, we agree and think the living room is getting more crowded with digital devices. Key drivers for this growth include consumers’ insatiable appetites for high-definition television programming and services and a sharp decline in HDTV display prices. At the same time, television service providers, who are under pressure to ramp up highdefinition and DVR features of their own, are investing in more set-top boxes.

As key components for networked consumer electronics drop in cost (chief among them storage, silicon, and software), we will see a growing number of products targeting not only in-home connectivity but also connections to premium multimedia services. The connected consumer electronics market will evolve on two fronts, which will not necessarily be independent of each other. First, there will be a continued emphasis on creating products that interoperate and can share resources, such as centralized hard drives (multiroom settop boxes and network-attached storage devices chief among these examples). At the same time, with the onset of huge amounts of premium content and services available from the Internet, CE device manufacturers will launch new efforts to create connected devices that link to these services.

Parks Associates will be addressing the growth of connected devices at CONNECTIONS on June 25 at 2:30 pm. CONNECTED DEVICES: A Grown-up Home Network: Imagine the Possibilities! will address the role of home networking for entertainment, communications, and multimedia applications.

This panel will be moderated by Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, CONNECTIONS. Speakers include:

Jim Chase, Director of Business Development, Ubicom, Inc.
Chano Gomez, VP, Marketing, DS2
Eiji Kobayashi, President, HD-PLC Alliance
Adam Powers, Principal Engineer and Architect, Macrovision
Dan Salmonson, Director, Product Management, DivX, Inc.
Russell Zack, VP, Product Management, Anystream