macrovision

[itvt] has just published interviews with Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist for Rovi (formerly Macrovision); Anup Murarka, director of technology strategy and partner development for Flash at Adobe Systems; Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, co-founder of SPRXmobile; and Lawrence Brickman, co-founder and managing partner of CloverLeaf Digital.

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide--will today officially change its name to Rovi Corporation (and adopt the NASDAQ ticker symbol, ROVI), as it previously announced it would do, and launch its new brand positioning and visual identity.

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, and which recently announced that it would change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity--has signed multi-year EPG patent-licensing agreements with French pay-TV operator, Canal+ Group, and with Swiss set-top box vendor, Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB).

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, and which recently announced that it would change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity--and interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, announced last week that Australian pay-TV provider, Foxtel, has signed a multi-year license agreement for Macrovision's EPG patent portfolio.

An EPG-related patent-infringement lawsuit, filed by the then-Gemstar-TV Guide (which is now part of Macrovision) and its subsidiaries, StarSight Telecast and United Video Properties, against UK cable operator, Virgin Media, and its subsidiary, Virgin Media Payments, back in January, 2008, is scheduled to be heard in the English High Court this week.

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, and which recently announced that it would change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity--said Monday that it has signed a multi-year deal with Sony that will allow the latter to continue to use its EPG technology and the related patents in its Gemstar patent portfolio in its consumer electronics products.

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, announced Tuesday that it plans to change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity that will also see it adopting a new corporate visual design.

Macrovision, the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, said Monday that it has signed a multi-year technology and patent-licensing agreement for its EPG solutions with consumer electronics company, Vizio. According to the company, the deal will enable Vizio to incorporate Macrovision EPG technologies into future products, allowing end-users to navigate, sort, select and schedule TV programming. "We recognize that consumers today have an unprecedented amount of content to choose from across a growing number of digital channels and sources," Matthew McRae, Vizio's VP of products, said in a prepared statement.

Macrovision, the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, announced Monday that it has signed a multi-year license agreement for its EPG patents with interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS. According to the company, the new agreement provides NDS with a license to the various EPG patents contained in Macrovision's Gemstar patent portfolio (note: Macrovision holds around 4,200 issued or pending patents), and allows NDS to offer licensed EPG's to its pay-TV operator customers in a number of specified countries.

Macrovision, the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, announced Tuesday an agreement with Mexican MSO, Megacable Comunicaciones (claims 1.5 million subscribers in 53 major cities, making it Mexico's largest MSO), that will see the latter using its Passport Echo cable EPG and its TV listings data in its Motorola systems. According to Macrovision, the deal will also give Megacable subscribers access to 1) its ShowRunner VOD application, which the company bills as a fully integrated on-demand feature that provides a more intuitive and simpler consumer experience for accessing VOD content, and 2) iSubscribe, an application that allows viewers to use their remotes to instantly order service packages.

Macrovision, the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide (and which has since divested itself of the latter's TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Network, TV Guide Online and TVG properties), announced Wednesday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Muze, a New York-based company that provides entertainment information (metadata) products and discovery services. "Macrovision believes that professional entertainment metadata is required for our customers to provide best-in-class, consumer-facing products," Macrovision president and CEO, Fred Amoroso, said in a prepared statement. "The addition of the Muze assets will complement Macrovision's data solutions.

At the NCTA Cable Show in Washington, DC last week, Macrovision, the company that last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, launched a version of its Passport EPG for tru2way-enabled devices (note: the company also offers a tru2way version of its i-Guide EPG). The company bills the new guide, which is slated for availability in Q4, as providing the cable market with an industry-standard platform for advanced video and content features in digital set-top boxes and television sets, and as enabling a simplified whole-home entertainment experience for consumers.

Macrovision, the company that earlier this year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, has secured a slew of licensing agreements for its EPG technology over the past few weeks:

--Partners with tvCompass on EPG for Wireless Devices
--Signs Japan Distribution Deal with HitachiSoft

--Secures Multiple EPG Deals for Latin America and Europe