--Company Also Recently Announced Integration Deals with Metrological Media, Bristol Interactive
London, UK-based interactive TV company, Miniweb (note: last September, the company--which is best known for offering an interactive TV alternative to the red button on the Sky satellite-TV platform--announced that it had raised $32 million in venture funding--see [itvt] Issue 8.06 Part 1; the company will be demo'ing its technology in its booth--IP512--at the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week), said Wednesday that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Access Systems Europe covering technology integration and joint business development for hybrid TV deployments. According to the companies, the deal will see Access's NetFront Browser and DLNA software integrated with the Miniweb interactive services platform and menuing system, in order to provide a converged Internet/broadcast video entertainment experience for consumers that will provide new revenue streams for content owners and device manufacturers.
Access bills its NetFront Browser as being designed for "beyond-PC" devices, including Internet-connected TV's, and claims that the browser surpassed 800 million deployments worldwide at the end of July. Miniweb, meanwhile, describes its platform as using the broadband connection to TV sets and set-top boxes to enable search and delivery of, and recommendations for Internet content; payments and other transactions; relevant advertising; and community networking functions on the TV--thus providing an enhanced experience for viewers and new revenue opportunities for operators and content owners. Miniweb and Access say that the combination of their respective technologies will enable converged broadcast and broadband entertainment services to be provided to over a million existing connected TV devices and to any new devices that incorporate the joint solution.
Miniweb, which says that its open standards-based platform works equally well in satellite, cable, terrestrial or IPTV environments, plans to integrate its video search and recommendations capability into the Access software stack within TV devices. This, it says, will enable TV viewers to seamlessly search, discover and play "appropriate" Internet video from multiple sources. The company also plans to provide a payment service that will allow a single point of billing for the consumption of premium Internet video content. Access, meanwhile, is bringing to the partnership the new version 3.5 of its NetFront Browser, which it claims provides superior user-friendliness and browsing capabilities. It also says it will provide NetFront Living Connect, its DLNA solution for multimedia home networks, and various advanced video aggregation and management technologies. "This exciting new partnership will enable TV device manufacturers to offer a more appealing consumer proposition, as well as bring new revenue streams and Web-style business models to the industry," Miniweb CEO, Andrew Carver, said in a prepared statement. "It will make the benefits of the Miniweb services available to anyone who has, or is deploying, Access NetFront Browser or DLNA solutions in a broadband-connected TV device." Added Access Systems Europe CEO, Yusuke Kanda: "We're very pleased that Access technologies are integrating the Miniweb solution into the NetFront product offering for the European market. Through this agreement, we contribute to fulfill European consumers' expectation for a rich, connected digital lifestyle."
Miniweb's new deal with Access is the third integration deal the company has announced over the past two months: last month (see the article published on itvt.com, August 3rd), it said it had integrated its Miniweb services platform with the Metrological Metroconnect OS from Metrological Media Innovations, a provider of middleware and reference designs based on the Intel Media Processor CE 3100 (note: the company is part of the Intel Consumer Electronics Network). It billed the integrated solution as enabling converged Internet and broadcast video services on a range of CE 3100-powered devices, including satellite, cable and hybrid DTT/IP set-top boxes, as well as integrated digital television sets. And in July (see article published on itvt.com, July 6th), it announced that its platform had been integrated into a new range of HD-ready digital television sets from Bristol Interactive Technology. The integration was billed as enabling the sets, which incorporate a receiver for the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview (note: Freeview is set to launch an HD version of its service later this year), to offer a "converged...entertainment experience" that will include Internet video and radio as well as a range of Internet-sourced interactive TV services.
