Miniweb Announces Initial Line-Up of Partners for its Video Content Program

London, UK-based interactive TV company, Miniweb (note: last September, the company--which launched with an interactive TV alternative to the red button on the Sky satellite-TV platform, and which is now targeting its technologies at the emerging hybrid TV space--announced that it had raised $32 million in venture funding--see [itvt] Issue 8.06 Part 1), has announced the initial line-up of video content aggregators that it says have joined its new Video Content Program and committed their content to broadband-enabled TV devices supported by its platform. The content aggregators include:

• AllTheContent.com, which claims to be the full rights owner of 270,000 articles and 500,000 photos, and to have exclusive licenses for 27,000 hours of video and 5,000 hours of audio.
• blinkx, which claims to have developed the world's largest single index of rich media content (35 million hours of video) on the Web, and which Miniweb says will enable end-users of its platform to search and discover professionally produced content and Internet video in such genres as fashion, sport, music, travel and foreign-language programming.
• Diva, an aggregator of movies, TV series and short-form content for the VOD platforms of Internet companies, telcos, mobile carriers and cable operators in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the US.   
• Film24, which offers movies and related content through satellite TV, the Web, IPTV, social networks, mobile and other platforms.
• The Vu Group, a company that describes itself as focused "on delivering Internet content to the TV and not TV to the Internet."

Miniweb bills its platform as, among other things, enabling viewers to search, discover and recommend video from content owners and aggregators using just their remote control and a broadband-connected TV device. The company says that its platform ensures that content-owner branding, community functions, interactive options, commercial models, distribution restrictions, and payments are preserved across a range of TV devices. "Our newly launched content program has two goals: firstly to simplify the task of providing broadband video to a diverse range of broadband-enabled TV devices by providing a single, server-side integration and, secondly to provide the best viewing experience for TV viewers accessing online content," Miniweb CEO, Andrew Carver, said in a prepared statement. "Everyone benefits. Device manufacturers and operators gain access to more online content and content owners gain access to more viewers through connected TV devices. In addition, broadcasters are able to make their TV channels more engaging by linking them to their own broadband content, and TV viewers benefit from personalization, recommendations and search that work across any content provider with a Media RSS feed connected to the Miniweb platform. The Miniweb platform provides the essential tools, such as micropayments support, subscriptions and advertising to allow content owners to monetize a direct relationship with TV viewers."

Miniweb has announced a number of partnerships targeting the connected TV space in the past few weeks. Last week (see the article published on itvt.com, September 9th) the company said that it had 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. Last month (see the article published on itvt.com, August 3rd), Miniweb said it had integrated the 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.

According to Miniweb, research it recently commissioned from Harris Interactive shows that, despite the growth in Internet video and catch-up TV available via the PC, 77% of people would prefer to watch on-demand programming on their TV, and only 14% on the PC. The company also claims that "TV consumers also want more control and a Web-style set of services to manage their favorite TV shows" and says that its platform "has been designed to meet these needs by providing a set of converged services, which are device agnostic and work within commercial constraints that respect the rights of the content owner and give all members of the video value chain a low-investment route to new converged revenue opportunities."