RCN in Multi-Year License Agreement for Rovi's Passport Guide and Television Data

Rovi (formerly Macrovision--for more on the company's name change and the repositioning it heralds, see the interview with Rovi chief evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle, that was published on itvt.com, July 16th) said Tuesday that triple-play provider, RCN, has renewed a multi-year agreement to license Rovi's Passport Guide software, applications and television data. RCN recently went 100% digital in its Boston, Chicago, metro Washington DC, New York and Pennsylvania markets, and a set-top box is now needed to receive its programming. "In the highly evolving entertainment landscape, we understand the importance of providing our customer base with the best digital television offering available," Jason Nealis, RCN's senior director of video product and operations, said in a prepared statement. "This extends beyond the addition of HD channels and requires an advanced programming guide that can help consumers easily navigate, sort, select and record television programming."

According to Rovi, the new deal will enable RCN to transition to Rovi's television data service, which the company claims provides information on over 2.5 million programs (with that number growing daily). The service, which Rovi bills as being based on over 50 years of TV data experience, provides program descriptions, rich media content, celebrity biographies and TV schedules.

Rovi bills its Passport Guide (which was originally developed by Aptiv Digital, an EPG company that was acquired by Gemstar-TV Guide back in 2007--Gemstar TV Guide was itself acquired by Rovi/Macrovision in 2008) as a high-resolution interactive application suite that supports Motorola, Cisco and a number of other set-top boxes. According to the company, the latest release of the Passport Guide features new high-resolution display graphics and fonts for Motorola DCT2500 and DCT700 and other set-tops; automatic tuning to an HD channel when a viewer is tuned to an SD channel and an HD channel is available; the ability to recover previously deleted DVR recordings with a new "Lost & Found" feature; and new search and discovery capabilities that make it easier for viewers to find out more about their favorite shows, actors and directors.