Sony's Crackle Launches on Boxee's OTT Platform

In a posting on over-the-top-TV specialist Boxee's corporate blog, Wednesday, the company's VP of marketing, Andrew Kippen, announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment-owned broadband video service, Crackle, is now available on the Boxee platform, providing users with 49 TV show "minisodes" (i.e. condensed versions of classic TV shows) and 37 original Web shows. "Crackle has long been a portal for great original Web content, old TV shows, and movies backed by one of the industry's largest entertainment companies (who also happens to make the PS3)," Kippen wrote. "We're excited to say that now you can watch dozens of 'minisodes' (5 min episodes) from TV shows like 'Voltron,' 'Who's the Boss,' 'Bewitched,' 'Rescue Me,' 'Diff'rent Strokes' and 'Married with Children.' If ever there was a collection that spanned demographics, age groups, and genders, this is it. Along with the TV shows, Crackle's original Web content brings shows able to highlight creativity and freedom rarely seen on a broadcast network. After watching episodes of 'A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Minister Walk Into a Bar' and 'Dating Brad Garrett,' I was left wanting to explore more from celebrities like Adam Carolla, Brad Garrett, Jon Heder, and Charlie Murphy."

Boxee, which recently announced plans to launch its own set-top box (see the article published on itvt.com, November 16th), is set to unveil the beta version of its platform at an event in Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg next Monday (7:00PM, December 7th). The company--which is asking those interested in attending to RSVP at http://bit.ly/boxeebetanyc--is also providing Livestream-powered live streaming coverage of the event on its blog (http://blog.boxee.tv) or directly on its platform. It says it has also tapped Cliqset to overlay messaging onto the stream, so that--as an email from CEO Avner Ronen puts it--"you'll be able to chat about Boxee while you're watching Boxee on Boxee." In addition to a demo of the Boxee Beta, the event is slated to include the unveiling of mock-ups of the new Boxee box, the launch of various new Boxee apps, and the start of a "four-week early-access for users to test the Beta" before it is officially launched at CES, January 7th (note: it is also possible to sign up for early access to the Beta at http://bit.ly/boxeebetaea). According to Ronen, the Boxee Beta "will look, feel and behave differently from the Alpha," and will feature "a completely redesigned look-and-feel; improved navigation across the platform to quickly and easily access entertainment; search for TV shows and movies on the Internet and on local hard drives/networks; queuing functionality to let you save things for later from the Web; shortcuts for your favorite apps, movies, shows, etc.; and the proverbial 'more.'"