--RadioTime, Bigstar.tv to Launch Channels on Roku OTT Platform
Video workflow optimization technology provider, Unicorn Media, said Wednesday that it has added platform support for the Roku Player. Through its support of the Roku OTT platform, the company says, it is able to provide expanded reach into the living room for content owners who utilize its suite of video publishing services (note: the Roku platform currently offers around 30 channels of entertainment content, including movies, TV shows, live sports, music and photo viewing).
According to Unicorn, its "Media-as-a-Service" solution provides a comprehensive selection of video management tools for distributing media to any IP-enabled device, making support for the Roku player a "logical step." It says that customers of its platform can now easily reach Roku owners as part of their syndication and distribution strategy, and then analyze their content through the platform's detailed analytics tools. "Unicorn Media gives us the technology to easily get content partners up and running with our public SDK, enabling them to deliver their content to our customers in a seamless fashion," Roku's VP of business development, Jim Funk, said in a prepared statement. "Every new content channel added to the Roku platform extends the product's reach to an even broader audience of potential customers."
Unicorn Media customers planning to launch a channel on the Roku Player in the near future include BeautyTV. "Unicorn Media has allowed us to focus on syndicating our content to every IP-enabled device imaginable," BeautyTV founder and CEO, Rob Angelino, said in a prepared statement. "Unicorn is a single-source provider for innovative content creators, such as ourselves, who are looking to reach the widest audience possible." Added Unicorn Media's chief strategy officer, David Rice: "We've made it our mission to make it easy and profitable for our clients to distribute their media assets. We are thrilled to work with Roku in reaching ever-growing, online-connected TV audiences. We are also excited about possibilities for future innovations that can be leveraged on the Roku platform."
According to Unicorn Media, its suite of services includes video management tools, such as tools for transcoding, content management and syndication. It claims its tools make the distribution of content to any IP-enabled device less time consuming and less expensive. It also offers a solution dubbed Umedia Analytics, which it bills as providing real-time actionable information that allows its clients to understand their audience across multiple platforms.
In other Roku news: RadioTime, a developer of technology for finding and listening to radio online, is set to launch a free channel on the Roku Player. According to the companies, the channel, which is scheduled to launch June 1st, was developed by Chris Hagedorn, a mutual customer, using Roku's SDK and RadioTime's API. It will enable Roku users to access over 20,000 AM/FM and Internet-only radio stations and over 100,000 programs, the companies say. "There was an obvious demand for Internet Radio on the Roku DVP, and RadioTime offered the path of least resistance to satisfying that demand," Hagedorn said in a prepared statement. "The RadioTime API is freely available, built on open standards, and is easy to work with."
According to the companies, the Roku RadioTime channel requires no set-up or registration, and will allow users to link to their RadioTime.com accounts in order to manage their favorite station and program presets on the Roku Player. RadioTime--which claims to provide an easy way to find local, national and global programming airing on stations in 140 countries--provides an open API to enable hardware manufacturers and software developers to add its guide to their devices and applications. "The RadioTime channel returns radio to a position of prominence in the home entertainment system, and is a great example of how anyone can build a channel that streams content to the TV," Roku's Funk said in a prepared statement. A demo video of the Roku RadioTime channel is embedded above.
In addition, as this issue of [itvt] was going to press, Roku tweeted that Bigstar.tv, a broadband video service specializing in independent film, will shortly launch a channel on its platform.
