Interactive TV News Round-Up (VI): SeaChange, Armstrong, ODD, EWE Tel, Shazam, TiVo

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been busy this week working on the TV of Tomorrow Show 2011, we are covering recent news in round-up/summary form. We anticipate that it will take us a few days to catch up with all the news we plan to cover: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

•   Multiscreen video technology company, SeaChange International, has announced that Armstrong, a cable operator serving customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland, has used its solutions to carry out an end-to-end upgrade of its VOD architecture. "Now Armstrong's local operations are running SeaChange MDS 500 video servers in conjunction with SeaChange Axiom on Demand video backoffice software, enabling service expansion to 15,000 hours of movies and television programs on-demand across these markets," SeaChange states in its press materials. "Combining the advantages of standards-based hardware with SeaChange's patented MediaCluster technology, the SeaChange MediaServer MDS 500 is a streamer and scalable library storage solution that enables a new level of cost performance for advanced video services. Providing up to 5,000 hours of content, scalable ingest and streaming in a two rack unit chassis, the MDS 500 is designed to meet the ever increasing requirements for VOD long tail content. The complete SeaChange VOD solution is integrated with Armstrong's iGuide client application and Motorola and Pace set-top boxes. Armstrong's VOD service is available to over 50% of subscriber homes and has been running on SeaChange software and servers since 2005."
• In other SeaChange News: 1) On Demand Deutschland, a joint venture between Tele Muenchen Gruppe and SeaChange subsidiary, On Demand Group, has been selected as the exclusive content provider for German telco EWE Tel's new Online-Videothek service. "The EWE Online-Videothek service will offer movies from Sony, Fox, MGM, TMG and Constantin; and other major studios are expected to be announced shortly," On Demand Deutschland states in its press materials. "At launch, consumers will be able to view recent blockbusters such as 'Iron Man 2,' 'Eat Pray Love,' 'Salt,' 'Karate Kid,' 'The A-Team' and library blockbusters such as 'Spider Man,' 'Iron Man,' 'XXX,' 'Werner' and many more as the service grows. Movies are priced from 1.99 Euros for a 48-hour rental period." 2) The company has published a list of speakers for its SeaChange International Summit: Monetizing Multi-Screen Video event, which takes place April 27th at the Parker Le Meridien New York (note: for more on the event, of which [itvt] is a media sponsor, see the article published on itvt.com, February 9th).
• Shazam, a company which offers a mobile application that consumers can use to identify music, TV shows and other content (a process the company calls "tagging"), has announced the appointment of MTV Networks co-founder, John Sykes, to its board as part of what it characterizes as the ongoing expansion of its remit beyond music (and into interactive TV). "John has shaped popular culture for more than 25 years and has been a key influencer in changing the way millions of people consume media around the world," Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher, said in a prepared statement. "John's expertise in building global consumer brands founded on media and entertainment is invaluable and fits perfectly with our mission to establish Shazam as the world's leading brand for mobile discovery as Shazam transitions beyond music to enable consumers to interact with television programming content and advertising." "Shazam recently announced that its service had reached the 100 million user milestone and that it identifies more than three million tracks per day," the company states in its press materials. "The company also announced the launch in January of the first, series-long 'Shazamable TV' initiative for 'Being Human,' in partnership with NBC Universal's Syfy network. The Shazam logo is embedded into the program so that users can tag the show. Viewers simply 'touch to Shazam' and hold their phone up to the TV to tag the specific episode. Shazam recognizes the episode and delivers a customized Tag result to the viewer's mobile device with links to exclusive video and previews of upcoming episodes, access to exclusive playlists from the series, downloads and the chance to enter the 'Being Human Shazam Sweepstakes' at Syfy.com. Shazam was also recently selected by Old Navy for their new national advertising campaign where users can Shazam Old Navy television adverts as well as spots in retail stores for unique promotions and offers." (Note: for more on how Shazam added interactivity to "Being Human" and to Old Navy's latest advertising campaign, see the articles published on itvt.com, January 28th and February 23rd.)

• TiVo has released financial results and subscriber totals for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 31st: Q4 service and technology revenues totaled $41.4 million, compared to $45.3 million for the year-ago quarter (note: revenues were, however, up sequentially for the first time in six quarters); adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $25.8 million, compared to a loss of $3 million for the year-ago quarter; net losses totaled $34.4 million, compared to net losses of $10 million for the year-ago quarter (note: according to the company, "the year-over-year change in net loss and adjusted EBITDA was driven by a decline in service and technology revenue, a larger hardware loss due to holiday pricing that offered subsidized hardware for a lower upfront price to consumers in exchange for higher monthly subscription fees, and from higher operating expenses, stemming from increased total legal spend and R&D investments); gross additions of TiVo-owned subscriptions were 60,000, compared to 40,000 for the year-ago quarter; while TiVo-owned net subscription losses decreased from 72,000 to 55,000. TiVo also provided guidance for the current quarter: "For the first quarter of fiscal 2012, TiVo anticipates service and technology revenues in the range of $36 million to $38 million," the company stated in its earnings release. "The expected sequential decrease in service and technology revenue is being driven by an anticipated $4 million to $5 million decrease in technology revenue compared to the prior quarter. Technology revenue can vary significantly from quarter to quarter, and may not be reflective of the level of technology revenues in future quarters in fiscal 2012. TiVo anticipates net loss to be in the range of ($35) million to ($37) million, and an adjusted EBITDA loss to be in the range of ($25) million to ($27) million. TiVo expects to see lower TiVo-owned net hardware losses compared to the prior quarter, a sequential increase in R&D spend, and finally, it anticipates total legal expenses, including expenses related to litigation, will significantly increase from its Q4 level of approximately $7.6 million."