ActiveVideo Rides the Roku Wave
By: Jeff Baumgartner
Multichannel News
May 30 2013 - 10:36am
http://www.multichannel.com/blogs/bauminator/activevideo-rides-roku-wave
ActiveVideo’s penetration of the consumer electronics world is set to
expand in a big way as its CloudTV client is set to be deployed to about
5 million Roku players, company senior vice president and chief
marketing officer Murali Nemani noted today in blog post.
ActiveVideo’s CloudTV system is playing a key technical role in the
coming launch of Net2TV’s Portico TV service on the Roku device in late
June. Portico TV debuted on Philips-made smart TVs in December that
likewise use the ActiveVideo client.
As Broadcasting & Cable reported Thursday, the latest deal gives Roku
access to Portico TV’s long-form shows from Discovery’s Revision3 and
CBS Interactive’s CHOW.com, as well as Bonnier’s “Popular Science.”
Net2TV said Portico TV is poised to expand to 20 million screens by the
end of 2013. And ActiveVideo, which will have its client on 10 million
devices once Portico hits the Roku next month, will apparently be along
for the ride.
Net2TV designed its cloud-based user interface in HTML5. The ActiveVideo
client, when housed in the likes of Philips TVs and Roku boxes, handles
any tricky conversions at the device level, meaning that Net2TV should
only have to write the app once, versus having to develop a new one
every time it targets a new platform.
“With the integration of the CloudTV client on Roku platform, SPs
[service providers] are able to port their TV Everywhere applications
almost immediately, and with minimal effort,” Nemani wrote.
It’s hard to argue with the operational logic. After all, Netflix is the
prime example of the operational challenges faced by over-the-top video
providers as they look to get their apps deployed on an expanding
universe of IP-connected tablets, consoles, TVs, smartphones and
operating systems, including the highly fragmented Android platform.
But technical merits aside, ActiveVideo and Net2TV also have another
important connection. Gary Lauder, the managing partner of Lauder
Partners and an ITV pioneer in his own right, is the chairman and
founder of ActiveVideo and one of Net2TV’s key backers.
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