Rovi is working with Entone and Evolution Digital, which are planning to develop customized versions of Rovi Guides for use in their respective platforms including DTAs, as well as Hybrid and IP-based set-top boxes.
Rovi is also developing what it is calling connected guides, which the company said are designed to deliver a simple path for service providers to migrate a diverse subscriber base to IP-based discovery services.
And following its purchase of Veveo, Rovi is introducing its Personalized Discovery Solution, a product that integrates Rovi’s metadata-based guide technology and Veveo’s contextual and predictive search and recommendations engine, along with its technology which enables viewers to search through content using natural speech input.
One of the Veveo elements of the integrated product is an optional module called Conversation Services. It allows consumers to have a spoken dialog with the system in order to find the content that interests them, switching topics and using pronouns during follow-up requests, Rovi said.
Rovi’s human-curated metadata database includes data on more than five million TV programs, movies, celebrities. That is combined with the company’s Knowledge Graph, which maintains information on more than 100 million entertainment-related entities drawn and verified from over 100,000 online sources. The combination, the company said, is its ‘entertainment brain’ that helps enable search and recommendations relevancy, accuracy and speed.
“While we believe more personalized discovery services will delight subscribers and ignite greater engagement, they also represent an opportunity for providers to differentiate their services, fuel retention and increase the lifetime value of a subscriber,” said John Burke, executive vice president and COO, Rovi. “Moreover, when combined with additional Rovi services, personalization creates the opportunity for more tailored and addressable advertising and, based on the availability of return-path data from set-tops and second screens, the opportunity to analyze consumption habits to further refine and personalize the entertainment experience.”
Rovi Personalized Discovery Solution is delivered through the Rovi Cloud Platform. The service can be integrated into Rovi Connected Guides, for use on Smart TVs, mobile phones and tablets.
Connected guides are designed to help MSOs who have a heterogeneous installation base of legacy systems and a subscriber base that spans from analog customers to those embracing new IP-based platforms.
Burke said, “Our customizable, cloud-powered guides and services will enable providers to streamline the management of this complex environment and deliver advanced discovery experiences to their entire subscriber base, using Internet Protocol, without an infrastructure overhaul.
“Relationships with other leaders in the entertainment ecosystem should help expand the deployment options available to providers, and result in new complementary capabilities and services, and customized user interfaces being introduced to Rovi Guides by third-party developers,” Burke continued.
That includes Entone and Evolution Digital.
“With Rovi’s connected guides and our home server platform which provides integrated transcoding and multiple tuner options, we hope to allow service operators to use their existing legacy systems to deliver a multi-screen TV experience across a range of connected devices from a single, operator-branded interface,” stated Mark Evensen, founder and CTO of Entone. “Our collaboration with Rovi should further extend our home server platform to enable operators to accelerate their IP transition.”
“We view this as a very natural and positive extension to our long-standing relationship with Rovi around entertainment discovery,” said Brent Smith, President of Evolution Digital. “Backed by a powerful range of compelling services, Rovi connected guides should offer the capabilities we need to enhance the service offering on our HD uDTA products, and our next generation Hybrid QAM/IP Media Hub set-tops.”
Rovi connected guides are comprised of Rovi Guide for TV, an HTML-based guide for smart TVs; Rovi Guide for Mobile, iOS and Android-based tablet and smartphone guides, and Rovi Guide for Web, a syndicated guide for enabling entertainment discovery on the web.
Rovi Cloud Services include Rovi’s entertainment data, Advertising and Audience Management Services, and Remote Access Services, which enable Rovi guides to control functionality, such as channel tuning and DVR management, on cable set-top boxes regardless of whether or not those set-top-boxes are connected to the Internet.
