Rovi Signs Charter for Total Guide

7 Jul, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

Giving Rovi Corp. its biggest cable customer to date, pay-TV operator Charter Communications July 7 agreed to implement Rovi’s Total Guide cable search platform for its digital subscribers.

Of Charter’s estimated 5.5 million residential and business customers across 27 states, more than 3 million are digital cable subscribers who can potentially use Rovi’s Total Guide search and recommendation feature. Rovi’s software can be integrated into legacy set-top boxes, the companies said.

“Through this agreement with Rovi, we broaden our ability to innovate, enabling greater product development flexibility in a rapidly changing consumer communications and entertainment marketplace,” said Richard DiGeronimo, Charter’s SVP of product and strategy.

Rovi’s Total Guide platform includes reviews, allows for personalized recommendations for subscribers, and offers data on more than 2.5 million TV episodes, 120,000-plus celebrity profiles, and thousands of films.

The agreement also extends Rovi’s metadata to Charter subscribers using Internet and mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

“Charter [can now] give its customers access to integrated search, continuous six degrees discovery, recommendations, and celebrity biographies and credits that can enhance their TV watching experience,” said Bob Shallow, SVP of service provider sales for Rovi.

Ralph Schackart, analyst with William Blair & Co. in Chicago, called the Charter signing a win for Rovi.

“We view [Charter] as a strong positive for Rovi,” he wrote in a note to investors. “This is Rovi’s fifth service provider win for Total Guide, and also its largest.”

Meanwhile, also July 7, software security company Irdeto purchased Rovi’s BD+ technology unit for up $25 million in cash, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Blu-ray Disc BD+ anti-copying technology was acquired by Rovi first — then Macrovision — in late 2007.

“We are working closely with the studio community to ensure that movie titles released on Blu-ray have the same rigorous protection standards we created for Irdeto ActiveCloak for Media,” said Irdeto CEO Graham Kill, referencing his company’s digital content protection solution. “This is the beginning of a new era of software security, and one that is certainly welcome for companies whose livelihood depends on digital entertainment.”
 

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