With plans for Google TV on hold, UK-based Miniweb is poised to secure both headlines and business with its cloud-based services platform Woomi.
Instead of giving consumers open browser based access to the Internet a la Google TV or the limited menu of content the device maker has integrated such as Netflix or YouTube, Woomi offers a differentiated position by putting the publishers in control.
“We are a marketplace in between content providers and the device world,” explains Miniweb’s CEO Jerome de Vitry. “We are not streaming video or acquiring rights, but act as an agent enabling our content partners to keep their brand and be viewed on as many TVs as possible.”
Its flagship client is Samsung (announced last September) and this month the service goes live across all Samsung smart TVs and Blu-ray players (with a tablet app to follow), beginning in the UK then rolling out to European territories and the US by the end of the year.
Further deals have been signed. Echostar Europe will be launching a new STB in Q1 with Woomi as its main interface for video discovery.
It also has a global deal with Vestel, a Turkish white label TV manufacturer, and it has signed the largest STB manufacturer in China (DTM) for similar global coverage.
More suppliers, including LG, are being lined up: “We believe that by mid-2011 we will be in a position to address suppliers representing more than half of the TV market,” says de Vitry.
Content partners include Chellozone, Playboy, OpenFilm, Blinkx, Videojug, Preview Networks, EZTakes and Renderyard.
A sneak preview of the site is being shown off the exhibit floor at Hilton suite 2812.