What They Say
The acquisition of Vewd by Xperi (the owner of Tivo) was announced a couple of days ago (Xperi Acquires Vewd Software) and Next|TV caught up with the Experi Products Chief, Geir Skaaden who added some more information as he headed for a meeting in Norway with the Vewd management team. Geir Skaaden told the blog that it completes Xperi’s video software stack, particularly in the European region in which it sees particular opportunity to supply tier 2 smart TV makers an independent TVOS they can brand themselves and control.
While Roku, for example, brands its platform, Xperi wants to supply a ‘white box’ (my phrase – ed) solution to which TV brands can supply their own branding. That gives the TV maker more control of monetisation and services.
He also said that TiVo continues to migrate its OS from an Android platform to Linux.
The article points out that Roku has said that even TV brands such as LG & Samsung may eventually have to abandon their own OS systems to bow to Amazon, Google and Roku.
What We Think
There are different strategies depending on the strength of your brand, I think. TV brands such as TCL have benefited in their market entry by adopting the Roku branded OS. However, as its own brand has become stronger in the US, in particular, it can then offer its own brand with some credibility. If new brands stop coming into the market, or don’t want to develop in the US, Roku may have more trouble. We recently reported that TCL had started to offer a Google TV as an alternative to Roku (TCL Offers Google TV Option) but we have also reported that Sharp was looking to get going again in the US with Roku. (Sharp connects with Roku to re-enter TV market in U.S.) (BR)
