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Wheelings & Dealings: Finding Something Good to Watch Gets Easier with Rovi and Fan TV

TMCnet Feature

November 04, 2014

Wheelings & Dealings: Finding Something Good to Watch Gets Easier with Rovi and Fan TV

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By Steve Anderson
Contributing TMCnet Writer

One of the biggest problems facing any video delivery system today, from cable television to streaming video, is finding something good to watch in the growing masses of titles on hand. With an ever-increasing amount of video to call on, trying to get to the bottom of it all can be quite a task. But that's a point that Rovi wants to take on, head on, by announcing its acquisition of Fan TV, a service that helps users find the best in video to watch at any given time.


According to reports, Rovi plans to add Fan TV to its already substantial lineup of cloud-based guides, and Fan TV has undergone plenty of development to reach this point. The company reportedly picked up the Open Movie Database back in 2010, which it hoped to put to work as a means to drive on-screen guide systems for a variety of consumer devices. But before reaching that point, Fan TV—under its original name, Fanhattan—released an iPad app, which compiled the various listings at several over-the-top streaming services and then deep-linked into the app that had the desired content. New features followed, then the name change to Fan TV, and then Fan TV brought out its new set-top box, followed by its first deployment with Time Warner Cable. Sales, however, have been slow, mostly owing to the fact that Time Warner (News - Alert) only very recently started allowing customers to actually buy the box.

However, Fan TV didn't just want Time Warner for the user base, but for the cachet. Fan TV gets added value by offering up its product line through Rovi's impressive sales force, which should go quite a ways in putting Fan TV operations in more systems. Rovi, meanwhile, gets more in terms of apps at the consumer level, and a little more to offer at the service provider level, a development that's never really a bad thing in a market of increasing competition. Rovi already numbers Charter and Dish in its own user base, so getting together with Fan TV—who brings in Time Warner Cable—means an even better user base for the combined effort.

Perhaps the best news, though the terms of the deal weren't disclosed, there are no layoffs involved with this move; all of Fan TV's employees—even the founders—are looking to join in on Rovi's discovery group, with reports of further development to come. Some point to Rovi's other acquisition of voice search firm Veveo, which could add voice control to an already interesting mix.

Discovery has always been a big problem, and it's one that only gets worse the farther in we go. With every new series, every new short, every new Web original, we add to a pile of titles sufficiently large that, for most users, it's impossible to find anything in particular. There are mechanisms to help with this, of course—review blogs and the like—but even these can only go so far; the bloggers can only watch and write about so much. Having better search tools on hand may do the job, but what to include in the various search and database fields that would be required to find anything?

Tools like Fan TV and Rovi are a great start, but even these go just so far. We're likely to see plenty more development in this sector before it's all said and done, but at the end of the day, getting more people better access to entertainment is a goal well worth pursuing.




Edited by Maurice Nagle


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