Widevine has tied up yet another OTT service in the US on the shape of Boxee, which will use its adaptive streaming and DRM. Boxee uses open source software, which boasts that it offers “social” media centered video, which came out of the Xbox Media Center. The service now has access to a number of news, TV and movie sources as well as internet TV sources such as Hulu and Netflix.
The deal is that Boxee and Widevine will collaborate to make Widevine’s adaptive streaming, virtual DVD controls and DRM technologies available in CE devices which containing Boxee’s software platform. There is only one reason to do that, so that top of the range, paid for content can ship over Boxee, so expect that at some stage.
Back in June Boxee took a step in that direction when it said it would license the RoxioNow entertainment platform from Sonic Solutions, which it will use in its web TV PC application and its delayed dedicated set-top box, which is being designed with D-Link.
The RoxioNow platform can already reach a growing list of consumer electronics devices including PCs, connected TVs, set-top DVRs, Blu-ray Disc players and smartphones. Widevine was one of three DRMs that was already supported by RoxioNow and it made sense that Boxee might make the jump to one of the at some stage.
Widevine has made it clear that it has had some of the ‘TV Everywhere pie’ from more major Pay TV operators, including the online film service of Blockbuster, which also uses Sonic’s RoxioNow.
‘Our goal has always been to provide users with access to as much entertainment as possible,’ said Avner Ronen, CEO & co-founder, Boxee. ‘Partnering with Widevine will allow us to bring more movies & TV shows to Boxee in the best possible quality.’
‘We are excited to work with Boxee, one of the most innovative media center platforms available today,’ said Brian Baker, CEO, Widevine. ‘Currently the Widevine platform is available in over 250 million CE devices worldwide and we continue to widen our footprint in the global CE device market. This agreement with Boxee moves us closer to our goal of becoming the world’s foremost provider of video optimization solutions and DRM.’
The Widevine platform was recently added to the Sling Box from EchoStar’s Sling Media. Widevine says it is also natively supported many major brands of consumer electronics including TVs, Blu-ray players, mobile devices and gaming systems.
Boxee’s recently added Livestation to its list of news services, which include The Washington Post, CNN, The Associated Press, and The Onion. Livestation has just added news from the BBC, Al-Jazeera, France 24 and Frontline.