“Apple has signed a multi-year deal with Rovi Corporation, a company that offers a variety of digital entertainment services, but the terms of the deal remain confidential,” Slash Lane reports for AppleInsider.
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“Rovi announced Monday that it had signed a deal with Apple, which will allow the Cupertino, Calif., company to license intellectual property. The confidential agreement was disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,” Lane reports. “Rovi offers a number of products and services that could apply to Apple. It sells metadata and media recognition software, anti-piracy digital rights management services, and interactive program guides for television set top boxes.”
“The company builds digital home software technology that allows various products to sync with one another, letting users access their content from a range of devices,” Lane reports. “It has pitched its consumer electronic solutions as ‘the future of home entertainment,’ allowing users to view and share content on a TV or mobile phone.”
Lane reports, “On its website, the company states that it licenses its interactive program guide and digital content protection technologies to third parties, allowing them to “facilitate navigation of digital entertainment media and protect valuable assets.” Its program guide is currently in use by digital cable and satellite providers, as well as set-top box manufacturers.”
Full article here.
Oh man… I thought they signed a deal with Roomba… I was getting excited.
PS..
I’ll take this company though.
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For a second I thought they bought the people that make this:
http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/tech/telepresence/rovio
@theloniousMac
Now that’s a step-up-of-a Roomba.
@theloniousMac,

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Isn’t that the thing from “Law Abiding Citizen”?
They should have bought Rovi, now MS & Google can license the same stuff.
@ron
Not if “exclusive” is in that license agreement.
I bet this about the DRM needed to get the rest of the networks to sign on to TV show rentals.
Just clues that will lead up to the next “Just one more thing.”
Can you guess what it is? No, guess harder!
One of Rovi’s big products is the metadata behind AllMusic.com, etc. but Rovi is also heavily invested in CE devices as well.
Apple TV.
It’s not your father’s hobby anymore.