Comments on: Rovi May Finally Get On CE Devices Through Sonic Buy

By: Rovi Buys Sidereel, Expands to the Web: Online Video News «

Rovi Buys Sidereel, Expands to the Web: Online Video News « — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:30:58 +0000

[...] company acquired the content recommendation specialist Media Unbound about a year ago, and it spent $720 million on Sonic Solutions in December. Rovi’s core business proposition has been its TotalGuide, an EPG for connected [...]

By: Richard Bullwinkle

Richard Bullwinkle — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:27:57 +0000

Perfect! I would really enjoy such a discussion, because I actually read you regularly and value your insight. If you’d like to come by and visit us at CES, I’ll show you specific products on specific devices, or if you want to do a phone conversation, that works great, too. I know CES gets very busy!

Cheers,
-Richard Bullwinkle
richard@rovicorp.com

By: Ryan Lawler

Ryan Lawler — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:46:29 +0000

Richard, I appreciate the response. Frankly, we’ve been talking to Rovi for a while, but this is the first time I’ve seen you name CE manufacturers you’re working with — at least in discussions with me. Would love to discuss after the holidays and get more granular about what you’re offering to these companies and how they’re using your technology.

By: Richard Bullwinkle

Richard Bullwinkle — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:19:09 +0000

Dan, I’m not really excited to engage in a comment debate, and I’m certainly not going to comment on a deal that hasn’t yet closed, but you’ve decided to change the topic midway by defining the word success.

Ryan implied that we can’t get our technology into CE products.

I replied that we supply the guides and metadata for Samsung, Sony, and others comprising the largest CE TV manufacturers in the world. I’m not about to discuss what each pays for that technology and data, but considering our company has met or beat performance expectations, and almost doubled in value in a year’s time, I would say that we have been successful. Yes, I understand you want some breakout. It isn’t going to happen here.

Happy Holidays,
-Richard

By: Dan Rayburn

Dan Rayburn — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:07:13 +0000

Hi Richard, have to agree with Ryan on this one. To date, I don’t know of any metrics Rovi has offered the market to allow us to determine what you classify as a “great success”. If you have such metrics, revenue numbers, or some kind of breakout, I’m sure we’d love to hear more about it. Sony, Samsung etc… are all great customer names, but what’s the real value to Rovi in terms of dollars? Adoption? Devices? etc… there needs to be some metric for the market to determine what the real “success” is.

My personal opinion, Rovi completely overpaid for Sonic. We always hear them use the name Blockbuster and BestBuy but what have those companies done in the digital space in the past 2 years? Almost nothing. They have had not impact on the market at all. Rovi is spending a lot of money betting on the future.

By: Richard Bullwinkle

Richard Bullwinkle — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:54:39 +0000

Hey Ryan,

This phrase “Rovi has long tried to convince consumer electronics manufacturers to let it power program guides on their connected devices” perhaps implies we’ve tried unsuccessfully. (maybe it’s just the word “tried”) I just wanted to make sure you know that we already provide guidance technology and metadata to Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, Panasonic, Visio, LG…I mean, we’re very excited about the new capabilities Sonic brings, but we have had great success in the CE space already.

We could talk more about it when you have time.
-Richard Bullwinkle
Chief Evangelist, Rovi