Digeo issued a press release announcing four alliances to bring content to the Moxi DVR platform, similar to the partnerships TiVo has established with Home Media Engine (Fandango, Rhapsody, Picasa, etc) and TiVoCast. Digeo’s four alliances are:
- Flickr: Photo viewing from the online service.
- Finetune: Music playback from your Finetune account.
- Accedo Broadband: Casual gaming – Sudoku, Texas Hold’em, etc.
- CloverLeaf: Informational content – weather, sports, news, etc. – for the Moxi SuperTicker feature.
I’ve only ever heard of Flickr before, but I’m not too surprised. Behind-the-scenes companies like Accedo and Cloverleaf probably don’t get their name out there that much. All four will be free services included on the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR, Moxi Home Cinema HD DMR and Moxi TV for PC. The Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and Moxi Home Cinema HD DMR were shown at CES 2007 with a planned release of late 2007, but at this time all three products are slated for ‘later in 2008′ with no pricing announced. Though the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR has repeatedly been cited as having a $1,000 price tag, that may no longer be accurate.
The press release:
Digeo® Outlines Services Strategy; Announces Alliances with Flickr, Finetune, Accedo and CloverLeaf
New Services Further Enhance the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR Entertainment Experience
Las Vegas, Nevada — January 7, 2007 — Digeo, Inc., makers of the Emmy®-award winning Moxi® digital media recorder (DMR), and recipients of two CEA Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Honoree awards today outlined its featured services strategy and subsequently announced alliances with four leading content providers: Flickr, Finetune, Accedo Broadband and CloverLeaf Digital LLC. These new services are the first of many anticipated content partners and illustrate how the Moxi Menu seamlessly aggregates and connects several different specialized services into one cohesive entertainment experience.
While other basic DMRs or media center PCs provide access to non-broadcast content and services via disparate virtual content “stores,” the Moxi Menu delivers a premium entertainment experience that integrates all content sources throughout the user interface, providing consumers with increased exposure and easy access to all available content. This approach has already proven successful for premium content offered on Moxi Media Centers deployed through cable operators. A 2006 Adelphia study demonstrated VOD usage by subscribers of the Moxi Media Center was more than triple that of ordinary digital-cable subscribers during a given month. The increase in VOD uptake is credited to the Moxi Menu’s unique seamless integration of VOD and PPV titles alongside regular programming throughout the guide.
“People are increasingly looking to the TV as a central source for entertainment,” said Mike Fidler, CEO of Digeo. “As the number of channels and Internet-based content delivery providers grow, consumers will seek out devices which make navigating the sea of content simple and intuitive, and we believe the Moxi HD DMR family will stand out as providing the best entertainment experience possible.”
Your Digital Life, All in One Place
Each content partner was chosen not only for its innovative approach to digital content, but for its overall commitment to ease of use and ability to aid consumer discovery and enjoyment of new content. For example, Digeo is collaborating with Flickr, one of the world’s largest online photo sharing communities, to allow users to easily link their Flickr accounts with the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR. This gives consumers easy access to any photo group associated with their Flickr account – including popular categories from the Flickr web community and photos uploaded from mobile devices — in the full HD resolution1 in their living room. Now, consumers can access photos streamed from their PC, stored on Moxi or shared on Flickr all from the Moxi Photos tab on the Moxi Menu.
Similarly, together with Finetune, a well-known music service, Digeo has extended the Moxi Music feature by making it possible for Finetune members to play their customized playlists or personalized stations from the Moxi Menu. Comprised of about two million tracks, Finetune also has one of the largest major and indie label libraries in the industry. Since its launch in September 2006, Finetune has already counted three-million unique listeners and 600,000 registered members, adding more than 60,000 new listeners each week. Now, Moxi users have convenient access to their entire MP3 music library, right from the Moxi Menu regardless of whether the music lives on the Moxi hard drive, their laptop or PC, or online at Finetune.
To bring HD casual gaming to the TV, Digeo is partnering with Accedo Broadband, which specializes in television-centric entertainment services. Casual gaming has grown dramatically in popularity over the past few years and is increasingly being embraced through the television medium. Moxi DMRs already offer classic games such as solitaire and poker, and with Accedo, Digeo will expand its offering to include additional HD games such as Sudoku, Texas Hold`em and QuizzMaster.
Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR will also have a host of new services for information junkies. In addition to the popular SuperTicker™ feature already in Moxi, CloverLeaf will take advantage of the new HD Moxi Menu to give users access to full-screen web-based content designed specifically for TV viewing. This includes news and sports from Associated Press, local weather content from AccuWeather, lottery results and other information such as horoscopes and movie listings through CloverLeaf’s DotDaily, an interactive television news and information portal. Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR users will be able to browse news by topic and region, or see the day’s news as a series of photos.
All four services will be available as free features in the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR, Moxi Home Cinema HD DMR and Moxi TV for PC products to become available later in 2008. Additionally, Digeo will showcase live demonstrations of all four services at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in their booth #26606 in South Hall 2, as well as the Content@CES showcase in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
About Digeo, Inc.
Digeo, Inc. creates state-of-the-art home entertainment technologies, including digital media recorder (DMR) platforms and services. The company’s mission is to enable the best consumer experience in high-definition entertainment for the connected home.
Digeo’s flagship product – the two-time Emmy® Award-winning Moxi Media Center – serves as a hub for whole-home distribution of digital entertainment and has been deployed in more than 400,000 homes by eight cable operators nationwide. A new line of Moxi-branded products, including Moxi TV for PC, Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and the Moxi Home Cinema HD DMR will be available for consumer purchase in 2008. The company also licenses its technology to third-party companies as the user interface, application or customer connection portal to drive their products or services. Backed primarily by Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc., Digeo is based in Kirkland, Wash. For more information, please visit http://www.digeo.com. For a virtual demo of the Moxi Menu, please visit http://www.moxi.com.
About Accedo Broadband
Accedo is a leading provider of interactive and long-tail on-demand content and applications for IPTV and online consumer electronics. Accedo provides the largest available multi-platform portfolio of IPTV applications, Accedo Application Portfolioâ„¢, containing IPTV games, quizzes, puzzles, video art, comics, karaoke, weather, lifestyle, food and communication.
Accedo is a privately held company founded by telecom and media entrepreneurs Michael Lantz and Fredrik Andersson. Accedo has offices in Stockholm, London, San Francisco and Hong Kong.
Read more about Accedo on http://www.accedobroadband.com.
About CloverLeaf Digital LLC
CloverLeaf Digital is the leading independent provider of interactive TV walled garden portal services in the United States. Distributed in over 150 cities, CloverLeaf’s interactive network provides telephone companies, cable operators, and other distributors of digital video with the ability to offer on-demand localized news and information to their subscribers. CloverLeaf’s turnkey offering is optimized for the underlying TV platform, customized to meet the operator’s requirements, and localized for the communities in which it is distributed. (http://www.cloverleafdigital.com)
About Finetune
Finetune is the ultimate digital music service — two parts personal player, one part social network. Create your own playlists and discover new music through one of the largest online catalogs of licensed major and indie labels. Music you didn’t know you love is just seconds away through Finetune’s expert- and community-driven discovery engine. Never complicated and always free, Finetune comes with no strings attached. No downloads. No questionnaires. Lean back and listen, or sit up, spin and share. Just type in an artist and the experience begins – on your browser, on your desktop, on your blog, and beyond. What music do you love? http://www.finetune.com
About Flickr
Flickr is one of the world’s leading online photo sharing communities where people explore, find, manage and share pictures of life’s daily moments with friends, family and the world. With more than 40 million worldwide visitors each month and more than 2 billion photos stored, Flickr serves as the ‘eyes of the world’ and has revolutionized the sharing and discovery of what people see and experience through photos. Flickr was developed by Ludicorp in February 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in March 2005. To share and explore the world’s photos, visit http://www.flickr.com.
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1 Photo resolution is dependent on source file.
Digeo, Moxi, and their respective logos are the trademarks of Digeo, Inc. Use of the trademarks and service marks of the National Television Academy (“NTA”), including the mark EMMY®, requires the prior express written permission of National Television Academy. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information, media only:
Jodie Cadieux, Digeo, Inc., 425.896.6050, jodie.cadieux@digeo.com
Gaby Adam, OnPR, 425.454.6843, gabya@onpr.com
