Miniweb has launched its cloud-based video distribution platform Woomi on Samsung TVs in the UK. Benefitting from a place on the Samsung home screen, Woomi brings together a clutch of content partners that enable users to perform a site wide search within a few clicks.
Miniweb founder Ian Valentine told Broadband TV News the company was now focussed on making the Woomi environment available across a variety of platforms.
The company has had a number of false dawns since it was spun off from BSkyB in a management buyout in 2007. The much-touted Sky Keys interactive service has now closed, but the Woomi technology could be seen as a logical successor to the 2009 collaboration with Dutch middleware provider Metrological Media Innovations that used the Yahoo widget environment.
Valentine explained that from a £1.99 (€2.34) transaction, content partners that include Box Office 365, Chellozone, Playboy and Videojug would receive around 70%. From the remainder Woomi would take 20%, with 10% going to the device manufacturer.
In addition to Samsung, where it is planned to add Woomi to the Internet@TV portal in other territories including France, Germany and the United States, there are agreements with Echostar and Vestel. By mid 2011, Miniweb predicts Woomi to be on more than half of the world’s connected TVs.