IBC 2011 – AMSTERDAM. Rotterdam-based Metrological Media Innovations and Liberty Global have announced that Liberty Global will adopt Metrological’s widget framework for Project Horizon.
The widget framework establishes the bridge between internet delivered content and pay-TV services in order to provide digital television subscribers a broad range of innovative interactive applications and enhanced services.
The Widget Framework will power the app and widget store that is part of the new TV platform. In this store subscribers will be offered a full catalogue of web-based applictions and widgets that are integrated in the user interface enabling subscribers to access contextual, related apps and widgets, while watching TV and video content at the same time.
With the social media widget, viewers can share whatever they are watching with their friends and recommend it. TV-show related widgets provide background information and the possibility to interact in real-time with the TV programme without having to move away from the programme itself.
The Horizon open platform for apps aims to add a new dimension to experiencing TV in the same way that apps have done for smart phones and tablets. According to the press release “the Liberty Global Horizon ecosystem is an open and scalable platform on which developers can continue to improve and enhance the functionality for consumers. Liberty Global is working with the most influential content providers to develop applications for its standards-based ‘App Store’. Liberty Global is reaching out to potential content partners and third party application developers and will soon launch a software developers’ kit for Horizon, inviting them to join the existing 60 content partners that already have developed apps for the new platform.
Liberty Global selected Metrological’s Widget framework to secure interchangeability of widgets because of its compatibility with existing platforms. Existing apps & widgets, including those based on Yahoo TV widgets, W3C, HTML5, will run on this platform with limited or no rework. This makes it easier for content providers to develop TV widgets in a market with an increasing number of platforms to choose from.”
“We are truly honoured to have been invited by Liberty Global to join such a prestigious project development team and consider this as an ultimate endorsement of our technological capabilities,” Albert Dahan, CTO of Metrological stated.
“Content providers developing a widget for our platform will now be able to have it run on other TV platforms as well and vice versa,” said Doron Hacmon, managing director of products online media department for the European broadband operations of Liberty Global.
