ANT CEO Simon Woodward has given details of its companion strategy that allows tablet devices to access content from set-tops fitted with its Galio browser. A client announcement is expected in the next few weeks.
“The companion strategy is about getting the most out of what you already have,” CEO Simon Woodward. “You’ve got a set-top box driving the television and particularly as a PVR device with twin tuners it is capable of doing a variety of things. It’s the start of a whole roadmap of capability that we’re building into the iPad, iPhone and Android.”
Woodward said it was important that a family member could view what was coming up in the schedule without disturbing the rest of the group. Taking advantage of the ‘fair-use’ attitude to free-to-air content in Europe, ANT is proposing to run content received on a set-top box onto tablet devices.
“What we’ve done is to make aware at the point of sale that the device can be extended, so when you get home you download an app that is tailored to a device, matching the branding,” said Woodward.
With the app in place, consumers use their in home router to pick up the available metadata, view content and set recordings.
Woodward anticipated an increase in the number of tuners per box as more and more devices were brought online. It was he said the logical development of what was already available within set-top PVRs.
