Web-to-TV hardware maker Roku struck a deal with Blip.tv last week to bring independent Web content to Roku boxes connected to TVs.
The partnership could help spur Roku's market penetration by routing more programming to the TV set, the company's Jim Funk, VP of business development, told Beet.TV at an event in New York last week.
The Blip.tv-Roku deal, rolling out this fall, will let Roku customers watch some Web shows on their TV sets. Roku counts more than 100,000 customers. "This is great
content, but it doesn't fit the television broadcast form factor. It's
not 22 minutes of programming with eight minutes of ads," Funk said.
Blip.tv struck the Roku partnership as part of its new slate of distribution deals with YouTube, NBC Local Media and others. Roku is best known for streaming content from Amazon and Netflix to the TV set. After launching in 2008 with Netflix as a charter content provider, Roku has emerged as one of the leading over-the-top services alongside AppleTV.
Then there are stalwarts like TiVo that already offer Web shows from a number of providers such as Next New Networks and Revision3. In addition, technology provider Clearleap is delivering traditional TV content and Web content to multichannel operators.
In the next year, look for consumers to connect more devices to their TV sets, Funk said.
More on the Blip deals reported today on ReelSEO.
Daisy Whitney, Senior Producer
