SeaChange International, a leading provider of end-to-end solutions for the world’s growing video-on-demand and IPTV industry, has secured U.S. Patent 7,155,674 for a software application that solves the challenge of presenting television viewers with the content they want in spite of rapidly expanding on-demand libraries and linear channel lineups. The patent is embodied in SeaChange’s Channel Overlay application, a unique advantage of the company’s widely deployed middleware solutions.
Picking up where today’s grid-based program guides and on-demand navigation leave off, Channel Overlay organizes a subscriber’s experience according to programs currently being watched. Triggered by a remote control command, the application overlays video with a menu of hotlinks to relevant on-demand content options and linear broadcast channels. It empowers television operators to create intuitive navigation that aggregates on-demand content and live channels within the context of programming genres (sports, game shows, children’s, etc.), studio and network brands, niche markets and other factors.
“Whether deployed on its own or in conjunction with an electronic program guide, Channel Overlay lets subscribers navigate within the context of their interests, getting them right to the content they want in spite of having access to hundreds of channels and thousands of hours of on-demand programs,” said George Breen, president, SeaChange Interactive division of SeaChange International. “Operators can also give a strategic lift to their content partners with overlays that can keep subscribers navigating within their brands. The kind of highly organized and predictive presentation that Channel Overlay achieves is critical as operators continue to serve the ‘long tail’ of content.”
Channel Overlay was invented by Breen and Stephen Kraiman, vice president of technology for SeaChange Interactive, a software development organization with a 15-year heritage in advanced television applications. Channel Overlay is available as a standalone application or as an integrated component of SeaChange’s TV Navigator Four and Multiverse middleware and VODlink EPG and complementary applications. These solutions are deployed on more than seven million two-way digital set-top boxes worldwide, more than any other middleware.
Visit SeaChange at IPTV World Forum London, March 5-7. Go to www.schange.com/iptv to set an appointment. On Thursday, March 7, SeaChange’s director of IPTV solutions, Venkat Krishnan, will participate in the conference session “Exploiting the Power of IP”.
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