Woomi gets connected with Samsung TVs

Miniweb has launched Woomi on Samsung's connected TVs in the UK, offering a new platform for content providers to reach their audience.

At a launch event last night in London, Miniweb showed off the Woomi system, which in essence is a marketplace for content owners to digitally distribute their programming on connected TVs without the need to create bespoke video players. Woomi launches on Samsung smart TVs as an app on the Internet@TV portal.

The service is predominantly aimed at Freeview and Freesat homes that don't want a pay-TV service like Virgin Media or Sky, but do want video on-demand and digital content.

Woomi debuts with a range of content, including ITV shows via a partnership with Box Office 365 and various programming from production giant Hit Entertainment. There are also around 1,000 movies, from archive titles to newer releases, and Woomi said that it is "in talks" with all the major studios about agreeing further content deals.

The Woomi platform also features a search and recommendation system that is claimed to learn user behaviour and then actively promote content, similar to Virgin Media's new TiVo service. However, Miniweb was quick to stress that the system is at the very early stages of the development process.

Miniweb expects to expand the Woomi service to Germany, France and the United States at the end of the first quarter. By mid 2011, the firm predicts that Woomi will be on more than half of the world's connected TVs, while the technology is also transferable to games consoles, Blu-ray players and set top boxes.

Content owners registering with Woomi get access to a bigger customer base to monetise their programming, including options for micropayments. Woomi does not charge an upfront fee to content providers, but instead makes money via revenue-sharing agreements.

"We encourage publishers and device manufacturers to embrace connected-TV," said Miniweb chief executive Jerome de Vitry.

"This is the future of TV and that is why we have created a unique marketplace for them. We are not streaming video or acquiring rights, but are acting as an agent or retailer.

"We enable our content partners to keep their brand identity and business model, and promote and monetize their content on as many TVs as possible."

Miniweb is unfazed by the forthcoming launch of YouView, the BBC-backed joint venture that aims to upgrade the Freeview and Freesat platforms to support video on-demand and internet services.

The company said that it "fully expects" to be an application on the YouView platform when it launches, and is in early talks to join the app development programme.