Rovi

For the magician, see Rovi (magician).
Rovi Corporation
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: ROVI
Industry Digital Entertainment Technology
Founded 1983 (as Macrovision)
2009 (as Rovi Corporation)
Headquarters Santa Clara, California, United States
Key people
 Tom Carson, President and CEO
Peter Halt, Chief Financial Officer
Pamela Sergeeff, Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary
Andrew K. Ludwick, Chairman
Products Media guide and program guide for television
US$14,900,000 (December 31, 2012)[1]
Total assets Decrease US$3.2 billion (2012-12-31)
Number of employees
 1700+ (2014)
Website rovicorp.com

Rovi Corporation is a company based in the United States whose patents, products, and technologies include copy protection, software licensing and "search recommendation" on devices such as set-top boxes, digital video recorders, TVs, and mobile and tablet devices. Companies such as consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers, cable operators, websites, and social networks use Rovi’s entertainment metadata—a collection of in-depth information on movies, television shows, celebrities, music, games, and books—in their efforts to organize and enable the consumption of digital entertainment.

The company holds over 5,000 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.[2]

Rovi was known as Macrovision Solutions Corporation (Macrovision) until it changed its name in July 2009.[3] In that era of the company they were known more for digital protection but now focus on metadata licensing.[4]

On April 29, 2016, Rovi announced that it would acquire DVR maker Tivo for $1.1 billion. The combined company will take the TiVo name.[5]

History as Macrovision

Rovi was established under the name Macrovision Corporation in 1983. The 1984 film The Cotton Club was the first video to be encoded with Macrovision technology when it was released in 1985.[6] The technology was subsequently extended to DVD players and other consumer electronic recording and playback devices such as digital cable and satellite set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and portable media players. By the end of the 1980s, most major Hollywood studios were utilizing their services.

In the 1990s, Macrovision acquired companies with expertise in managing access control and secure distribution of other forms of digital media, including music, video games, Web text and graphics, and computer software.

John O. Ryan (founder and CEO of Macrovision from June 1995 to October 2001) and William A. Krepick (president of Macrovision Corporation from July 1995 to July 2005 and CEO from October 2001 to July 2005)[7] led the company through an IPO in 1997 priced at $9.00 a share. Under their leadership, the company went from a private company with sales of under $20 million to a global, publicly traded corporation with annual sales of $220 million and market cap exceeding $1 billion.[8]

In July 2005, the company hired Alfred J. Amoroso as chief executive officer and president to succeed William A. Krepick, who announced his retirement earlier in the year.[9]

Macrovision acquired Gemstar-TV Guide on May 2, 2008, in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $2.8 billion. The combined company would seek to be “the homepage for the TV experience,” said Mr. Amoroso.[10]

After the announcement of its intent to buy Gemstar-TV Guide, Macrovision made other changes in order to focus on entertainment technology, including selling its software business unit, valued at approximately $200 million, to private equity firm Thomas Cressey Bravo. The divestiture of the software business unit closed on April 1, 2008, becoming Acresso Software. Macrovision also ultimately sold off parts of Gemstar-TV Guide not focused on digital entertainment, including TryMedia, eMeta, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Network and the TV Games Network.

The company also bought two companies providing entertainment metadata: All Media Guide on November 6, 2007, and substantially all the assets of Muze, Inc. on April 15, 2009.

History as Rovi

On July 16, 2009, Macrovision Solution Corporation announced the official change of its name to Rovi Corporation.

Rovi announced its first product on January 7, 2010 – TotalGuide, an interactive media guide that incorporated entertainment data, to search, browse and provide recommendations.[11] On March 16, 2010, Rovi acquired MediaUnbound for an undisclosed amount. MediaUnbound had helped build static and dynamic personalization and recommendation engines for clients such as Napster, eMusic and MTV Networks.[12] On June 16, 2010, the company announced the Rovi Advertising Network which bundled guide advertising and third-party interactive TV platforms.[13]

To help streamline metadata tagging globally, Rovi helped create an international coalition, along with MovieLabs, CableLabs and Comcast that launched the first, non-profit, Entertainment Identifier Registry to catalog movies, television shows and other commercial audio/video assets with unique identifiers. The company hoped to create a standard for metadata tagging that could be used by content creators and providers worldwide.[14]

On December 23, 2010, the company announced its intention to acquire Sonic Solutions and its DivX video software in a deal valued at $720 million. Sonic provided digital video processing, playback and distribution technologies and owned RoxioNow (formerly CinemaNow) an OTT technology provider.[15][16]

Rovi acquired SideReel, a successful online video guide, on March 1, 2011 for an undisclosed amount.[17]

The company announced Amoroso's intention to retire on May 26, 2011.[18] Tom Carson, formerly the executive vice president of sales and marketing, was appointed CEO and President in December 2011.[19] Under Carson the company shifted its focus on "growth opportunities related to its core enabling technology and services" and it announced that it intended to sell the Rovi Entertainment Store business.[20] It entered into separate agreements to sell the Rovi Entertainment Store to Reliance Majestic Holdings, a private equity backed company; and its consumer websites to All Media Networks, a new company, in July 2013.[21] Continuing on this path, the company made a similar announcement in January 2014 indicating its intent to sell the DivX and MainConcept businesses.

On April 1, 2013, Rovi acquired IntegralReach, a predictive analytics cloud-based platform that integrates massive data from set-tops, smart TVs, tablets, stream servers. The platform delivers timely intelligence and actionable insights from millions of homes.[22] After the acquisition, this technology became a part of Rovi’s entertainment analytics and ultimately, their Audience Management Solutions.[23]

Facebook began using Rovi Video in April 2013. The social media site wanted a database of in-depth information on movies, TV shows and celebrities.[24]

On April 29, 2016, Rovi Corporation announced that it had acquired TiVo Inc. for $1.1 billion. The combined company will operate under the TiVo brand, and hold over 6,000 pending and registered patents.[25][26]

Current products

Guides

Rovi provides guides for service providers and CE manufacturers.

Data

Rovi provides entertainment metadata for consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, retailers, online portals and application developers around the world. The company has over 50 years of metadata for video, music, books, and games. The data covers more than 5 million movies and TV programs, 3.2 million album releases and 30 million song tracks, 9 million in-print and out-of-print book titles, and 70,000 video games. The metadata includes basic facts, local TV listings and channel line-ups for interactive program guides, original editorial, imagery, and other features. Specific products include Rovi Video, Rovi Music, Rovi Books, and Rovi Games.[2]

Search and Recommendations

Rovi Search Service allows consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers and developers to provide solutions that enable consumers to search for and access desired content. Rovi Recommendations Service is a cloud-based service that offers consumers entertainment choices similar to their chosen program, movie, album, track, musician or band.

Advertising

Rovi Advertising Service enables the monetization of entertainment platforms. It places ads that appear as content choices in application menus and user interfaces for set-top boxes, connected TVs, smartphones, tablets, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other devices.

Rovi Audience Management

Rovi Audience Management is a suite of products (Advertising Optimizer and Promotion Optimizer) combining big data with predictive analytics to provide TV audience insights and advertising campaign management. Ad Optimizer allows provides campaign management and media planning capabilities to TV networks and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Promo Optimizer uses past viewing data to enable cable and broadcast networks to create plans for on-air promos.

Legacy products

Rovi (as Macrovision) historically developed technologies and products that helped protect content from being pirated. Its two core legacy products were called RipGuard and ACP (analog copy protection).

RipGuard

Macrovision introduced its RipGuard technology in February 2005. It was designed to prevent or reduce digital DVD copying by altering the format of the DVD content to disrupt the ripping software. Although the technology could be circumvented by several current DVD rippers such as AnyDVD or DVDFab, Macrovision claimed that 95% of casual users lack the knowledge and/or determination to be able to copy a DVD with RipGuard technology.[27]

Analog Copy Protection (ACP)

Analog video formats convey video signals as a series of "lines". Most of these lines are used for constructing the visible image, and are shown on the screen. But several more lines exist which do not convey visual information. Known as the vertical blanking interval (VBI), these extra lines historically served no purpose other than to contain the vertical synchronizing pulses, but in more modern implementations they are used to carry or convey different things in different countries; for example closed captioning.

Macrovision pulses in an otherwise unused video line. Here they are large, forcing a VCR's auto contrast circuit to make the picture darker.
A couple of seconds later, the pulses have reduced in amplitude, forcing a VCR's auto contrast circuit to make the picture lighter. A couple of seconds later still, the pulses return to their original amplitude, darkening the picture once more.

Macrovision's legacy analog copy protection (ACP) works by implanting a series of excessive voltage pulses within the off-screen VBI lines of video. These pulses were included physically within pre-existing recordings on VHS and Betamax, and were generated upon playback by a chip in DVD players and digital cable or satellite boxes. A DVD recorder receiving an analog signal featuring these pulses would detect them and display a message saying that the source is "copy-protected" followed by aborting the recording. VCRs, in turn, react to these excessive voltage pulses by compensating with their automatic gain control circuitry, causing the recorded picture to wildly change brightness, rendering it annoying to watch. The system was only effective on VCRs made at around the mid-1980s and later.

A later form of Macrovision's analog copy protection, called Level II ACP, introduced multiple 180-degree phase inversions to the analog signal's colorburst. Also known as colorstriping, this technology caused numerous off-color bands to appear within the picture.

Another form of analog copy protection, known as CGMS-A, is added by DVD players and digital cable/satellite boxes. While not invented by Macrovision, the company's products implemented it. CGMS-A consists of a "flag" within the vertical blanking interval (essentially data, like closed captioning) which digital recording devices search for. If present, it refused to record the signal, just as with the earlier ACP technology. Unlike digital recording equipment, however, analog VCRs do not respond to CGMS-A encoded video and would record it successfully if ACP is not also present.

Historically, the original Macrovision technology was considered a nuisance to some specialist users because it could interfere with other electronic equipment. For example, if one were to run a video signal through a VCR before the television, some VCRs will output a ruined signal regardless of whether it is recording. This also occurs in some TV-VCR combo sets. Apart from this, many DVD recorders mistake the mechanical instability of worn videotapes for Macrovision signals, and so refuse to make what would be perfectly legal DVD dubs of people's old home movies and the like. This widespread problem is another factor contributing to the demand for devices that defeat Macrovision. The signal has also been known to confuse home theater line doublers (devices for improving the quality of video for large projection TVs) and some high-end television comb filters. In addition, Macrovision confuses many upconverters (devices that convert a video signal to a higher resolution), causing them to shut down and refuse to play Macrovision content.

There are also devices called stabilizers, video stabilizers or enhancers available that filter out the Macrovision spikes and thereby defeat the system. The principle of their function lies in detecting the vertical synchronization signal, and forcing the lines occurring during the VBI to black level, removing the AGC-confusing pulses. They can be easily built by hobbyists, as nothing more than a cheap microcontroller together with an analog multiplexer and a little other circuitry is needed. Individuals less experienced with such things can purchase video stabilizers.

Discs made with DVD copying programs such as DVD Shrink automatically disable any Macrovision copy protection. The ease with which Macrovision and other copy protection measures can be defeated has prompted a steadily growing number of DVD releases that do not have copy protection of any kind, Content Scramble System (CSS) or Macrovision.

United States fair use law, as interpreted in the decision over Betamax (Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios), dictates that consumers are fully within their legal rights to copy videos they own. However, the legality has changed somewhat with the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. After April 26, 2002, no VCR may be manufactured or imported without Automatic Gain Control circuitry (which renders VCRs vulnerable to Macrovision). This is contained in title 17, section 1201(k) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, there are a number of mostly older VCR models on the market that are not affected by Macrovision.

On October 26, 2001, the sale, purchase, or manufacture of any device that has no commercial purpose other than disabling Macrovision copy protection was made illegal under section 1201(a) of the same controversial act.

In June 2005, Macrovision sent a cease and desist letter to "Lightning UK!", the maker of DVD Decrypter, a program that allows users to back up their DVDs by bypassing CSS and Macrovision. They later acquired the rights to this software.[28]

In June 2005, Macrovision sued Sima Products under section 1201 of the DMCA, claiming that Sima's video processors provided a way to circumvent Macrovision's analog copy protection. Sima received an injunction barring the sale of this device,[29] but the parties ultimately settled without a judgment on the legal issues.[30]

Acquisitions

As Macrovision

As Rovi

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "XNAS:ROVI Rovi Corp Annual Report 10-K Filling". Morningstar.com. December 31, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Frazier, David N. (2014-02-27). "Rovi's Veveo Deal Is Something to Talk About". Newsmax. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  3. ↑ Macrovision Solutions Corporation Formally Changes Name to Rovi Corporation, Rovi press release, July 16, 2009
  4. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic. "Google Licenses Rovi’s Program Guide Patents For Its New Fiber TV Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  5. 1 2 Snider, Mike (2016-04-29). "Rovi acquires DVR company TiVo". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  6. ↑ De Atley, Richard (1985-09-07). "VCRs put entertainment industry into fast-forward frenzy". The Free Lance-Star. Associated Press. pp. 12–TV. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "John Ryan: Executive Profile & Biography". Businessweek. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  8. ↑ "William A. Krepick: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  9. ↑ "Macrovision Appoints Alfred J. Amoroso as President and Chief Executive Officer; William A. Krepick Appointed Vice-Chairman of the Board | Business Wire". www.businesswire.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  10. ↑ Stelter, Brian (2007-12-08). "Macrovision Agrees to Buy Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 Billion in Stock and Cash". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  11. ↑ "Rovi Showcases Early Version of Media Guide and Solutions Portfolio for Digital Home Entertainment Products during CES 2010". www.rovicorp.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  12. ↑ Lawler, Ryan (2010-03-16). "Rovi Acquires Media Recommendation Firm MediaUnbound". gigaom.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  13. ↑ "Rovi Launches Advertising Network with Broad Reach into Multiple Platforms". www.rovicorp.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  14. ↑ http://www.rovicorp.com/company/press-releases/archive/2010/10/27/leading-ent-companies-create-registry-for-movie-and-television-c.html
  15. ↑ "Rovi announces agreement to acquire Sonic Solutions for $720 million". Engadget. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  16. ↑ "Rovi to buy Sonic for $720 million". CNET. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  17. ↑ Roettgers, Janko (2011-03-01). "Rovi Buys Sidereel, Expands to the Web". gigaom.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  18. ↑ "Rovi Corp. (ROVI) CEO Amoroso to Retire". StreetInsider.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  19. ↑ "Rovi Promotes Thomas Carson to CEO | InteractiveTV Today". itvt.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  20. ↑ "Rovi Announces Intent to Pursue Sale of Rovi Entertainment Store Business and Narrows Estimates Range for Fiscal 2012". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  21. ↑ "Rovi Corporation Reports Second Quarter 2013 Financial Performance". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  22. 1 2 "IntegralReach | CrunchBase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  23. ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130603-905096.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
  24. ↑ Yeung, Ken (2013-04-16). "Facebook Partners With Rovi To Bring In-Depth Video Content To Users". The Next Web. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  25. ↑ "From TV trailblazer to IP afterthought: TiVo bought for $1.1 billion". Ars Technica. Conde Nast Digital. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  26. ↑ "Rovi Buys TiVo in $1.1 Billion Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  27. ↑ "RipGuard DVD - DVD Copy Protection and DVD Encryption Software Protection - Rovi". Rovicorp.com. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
  28. 1 2 "DVD Decrypter to be removed". AfterDawn. 2005-11-24. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
  29. ↑ "Digitizing video signals might violate the DMCA". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  30. ↑ "Macrovision v. Sima | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Eff.org. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
  31. ↑ "Macrovision Completes Acquisition of GLOBEtrotter Software". Business Wire. 1 Sep 2000.
  32. ↑ "Macrovision moves to acquire Midbar group". MusicWeek. November 11, 2002.
  33. ↑ "Rovi-Acquires-Mediabolic-For-$43,500,000". VentureDeal. 2007-01-03. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  34. ↑ "Press Releases - Next Generation Media Guide - Rovi". Rovicorp.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  35. ↑ "Macrovision Agrees to Acquire Gemstar-TV Guide. :: Rovi". Bloobble.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  36. ↑ Kaplan, David (2009-04-15). "Macrovision Buys Metadata Provider Muze For $16.5 Million". paidContent. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  37. ↑ Ali, Rafat (2010-03-16). "Rovi Acquires Recommendations Service MediaUnbound". paidContent. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  38. ↑ "Rovi announces agreement to acquire Sonic Solutions for $720 million". Engadget. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  39. ↑ "Rovi Acquires SideReel.com - Launches AllRovi.com: An Immersive and Interactive Film and Music Site for Entertainment Fans". Appmarket.tv. 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  40. ↑ Jim Barthold (2011-05-06). "Rovi acquires DigiForge, reportedly to improve cable visibility". FierceCable. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  41. ↑ "Rovi Acquires Content Discovery and Navigation Innovator Fanhattan". rovi.com. 2014-11-03. Retrieved 2014-11-03.

Further Reference

External links

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