Rovi acquires Fanhattan (Fan TV)

Monday, November 3rd, 2014
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Rovi Acquires Content Discovery and Navigation Innovator Fanhattan

  • Enhances Rovi’s Entertainment Discovery Solutions and Accelerates Cloud Platform Availability for Content and Service Providers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Rovi Corporation, a leading provider of advanced entertainment discovery, data analytics, and monetization solutions, announced today that it has acquired Fanhattan, a venture-backed startup, in an all-cash transaction. Fanhattan pioneers innovative ways to discover media and entertainment on any screen, from any source, through its cloud-based Fan TV branded products.

This acquisition accelerates Rovi’s vision to deliver next-generation guidance and discovery using advanced cloud, user interface and hardware technologies. Fan TV seamlessly integrates different sources of programming, such as linear television, video on demand (VoD), and over-the-top (OTT) video into an elegant consumer experience. Fanhattan founders, Gilles BianRosa and Olivier Chalouhi, will continue to drive their vision forward as part of the leadership team in Rovi’s Discovery Products Business Group.

“Rovi prides itself in realizing innovations before the industry demands them, and we are excited to augment our next-generation guidance and discovery solutions with an award-winning unified entertainment experience,” said Omar Javaid, SVP and GM of Rovi’s Discovery Group. “We believe the Fanhattan technologies and team will complement Rovi’s advanced metadata, semantic discovery, and predictive analytics capabilities to offer truly differentiated solutions to our customers.”

Combining Rovi and Fanhattan capabilities, the company will offer customers faster time-to-market and improved flexibility deploying next-generation discovery and media experiences across multiple screens. The combined solution enables a scalable and modular cloud-based platform supporting IP and hybrid STB boxes, DVR functionality and personalized interactive user-interfaces through reference design hardware and a software development kit.

“We’re excited to take Fanhattan’s vision to the next level,” said BianRosa. “By combining our technology with Rovi’s expansive offerings and established relationships with content and service providers, we can significantly accelerate our goal of bringing next-generation entertainment discovery experience to the world.”