From The Online Reporter
-Content From PBS, ABC, Lifetime Bravo and Others,
-Will Be Offered on LG Smart TVs
-Not Another YouTube
Fredio, the smart TV app that aggregates TV video available online and serves it to the living room with an easy IR-remote friendly interface, makes it easy for consumers to find browser-based Web content without a keyboard or a browser.
Fredio’s tag line is “Free TV for your smart TV,” and the company Web site says it “helps smart TVs to finally deliver on their promise by streaming tens of thousands of hours of premium videos from broadcast TV websites.”
“Fredio is a specialized video search engine for connected TVs,” Bill Loesch, founder and CEO, told The Online Reporter. “It’s actually not unlike things available on a PC already, such as Sidereel, Flickr, TV.com – that crawl the Web for professional content that’s available on broadcaster sites.”
The app isn’t out of the gate yet, but Loesch said he’d be announcing smart TV partners in a number of weeks, with LG up first. The app will also be available on Blu-ray players.
Fredio aggregates content from a number of broadcasters and networks, such as PBS, ABC, Lifetime, TLC, Bravo and USA. When users select a “channel,” the app takes them directly to the Web site’s video. Loesch said Fredio has indexed around 6,000 hours of content from 15 different network sites.
“We’re trying to index professionally produced content, we’re not trying to be another YouTube, the world doesn’t need that,” he said. “We’re constantly indexing these sites; we expect the list to keep expanding.”
The content is a mix of full episodes that have previously aired on TV, clips of shows and Web-only content, both scripted and non-scripted. “We’re not making any differentiation between Web-only content and broadcast,” Loesch said, but he added that the app will increasingly include content that’s Web only, as more and more online video being made is premium.
We asked Loesch when and why consumers would want to watch a broadcaster’s online content on their TVs when they could just as easily watch the linear channel. He answered that the TV screen is really just a viewing platform.
Loesch said the online content is very popular. “There’s a huge amount of traffic going to these sites, from PCs and tablets,” he said. Loesch estimated there were 125 million unique visitors to the top 60 broadcasters’ Web sites every month. “There’s a lot of traffic going to these sites to watch the video.”
While most, if not all, of that traffic is on tablets and PCs, Loesch said consumers will want to access that content on the bigger viewing device as well. “If they’re going there to watch it on the PCs, why wouldn’t they watch it on their connected TV,” he said. “Internet connected TVs are effectively like iPads and PCs now. They have a browser. Technically, there’s really no difference,” except in screen size.
Fredio is merely connecting the user to...
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-Content From PBS, ABC, Lifetime Bravo and Others,
-Will Be Offered on LG Smart TVs
-Not Another YouTube
Fredio, the smart TV app that aggregates TV video available online and serves it to the living room with an easy IR-remote friendly interface, makes it easy for consumers to find browser-based Web content without a keyboard or a browser.
Fredio’s tag line is “Free TV for your smart TV,” and the company Web site says it “helps smart TVs to finally deliver on their promise by streaming tens of thousands of hours of premium videos from broadcast TV websites.”
“Fredio is a specialized video search engine for connected TVs,” Bill Loesch, founder and CEO, told The Online Reporter. “It’s actually not unlike things available on a PC already, such as Sidereel, Flickr, TV.com – that crawl the Web for professional content that’s available on broadcaster sites.”
The app isn’t out of the gate yet, but Loesch said he’d be announcing smart TV partners in a number of weeks, with LG up first. The app will also be available on Blu-ray players.
Fredio aggregates content from a number of broadcasters and networks, such as PBS, ABC, Lifetime, TLC, Bravo and USA. When users select a “channel,” the app takes them directly to the Web site’s video. Loesch said Fredio has indexed around 6,000 hours of content from 15 different network sites.
Fredio has indexed 6,000 hours of content so far.
“We’re trying to index professionally produced content, we’re not trying to be another YouTube, the world doesn’t need that,” he said. “We’re constantly indexing these sites; we expect the list to keep expanding.”
The content is a mix of full episodes that have previously aired on TV, clips of shows and Web-only content, both scripted and non-scripted. “We’re not making any differentiation between Web-only content and broadcast,” Loesch said, but he added that the app will increasingly include content that’s Web only, as more and more online video being made is premium.
TV Screen Is
Just a Viewing Device
We asked Loesch when and why consumers would want to watch a broadcaster’s online content on their TVs when they could just as easily watch the linear channel. He answered that the TV screen is really just a viewing platform.
Loesch said the online content is very popular. “There’s a huge amount of traffic going to these sites, from PCs and tablets,” he said. Loesch estimated there were 125 million unique visitors to the top 60 broadcasters’ Web sites every month. “There’s a lot of traffic going to these sites to watch the video.”
While most, if not all, of that traffic is on tablets and PCs, Loesch said consumers will want to access that content on the bigger viewing device as well. “If they’re going there to watch it on the PCs, why wouldn’t they watch it on their connected TV,” he said. “Internet connected TVs are effectively like iPads and PCs now. They have a browser. Technically, there’s really no difference,” except in screen size.
Fredio is merely connecting the user to...
For the complete article go to www.onlinereporter.com
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