CES is always exciting, surprises always abound, and news is always plentiful. This year’s show did not disappoint on any front by any measure.
As we did last year, the Kannuu team attended CES en masse, and while schedules were filled meeting with customers (present & perspective), partners, industry influentials and friends (old and new), we still did our best to take in latest and greatest CES had to offer.
Our mission, of course, is to spread the video-findability gospel according to Kannuu. Video search and discovery across services and devices needs saving — and this is the cause Kannuu is committed to. (TV manufacturers would do well to join us — saving search & discovery just might be the key to reviving slumping sales and giving manufacturers a more influential position in the smart TV value chain.)
The sheer ridiculousness of individually searching siloed services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, Crackle, etc.) and traditional channels pales only in comparison to the frustration of navigating that tortuous, onscreen keyboard.
Universal search using existing remote controls, advanced search & recommendation technology, and ‘aha’ visual prompts that intuit consumer desire is the missing link for making converged TV pay off. Period.
Sure, we’re fanatic about video finability in today’s multi-device, exploding content, rapidly converging world of viewing pleasure. We believe in what we’re doing and have no problem stating our case loudly and clearly: It’s high time for Kannuu!!
To this end, we’ve pulled together a roundup — and provided some perspective — of news stories from CES:
CES 2014 Trends: TV’s Future is Curvy, Smart, and 4K
Kannuu Take: If smart CE manufacturers like Samsung can bend TV screens for a more stunning display, why can’t some tech wiz at one of these companies seamlessly tie together myriad back end systems & TV OS platforms so that consumers can simply use their remote to quickly and easily search across the growing number of traditional broadcast and new OTT channels to find what they want to watch fast. Universal search is the missing link for making converged TV pay off. The sheer ridiculousness of individually searching siloed services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, Crackle, etc.) and traditional channels channel pales only in comparison to the utter foolishness and frustration of navigating that tortuous onscreen keyboard.
TV trends at CES: 4K, curves and smart TVs
Spec Sheet: the curving, flexing, and low-cost 4K TVs of CES 2014
Daily Report: ‘Smart TVs’ in the Spotlight at Consumer Electronics Show
Kannuu Take: Always glad to see the latest & greatest developments in smart TVs at CES. And this year does not disappoint. Some cool curves, stunning 4k visuals, more great content via better integration with IPTV delivery… Now all that is needed is for someone to resurrect the remote. Simplify searching for video content across services. Consumers most often know what they want to watch, so making it fast, easy and fun to find this content is the key to smart TV success.
LG spills price, release details on its Ultra HD, OLED (flat or curved) and webOS TVs
WebOS lives on to make LG’s smart TVs smarter
Kannuu Take: Fate of webOS seems better than years past. Employing the OS to simplify video viewing experience across devices – particularly LG’s stellar lineup of smartTVs – is definitely a smart move. Add to this LG’s fab magic remote, and we may just have a CE leader in the smartTV space. All that remains is to notch up Magic Remote’s usability with Kannuu — a smart, intuitive, end-to-end solution for quickly finding video content on any device across expanding service offerings using ‘aha’ visual cues.
Roku getting into the smart TV game with Roku TV
It will be just like your Roku set-top box, only in TV form
Kannuu Take: Smart move, Roku. And your simplified remote is quickly becoming the consumers’ favorite. But why, pray tell, would you keep that tortuous keyboard for universal search? In other words — for the non-techie Roku business folks — why absorb the high cost of search fail & bail? Why not leverage the lovable Roku remote for fast & easy findability of video content across services. It’s possible now, as in right now. Roku, meet Kannuu!!
CES 2014: Verizon Debuts its End-to-End Solution
Kannuu Take: Wow! These VDMS execs get it — from the mess that is ‘cobbled together’ solutions to the need for ‘one throat to choke.’ For consumers, this translates directly into the needed (yet amazingly still lacking) ability to quickly find video content across services and devices – with all the back end technological wizardry working seamlessly and invisibly.
Cisco CEO John Chambers: 2014 is the “Inflection Point” for the Internet
Sony To Test Cloud-Based Cable Television
Kannuu Take: Kudos to Sony. More cloud-based offerings from more device manufacturers and service providers means more quality choices for consumers’ viewing pleasure. Ah, there’s the rub. With so much quality video content across so many services, how can consumers quickly and easily find what they want to watch where, when and on what device they want. Alas, Kannuu is here to save your video-viewing days & nights!
2014: The year connected TVs go simple
Kannuu Take: Kannuu is working mightily to make this prophetic vision a reality!
Rising Demand for Video Search and Discovery Across Services & Devices
Fuels Growth for Kannuu
Kannuu Pty Ltd, a provider of search and discovery solutions for video content across multiple services and devices including Smart TVs, tablets and smartphones, today announced it has raised a further $2 million in new capital from a well established private equity firm. Kannuu also announced it will begin banking with Silicon Valley Bank and will open offices in the San Jose area to serve customers and prospects in Northern California.
Kannuu CEO Todd Viegut said, “The Kannuu findability platform for video search and discovery is unique, innovative and market proven. We’re seeing great interest in Kannuu across the full spectrum of players in this dynamic, rapidly evolving space – from device manufacturers to service providers, software companies and application developers. The additional funding further validates our compelling value proposition and will enable Kannuu to capitalize on our market momentum, step up execution of our aggressive growth strategy, and realize our vision of becoming the gold standard for finding consumer relevant video in today’s content-rich, multi-screen environment.”
Viegut added, “These are exciting times for Kannuu, and we anticipate an enthusiastic response as more providers learn what Kannuu delivers today in the challenging space of video findability. There is no better place than Silicon Valley to address the growing needs of technology and media companies throughout the U.S. Our presence in the Valley will help amplify awareness of Kannuu and accelerate several key business and growth initiatives.”
The Kannuu platform provides the superior experience today’s consumers demand while enabling providers to differentiate their service offerings, attract and retain customers and fully monetize their video assets.
Encompassing the full spectrum of digital video metadata storage, search and discovery — from information architecture and delivery to search algorithms, recommendation (relevancy) techniques and the user interface — Kannuu’s core IP spans information architecture, a proprietary search and recommendation engine, Cloud delivery, and user interface technologies, including Partial Word Completion™ and Directional Pad (Joystick) Navigation, among other vital aspects of video search and discovery.
Kannuu customers include Western Digital, REELZCHANNEL TV, and Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company. The Kannuu technology for video search and discovery across services is also available on the Samsung and LG Smart TV platforms for proprietary implementations.
About Kannuu
Kannuu provides cutting-edge search, discovery and findability solutions for quickly finding video content in today’s multi-sceen environment. Combining sophisticated delivery infrastructure, advanced search algorithms, proprietary recommendation techniques, flexible business rules and unique and intuitive user interfaces, Kannuu enables device manufacturers, service providers, software companies and application developers to maximize the full value of video content. By providing a fast, easy and vastly superior user experience, Kannuu satisfies consumers and drives revenue for service suppliers. For more on Kannuu, visit www.kannuu.com.
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Media contact:
Rory Doherty
214-459-6321
Rory@CurrentCommo.com
By Todd Viegut, Kannuu CEO
Content is king in today’s video-rich world, but he serves at the pleasure of consumers — a truism all service providers must take to heart if they want to remain relevant.
Video viewership as a whole — traditional, linear programming, VOD, OTT, Web, etc., is on the rise. According to Nielsen, the average American consumes nearly 40 hours of video content each week. ComScore reports 210% growth in online video views between 2009 and 2013 (14.8 billion vs. 46 billion), and according to MRG, continued adoption of smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and other connected devices has fueled more than 66 million subscriptions to streaming video on demand services, pushing the market valuation to a whopping $4.7 billion.
Latest findings from the Ooyala Q3 Global Video Index underscore the continued, strong emergence of multi-screen viewing, noting that since January of 2013, the share of tablet and mobile video plays has shot up 74%, and year-over-year mobile tablet video share has grown 133%.
As measurement firms race to play catch up in providing advertisers with a reliable and meaningful, cross-platform metric that ties together video viewing across all platforms — PayTV, IPTV, mobile, tablet, etc., consumers are way ahead, having already embraced ubiquitous connectivity and multi-screen viewing as a way of life. In a typical day, 77% of TV viewers, according to Google, use another device at the same time.
The bottom line: the volume of video views has never been higher, competition for viewers has never been fiercer, and topping all, consumers have never had greater choice when it comes to what, where and how they’ll watch their video content of choice — presenting service providers across the board with an unprecedented Gordian Knot of obstacle and opportunity.
With video content growing exponentially, smart TVs nearing ubiquity, and watching video on mobile devices now an inalienable right, ‘findability’ is key to consumer satisfaction and service provider success. Period.
Consumers crave instant ‘findability,’ yet the wealth of options before them in terms of content, devices and timing makes finding exactly what they want, when and where they want, frustrating beyond belief.
Given the multitude of devices and diversity of back-end systems and technologies, the enormous metadata associated with digital video content — dynamic, persistent, unstructured (social) — and the convergence of traditional broadcast, VOD and IPTV, it is understandable why service providers (new and old) are struggling mightily (and failing miserably) to provide consumers with a video search and discovery solution that, simply put, makes finding exactly what they want to watch amidst this growing array of choice fast, easy and fun.
Constrained input devices, low-powered hardware, dynamic content, and bandwidth limitations further exacerbate the problem.
But complexity should never spill over into the user experience — which is exactly where search and discovery of video content stands today as providers wrestle to retrofit aged systems, mitigate the challenge of big data, apply business rules and search and recommendation algorithms, and hide all of this technological wizardry behind — dare we say — an eloquent user interface that works seamlessly and consistently across all screens.
Content will always be king, to be sure. And we can expect the creation and competition for quality video content to reach a fever pitch in the months and years ahead — which is good, because it’s what consumers want.
Let’s just not forget that in today’s hyper-competitive market, the race for quality video content cannot be cleaved from the consumers’ desire to easily find it.
Whichever service provider offers the best solution for consolidated search and discovery across multiple video services and devices will own the customer — and a healthy cut of all revenue opportunities associated with that privileged relationship.
Barron to Guide Business Development Initiatives,
Accelerate Adoption of the Kannuu Video Search and Discovery Platform
Kannuu, a provider of search and discovery solutions for video content across multiple services and devices, today announced that Gerard Barron, founder and former CEO of Adstream, one of the world’s largest advertising management and distribution networks, will serve as Executive Chairman for Kannuu, guiding the company’s business development initiatives and spearheading Kannuu’s aggressive growth strategy.
Mr. Barron will remain on the board of directors for Adstream but will relinquish his responsibilities as CEO at the end of this year to focus on accelerating adoption of Kannuu, a comprehensive platform that satisfies consumer demand for fast and easy search and discovery of video content across multiple services and devices.
Founded in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, Adstream provides services to advertisers, agencies, production agents, publishers and broadcasters to assist with the production, management and distribution of advertisements on television, radio, internet, mobile, print and workflow platforms. Adstream offers solutions in asset management, validation, delivery, storage, and versioning with widely adopted products such as Adbank, Quickprint, nVerge, and Adreach among others.
Under Mr. Barron’s leadership, Adstream has grown from a startup to a multi-national company with over 36 offices across Europe, Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Adstream supports global advertisers with the world’s largest digital networks for all forms of advertising delivery, digital asset management and workflow solutions.
Mr. Barron is an exceptionally successful entrepreneur and early growth investor who has served as Kannuu’s Chairman of the Board of Directors since the company’s inception.
Kannuu Executive Chairman Gerard Barron said, “Over the past several years we’ve built an exceptionally talented team of people at Kannuu, and this team has made great strides in building out the Kannuu platform, securing marquee customer wins, and validating Kannuu’s unique and compelling value proposition. Multi-screen viewing of video content — both traditional linnear TV and OTT services — is clearly at an inflection point and is hindered only by the limitations of currently available search and discovery solutions. The Kannuu platform vanquishes these limitations, and avails to providers tremendous revenue and customer loyalty opportunities that, quite frankly, are largely left untapped because of unecessary complexity, technological ineptness and the incomplete or mis-guided internal initiatives of providers. I am eager to work closely with the Kannuu team to achieve our aggressive growth goals, and I am confident we’ll take the company to greater heights as service providers learn what is possible today thanks to the Kannuu platform.”
Kannuu CEO Todd Viegut said, “In today’s market of exploding video content, Smart TV saturation and pervasive multi-screen viewing, whichever provider offers the best interface for consolidated search and discovery across multiple video services and devices will own the customer — and a healthy cut of all revenue opportunities associated with that privileged relationship. We’re proud to deliver to consumers a unique, fast and easy search experience purpose-built for today’s market, and to our service provider customers a flexible, end-to-end search and discovery solution that can be rapidly implemented and is proven to deliver immediate and long-term benefits.”
About Kannuu
Kannuu provides cutting-edge search, discovery and findability solutions for quickly finding video content in today’s multi-sceen environment. Combining sophisticated delivery infrastructure, advanced search algorithms, proprietary recommendation techniques, flexible business rules and unique and intuitive user interfaces, Kannuu enables device manufacturers, service providers, software companies and application developers to maximize the full value of video content. By providing a fast, easy and vastly superior user experience, Kannuu satisfies consumers and drives revenue for service suppliers. For more on Kannuu, visit www.kannuu.com.
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Media contact:
Rory Doherty
214-459-6321
Rory@CurrentCommo.com
Actor, director, screenwriter, and producer Kevin Spacey — of Netflix “House of Cards” fame (most recently) — spoke on the topic of media creation and consumption at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival last month.
Spacey’s words have struck a chord with members of the media community — YouTube views of his speech (posted below) have topped one million.
The audience for Stacey’s speech is movers and shakers in the UK television industry, but his message extends to the vast and growing number of global players — incumbents and challengers — striving to find footing (read: $$) amidst the upheaval, turmoil, potential and promise that is today’s re-forming media industry.
I refer specifically to device manufacturers, OTT content producers/providers, Telcos, Internet providers, Web portals, app developers, and online retailers — all of whom are well advised to take Stacey’s sage message to heart and heed his simple directive for success:
“The audience has spoken […] All we have to do is give them what they want when they want it […] and the prized fruit is right there — shinier and juicer than ever before […]”
“Give people what they want when they want it” has been Kannuu’s mantra from day one, and we applaud Mr. Spacey’s insight, alacrity and eloquence in helping us deliver this message to our current and prospective customers, as well as to Kannuu’s many suitors, grappling with the complexities inherent to an industry undergoing rapid transformation — an industry, Stacey astutely notes, poised “at the nexus of commerce and art.”
Wherever you stand in this new age of content creation and consumption, the ground beneath you is undeniably shifting, and is composed in equal parts of obsolescence, irrelevance, opportunity and revenue.
Inaction equals death, but plotting a strategy for success can seem daunting. Traditional models and measuring sticks no longer apply – take Stacey’s broken pilot model, Netflix’ booming success, and the death of Nielsen ratings as just a few of countless, current examples.
Kannuu’s role in this dynamic environment is to enable the victors.
We’ve done this by applying laser-like focus, advanced technology, plenty of smarts, hard work, and good old fashion common sense to the following truism:
Whomever provides the best search & discovery interface for finding something to watch on TV across multiple services in today’s world of exploding content will own the consumers – who will ultimately dictate where advertising dollars are spent, and in the process, determine who wins and who loses in the new age of viewership.
Combining sophisticated delivery infrastructure, patented technology, advanced search algorithms, proprietary recommendation techniques and an intuitive display that kills off once and for all that tortuous on-screen keyboard, the Kannuu search and discovery solution is by far the fastest, easiest, most intuitive and habit-forming way to find content on TV today.
Want to win? Listen to Kevin. Give consumers what they want. It’s time for Kannuu!
Kannuu Satisfies Consumers’ Craving for Fast and Easy Search and Discovery Across Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu on LG Smart TVs
The Kannuu search and discovery service application is now available in the LG Smart World TV app store. The Kannuu app provides consumers fast and easy search and discovery across Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu on all LG Smart TVs available in the United States.
Unlike traditional search and discovery solutions for smart TVs that force consumers to ‘hunt and peck’ their way to a selection using the onscreen keyboard grid, Kannuu search features an intuitive display of a remote control’s directional arrows — along with video cover artwork, viewing options and program rankings — directly on the smart TV screen. Searching by title, actor or director, consumers are guided by Kannuu’s intuitive interface, proprietary “train-of-thought” algorithms and comprehensive recommendation engine to find the content of their choice across Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu with only a few button presses and typically within just a few seconds.
Kannuu CEO Todd Viegut said, “We’ve all experienced the frustration of navigating an on-screen keyboard to find a movie or show to watch on TV. The onscreen keyboard grid is cumbersome and aggravating and completely unacceptable for searching across a single service, never mind searching across today’s growing number of popular video services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu. We’re proud to deliver to consumers a search experience on par with the stunning displays, great content and many advanced features of today’s smart TVs, and we are thrilled Kannuu search is now available to LG Smart TV customers throughout the United States.”
“Complexity is the bane of TV interfaces,” said nScreenMedia Founder and Chief Analyst Colin Dixon. “One of the biggest problems for smart TV users is searching across multiple video services. Solutions like Kannuu that remove much of the complexity from cross-service search are vital in growing the usage of smart TV portals.”
The Kannuu app can be downloaded for free from the LG Smart WorldTM TV app store.
About Kannuu
Leveraging existing TV remote control technology, Kannuu provides cutting-edge search and discovery solutions for quickly finding content in a Smart TV environment. Combining sophisticated delivery infrastructure, advanced search algorithms, proprietary recommendation techniques and an intuitive on-screen visual display, Kannuu enables device manufacturers, service providers, software companies and application developers to unlock the full value of video content on Smart TVs. By providing a fast, easy and vastly superior user experience, Kannuu satisfies consumers and drives revenue for service suppliers. For more information visit Kannuu.
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Media contact:
Rory Doherty
214-459-6321
Rory@CurrentCommo.com
LG is working mightily to create the simplest, most intuitive user experience possible — as it concurrently builds out a sophisticated smart TV platform, robust cloud offering and stellar line up of Smart TV models for 2013.
LG’s focus on the customer experience is both commendable and smart. In today’s market of smart TV saturation and exploding video content, whichever provider offers the best interface for consolidated search and discovery across multiple video services will own the customer — and a healthy cut of all revenue opportunities associated with that privileged relationship.
Now — with the free availability of the Kannuu Search and Discovery app for smart TV — LG is poised for sustainable, competitive differentiation, stronger customer loyalty and increased revenue.
Smart TV customers welcome the great compliment of video services available on today’s smart TVs — providing they can quickly and easily search across multiple video services at once.
Kannuu makes this possible for all LG Smart TV customers (’09 – ’13 models) in the US.
Check out LG SmartTV lineup for 2013