Roku Opening Up to Non-Netflix Video

Written by Ryan Lawler

Wednesday, September 24. 2008 at 02:15 PM EDT 1 comment

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Streaming Media West -- Roku Inc. founder and CEO Anthony Wood told audience members in his keynote today that the company's advanced set-top box will soon become more than just a way to stream Netflix Inc. movies to your TV.

The Netflix Player by Roku was launched in May as the first Internet-connected device that to get the video-rental company's streaming videos off the PC and into the living room. Since then, Netflix has announced deals to offer streaming through Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Xbox gaming console and an Internet-connected Blu-ray player by LG Electronics Inc. (London: LGLD; Korea: 6657.KS) .

Up until now, Roku's set-top box has only streamed Netflix content. But the box will soon by opened up to other content owners that want to use IP video to get to the television, according to Wood.

"We're going to open up the Netflix player for anyone who wants to put video on our platform," Wood says.

While there's no timeline yet, Wood says the company will release a software development kit "for any person that wants to publish, and allow any piece of video on the Web to stream on your TV."

Outside his keynote, Wood said that initial reaction from content owners to using the Roku set-top box as an online delivery platform to send IP video to the TV was positive. But there are some things that will need to be worked out.

For instance, for now Roku's box delivers content in standard-definition (SD) formats, but content owners are increasingly asking for HD capabilities, with bit rates in the range of 3 Mbit/s to 4 Mbit/s. There are also questions from content owners about the business models surrounding IP video.

"Everyone's looking to get this on the TV," Wood says. "But they want to know, what's the interactive ad model look like?"