Roku gets set to roll

DIGITAL RIGHTS: US video-streaming set-top box maker Roku is gearing up for international expansion, going up against the likes of Apple TV and Boxee. But the firm offers audiences and rights holders something very different, according to VP of business development Jim Funk.

Listen to the interview here:

Says Funk: “Boxee is focused on more of a web experience – playing your personal video off your PC – so I think the products are targeted differently at different audiences. We’re a little more similar to Apple TV, though the biggest difference there is that we’re open, so anyone can create what we call a ‘channel’ on the Roku player.”

Funk also discusses the reasons why he believes Google TV failed in 2011, his expectations about the purported arrival of an integrated Apple TV in 2012 and the extent to which ‘cord-cutting’ really is a genuine phenomenon.

This online season is linked to the November 30 C21 Supper Club, which is produced in association with Audio Network and JCA, when a number of executives this week discussed the issue during an interactive networking evening at Bafta in London.

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