Simple.TV adds Broadcast Interactive Media for station list

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simple.tvBroadcast Interactive Media (BIM), which provides web, video, and mobile publishing tools, will utilize its TitanTV signal prediction and data services technologies to support Simple.TV’s upcoming personal DVR and broadcast streaming service. The technology will provide consumers with a list of TV stations available over-the-air at their specific household address.


Simple.TV is a personal DVR (HDTV tuner that records to an external hard drive) that grabs live over-the-air HDTV signals then streams them (as well as previously recorded TV programs) to web-connected devices, such as iPads, Roku media streamers, PCs and Macs, enabling users to get free HDTV without a cable or satellite subscription. Simple.TV’s new DVR for “cord-cutters” will go on sale in mid-December.

“Simple.TV captures over-the-air broadcast TV and makes it available on all your favorite connected screens—inside your house or on the road,” says Mark Ely, CEO of Simple.TV. “BIM technology helps Simple.TV users to determine the number and strength of channels they can expect to receive.”

“Consumers are typically unaware and pleasantly surprised with the number of channels available to them via over-the-air (OTA) signals. BIM is a proponent of off-air broadcasting and is proud to partner with Simple.TV to increase OTA viewership,” says Mick Rinehart, SVP Products and Data Services at Broadcast Interactive Media.

Really Simple Software, makers of the Simple.TV platform, closed $5 million in Series A funding from New World Ventures in April.

RBR-TVBR observation: Yes, Simple.TV is fairly similar to Aereo (and Boxee TV), yet the broadcast networks aren’t going after it for copyright infringement. There are a couple of reasons. One is the basic service is free—it just piggybacks from a receiver and antenna unit at your home after you buy the box for about $250. The other, Aereo is acting without retransmission consent—they’ve turned the technology of sending antenna-received broadcast TV to wireless devices into a mass service for specific metro areas, more closely mimicking the MSOs and a much bigger threat to retrans. revenues. Aereo also charges a monthly fee, depending on what level of service chosen.