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Set-top box company Entone wants to be TiVo-killer
VentureBeat
By Matt Marshall
August 1, 2008
Entone, a company that sells a set-top box for Internet television
that can distribute video to three different TVs at once, has raised
$14.5 million in a second round of financing.
It wants to replace your TiVo.
The box is sold via 25 telecom operators that provide Internet
TV services to the home. Right now, the consumer pays for the Entone
service when ordering it through their broadband carrier. Typically,
an end user pays for a year or two contract, with basic service
for live TV programming running around $30 to $50 per month, and
premium services for more — similar to other IPTV offerings you
can get. In the future Entone will enable a less expensive option
for only a portion of the programming, but it won’t be on demand.
A $700 TiVo box lets you do something similar, by adding a time-shifting
capability to the programming you get from your broadband service.
However, Entone plans to make its service much less expensive and
more versatile.
The Entone box, called a “gateway” because it distributes to multiple
sets, will integrate broadcast television with other features in
the near future, the company said.
Aside from time-shifted viewing, it will feature place-shifted
viewing (initially around the house, but eventually to a mobile
device, for example) and personal media viewing — such as photo
libraries.
Jim Jones, of Scale Venture Partners, said the company has now
raised $26.5 million in total. All of that came after 2006, when
Entone sold its video networking software technology to Harmonic
for $45 million and began a focus on the Internet television service.
The round was led by Coral Capital Management and included existing
investors Menlo Ventures and Scale. An image of the Entone Hydra
IP Video Gateway is at top; for more, a data sheet is here.
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