Rovi guide aims for 6-degree search capabilities

The TotalGuide electronic program guide (EPG) that Rovi will introduce at this year's Cable Show revolves around a "six-degree discovery process" that lets consumers move between different layers and types of content to focus on "all available viewing options," according to Sharon Metz, vice president of vertical marketing at Rovi.

"The on-demand experience today is relatively bifurcated where you're watching linear television and then go into the on-demand space. TotalGuide simplifies the search, browse and recommendation capabilities and brings the experience together in a single user interface to support multiple content types," she said.

Rovi is white labeling the guide but, Metz said, "it has the flexibility to meet the customization needs of the service provider. It taps a richer vein of metadata to "merge linear television, DVR recordings, VoD content and wideband, Internet and personal media ... with an advanced search and discovery experience."

Rovi has no customers yet for the guide, which is in its "early introduction" stage, she said.

For more:
- see this news release

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