Samsung purchases Israeli media streaming service Boxee
South Korean technology giant Samsung has announced its acquisition of Boxee, an Israeli manufacturer of media streaming services, as part of efforts to improve the user experience of its own customers.
Boxee enables subscribers to upload TV shows onto its servers, from where they can be streamed direct to any internet enabled device.
Currently the world’s leading purveyor of smart TVs, devices which do not require a set top box to display content, Samsung believes the purchase will put another quill in its well feathered cap.
Commenting on the deal Paul Jackson, principal analyst at Informa, said: "When people are going into stores they may end up with a smart TV by default but at the moment they have little desire to use their internet functions even if they have a fast enough connection.
"But within the TV industry there is a lot of optimism that consumers will want to use these kind services in the future.
"Boxee has been playing with its own TV user interface and has a good reputation for making a link between its hardware and a back-end service.
"But it's still early days for cloud TV services and it's been difficult for Boxee to make money. It makes more sense for it to be part of a wider offering rather than selling itself as a single function device."