Rovi and Microsoft Ink Windows Azure Media Services Agreement

Rovi Corporation announced that it has licensed its MainConcept H.264 video codec and SDK to Microsoft for Windows Azure Media Services.

For more information visit: www.mainconcept.com ; www.rovicorp.com


Unedited press release follows:

Rovi Licenses MainConcept Video Codec and SDK for Windows Azure Cloud-Based Video Services

High Quality H.264 Codec to Support Companies Using Windows Azure to Power On-Demand and Live Streaming Video Applications

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IBC, 9/6/2012 – Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ: ROVI), driving digital entertainment innovation, today announced a multi-year agreement for Windows Azure Media Services to use Rovi’s MainConcept® H.264 video codec and SDK. Under the terms of the agreement, Windows Azure Media Services is using the MainConcept SDK to enable fast, high-quality H.264 encoding. Rovi will be demonstrating MainConcept SDKs at IBC 2012, Hall 5, Stand A31.

“Windows Azure Media Services provides a rich set of capabilities for creating, managing, and distributing media in the cloud,” said Sudheer Sirivara, director, Windows Azure Media Services, Microsoft. “Rovi’s expertise in video encoding brings the quality and performance of the MainConcept H.264 codec to the encoding service offering on Windows Azure Media Services.”

“We are delighted to be teaming with Windows Azure, and supporting solutions capable of delivering exceptional quality video from the cloud to a range of home and mobile devices,” said Dirk Peters, Vice President Sales, Rovi Corporation. “This agreement is a testament to the performance of our H.264 video codec that’s optimized for large-volume encoding on fast, high core count processors and can support a variety of applications, from professional broadcasts to low bitrate streaming applications.”

Rovi’s MainConcept SDKs provide developers with an industry-leading suite of tools for encoding, decoding and streaming of video and audio content with exceptionally high quality at low bit rates. These SDKs power many of the most popular professional and consumer video applications today.

The MainConcept SDK supports Windows, Mac OS and Linux and provides a common API that enables developers to quickly add MainConcept codecs and streaming technologies into their existing digital media products and workflows. MainConcept developer tools are backed by an industry-leading developer support team of programmers and digital media experts located in the US, Europe and Asia to ensure fast time to market.

For a complete overview of Rovi’s MainConcept software development kits for adding audio and video encoding, decoding, transcoding and streaming to a range of applications visit: www.mainconcept.com.

About Rovi Corporation
Rovi powers the discovery, delivery, display and monetization of digital entertainment. With innovative technology solutions for consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, content producers, advertisers, retailers and websites, Rovi connects people and the entertainment they love. The company holds approximately 5,200 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. More information about Rovi can be found at rovicorp.com.