Sky renews Rovi patent agreement

Alun Webber

Sky has extended its licence agreement with Rovi, giving the operator continued access to Rovi’s entertainment discovery patent portfolio.

The multi-year, multi-territory patent deal lets Sky continue to offer discovery and personalisation options to its 21 million customers.

“Our customers want to quickly and easily find programming that interests them. Our long-standing relationship with Rovi helps us to bring intuitive and personalised user experiences to our subscribers,” said Alun Webber, managing director, product design and development, Sky.

Rovi’s executive vice president, intellectual property and licensing, Samir Armaly, said: “We are very pleased to continue working with Sky. This renewal further reinforces the enormous value of Rovi’s patent portfolio in bringing the latest capabilities to pay TV homes across Europe.”

In June, UK operator Virgin Media won a patent case against Rovi, marking what it claimed was the eleventh successive defeat for Rovi out of the eleven patent disputes.