BWI: Intertrust Invests in Kiora

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Kiora
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 08:30 AM IST (03:00 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, People; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Information technology, Media & entertainment; Technology
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Intertrust Invests in Kiora
Kiosk-based "Internet to Sneakernet" video rental service for low-bandwidth regions offers $20 set top boxes and content to USB sticks

Sunnyvale, CA, United States and Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, Tuesday, November 20, 2012 -- (Business Wire India) -- Intertrust Technologies Corporation today announced an investment in Kiora, an Indian startup company that provides kiosk-based video rental solutions for low bandwidth regions.

Kiora's service uses a specially designed Internet kiosk for retail outlets or community centers where consumers can fill conventional USB sticks with their choice of premium movies and TV shows. The content can then be downloaded at home for playback on custom-made set top boxes that will retail at under $20.

"Kiora is a brilliant example of how to build bridges over gaps in the Internet," said Talal G. Shamoon, chief executive officer of Intertrust. "We are very impressed not only by Kiora's distribution model, but also by the technology they've developed, both in terms of capabilities and cost efficiencies. Kiora has great potential to transform video distribution in places like India and China by solving the last mile problem in a very unique way."

Kiora has already licensed content from major Bollywood studios and has launched retail kiosks in its first test market in the Silicon Valley. Despite having some of the best Internet penetration in the world and a very large South Asian community, Silicon Valley's conventional video rental outlets offer limited non-Hollywood content. Kiora's success in this market will be expanded to other geographies with similar demographics, including other ethnic and regional content popular among immigrant communities across the world.

To prevent piracy, Kiora will deploy Marlin-based digital rights management (DRM) protection in its entertainment content. Marlin is an open-standard DRM technology that is being used in audio, video, and e-Book distribution platforms around the world. Intertrust is a founding member of Marlin.

"We started Kiora with the dream of providing high quality video to the Indian market in a way that was sensitive to people's lifestyle and Internet infrastructure," said Prasad Sanagavarapu, Kiora's co-founder. "We have ended up building a modern service and a revolutionary set top box, and have received sensational response from consumers and from studios that are looking for better ways to sell movies and reduce piracy. We now see similar opportunities around the world."

About Kiora

Kiora (formerly Bluebox Media Technologies) is headquartered in Hyderabad and Sunnyvale, California. The Company plans to grow its footprint in retail outlets in the US and India first, before expanding to other geographies. Kiora is also exploring short-term opportunities with franchisees who seek to cater content to non-Indian communities in the US, and distribution partners in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and in China. For more details, go to: www.kioramedia.tv .

About Intertrust

Intertrust invents, develops, and licenses software, technologies and intellectual property for digital rights management (DRM) and trusted computing. The company holds over 300 patents and has over 250 patent applications pending worldwide. Intertrust's inventions enable a broad range of products that use DRM and trusted computing technologies, including operating systems, digital media platforms, consumer electronics and mobile computing devices, web services, and secure enterprise automation. Intertrust is currently the world's only provider of advanced multiplatform OEM SDKs for Marlin servers and clients. In addition Intertrust also hosts a venture incubator that invests in information security, privacy and information analysis technology in the areas of consumer media, health and smart grid energy management.

Intertrust is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has regional offices in London and Beijing. For more information, visit: www.intertrust.com.




CONTACT DETAILS
Dinesh Murthy (Kiora Media Contact), +91 8008940006, sarc@kioramedia.tv
Robin Buckley (Intertrust Media Contact), 703.201.3524, robin@buckleykaldenbach.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, PEOPLE, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY

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