AwkwardTV

Despite all the attention that iPhone and iPod touch got over the last few weeks, the list of plug-ins for the Apple TV is growing steadily, albeit slowly. One new kid on the block is channl.tv, an online service that lets you manage your TV channels. AwkwardTV had the chance to interview Bruno Keymolen from channl.tv.

AwkwardTV: What is channl.tv?

Bruno: What Flickr is for photos, YouTube is for video clips, Slideshare is for presentations, that is what channl.tv will become for channels on your tv.
Channl.tv is about creating your own channels on your TV because we believe you should be able to decide what you watch when you want to watch it. Channl.tv makes it possible to add clips from video websites on the internet like YouTube and Google Video to your channels so that you have a very broad choice of what to watch. Upon signup we will create 2 channels for you one of which is called Recommendations and in there we will let you know what might be of interest of you based on the clips you watch and that you add to your channels. Through the AppleTV extension that we provide you are able to bring all of your channels into a commercial of the shelf AppleTV settop box.

AwkwardTV: How is it different from, say, the YouTube or nitoTV plug-ins?

Bruno: Channl.TV ’s goal is to collect and organize any online Internet video and make it available at your TV, we know it will not be possible to use anything found on the net but we aim to support a good share. If you compare it to the YouTube plugin and NitoTV you notice that YouTube is limited to YouTube content and NitoTV has a different approach, NitoTV makes it possible to play video available on a local storage and does not really focus at online content, it also is an individual experience. Channl.TV tries to make it very easy and intuitive to collect and share video, for example by means of a “Add to channl.tv” Bookmarklet, where a few clicks are enough to add a video from the Internet to a channel on Channl.TV and to your TV.

AwkwardTV: Tell us a bit about the inner workings. Which challenges did you face during development?

Bruno: Channl.TV consist of two projects. The Web application and the software for the settop box, each having its own challenges. We try to make it as simple as possible for the user both in the webapplication and in the use of AppleTV.

Bruno: For the AppleTV implementation we started with Alan Quartermain’s Backrow framework and online tutorials and soon were ready to start our own development. The AppleTV Backrow closed sources and lack of documentation gave some headache by times, but the overall feeling is that the development went pretty smooth.
The implementation of the webapplication is based on the Ruby on Rails framework which has allowed us to create somthing cool in very little time.

AwkwardTV: Will it also be open for other devices?

Bruno: Yes, we will not focus or limit to the AppleTV only. AppleTV had our immediate attention because it is widely available for an affordable price and the device capabilities fit very well to what we had in mind to create. The fact there was a development framework available made it an easy decision.
We want to be available on consoles such as the XBox and linux based open settop boxes, this will probably be the next big thing to do.
But we have a very agile development process and are open for suggestions from the community.

AwkwardTV: Who is behind channl.tv?

Bruno: Channl.TV was founded by a group of 4 people with a passion for technology which is used to create a good user experience. We have a good mix of skills so that we can make an easy to use and intuitive web application and an equally intuitive tv experience thanks to our extension for the AppleTV settop box.

AwkwardTV: Is channl.tv commercial, how does its business model work?

Bruno: Channl.TV is currently free of use to viewers. We have a number of different business models amongst which we can choose.
We could generate money from targeted advertisements since we know what the viewer is interested in, these ads could be displayed on our website or pre- or postroll when playing the clip on tv.
Commercial broadcasters or video producers could use channl.tv to create channels that are automatically updated with the latest episode of news, a tv-show or a children’s program.

AwkwardTV: How can I join?

Bruno: At the moment it is invite only, this because we are in a beta stage and still want to keep control the load on our servers for a couple of weeks.

AwkwardTV: Thanks for the interview!