Boxee has announced an additional $6M in funding for its HTPC software program and their planned focus for the future. This is on top of quite a bit of previous private equity investment in Boxee. The press release talks of not only the new funding but also how they hope that the new investor “General Catalyst” brings a better connection to the big media & cable companies. Here’s my takeaways from the announcement:
- Boxee has some big investors who expect a return. Lots of pressure, but lots of opportunity as well. It’s really encouraging though that these big-time investors still see promise in the HTPC and Media Player market.
- Monetization is more and more of a focus for Boxee and their investors. Their time to live on spending money without earning money will come sooner than later and that has to be an incredible amount of pressure on the team.
- There is a focus on getting the content HTPC users yearn for and that does require good relationships with big media as well as playing by those big media rules. This one should be interesting to watch.
- The mention of moving Boxee outward to the TV (less computer-centric) and therefore more mainstream is important. Take notice of this as this likely will be a very big focus for Boxee and probably drive their success one way or another.
After Boxee had the “run-in” with Hulu a lot of the “wow” factor was lost for some, but I think it’s still a very viable freeware HTPC app.
Without a doubt Boxee will need to move beyond computer software in order to monetize. I expect they’ll try to work deals like Vudu did in landing on LG televisions. I also expect they’ll try to monetize via content providers given premium placements or such. And I doubt advertising is out of the question.