Interactive music service ROXi is bringing its service to nearly three dozen television markets across the country through a new strategic partnership with Sinclair, the companies announced this week.
The launch takes advantage of NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) technology to deliver interactive music content through broadband connections on smart TVs located in areas where Sinclair operates a broadcast station. The rollout is being supported by the industry consortium Pearl TV, and additional markets are expected to support ROXi TV in the coming months.
Sinclair-owned or operated stations in the following markets will be the first to launc ROXi-powered music streams:
- Albany, New York
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Buffalo, New York
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dayton, Ohio
- Des Moines, Iowa
- El Paso, Texas
- Flint, Michigan
- Fresno, California
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Mobile, Alabama
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Portland, Maine
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Rochester, New York
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- San Antonio, Texas
- Seattle, Washington
- Syracuse, New York
- Washington, District of Columbia
- West Palm Beach, Florida
- Wichita, Kansas
ROXi music channels are powered by FastStream Interactive’s platform, and deliver free, on-demand access to music videos through channels available on NextGen TV. The channels don’t require a user account, password or a subscription.
Consumers can navigate ROXi’s catalogue of 100 million licensed songs and videos using their television remote, including titles from major labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and MERLIN. The catalogue features both traditional and virtual music videos. Users can skip through content in a style similar to TikTok or search by artist, song, mood, or genre.
“ROXi’s new service will delight viewers because it is seamless, interactive, and free,” Anne Schelle, the managing director of Pearl TV, said in a statement. “Today’s TV audiences expect control, personalization, and instant access, and ROXi delivers this in spades. We’re thrilled to support ROXi’s launch as a new NextGen TV benefit for our viewers and can’t wait to see it expand across the rest of the country, in partnership with multiple broadcasters.”
The Sinclair-ROXi partnership was first teased during a panel presentation at the TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco last month, when a Sony executive confirmed the new channels will begin arriving on their NextGen TV-capable smart TVs in the coming weeks. The executive said the channels are a unique value proposition to American families because they pull clean versions of popular songs from a catalog of tens of millions of music videos. Each channel is expected to offer less than five minutes of advertising per hour, the executive affirmed.
Skip Flenniken, the Vice President and General Manager of Technology Development at Sinclair, said the partnership with ROXI is “expanding what’s possible on broadcast television, and this partnership brings an interactive music experience to viewers in a simple, accessible way,” with no apps, logins or subscriptions required to view them.
“It’s a clear example of how NextGen TV enhances the broadcast experience,” he said.
The first trial run of ROXi’s channels occurred during the NAB Show in Las Vegas last year. Sinclair’s Las Vegas station, KSNV (Channel 3, NBC), served as the testing grounds for the deployment of ROXi music feeds over NextGen TV. Later, ROXi received a number of honors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including “Best of CES” and “Best in Show.”
“More than 40 years after MTV first hit American TV screens, ROXi is revolutionizing the way we experience music on TV in the U.S., turning the TV into a musical hub for the American family again,” Rob Lewis, the CEO of FastStream Interactive, said on Wednesday. “This isn’t just a music channel, it’s a game-changer for television. ROXi is just the beginning, we’ll be launching multiple non-music TV channels, ushering in a new era of interactive TV across America.”
