Today, SetJam, a company that describes itself as “building the future of TV,” has announced it has been acquired by Motorola Mobility. The company’s products currently include a customizable TV and movie widgets designed for embedding on websites, plus developer-friendly tools like a REST API and XML download of the SetJam database.
The TV widgets are designed to be context-sensitive and offer full CSS-styling, so they blend in with the website where they’re placed, while also allowing the site’s owner to increase revenue through affiliate income that comes from clicks to third-party sources. The company’s widgets include links to iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and others, which would be the source of this affilate income. A list of the supported content sources found on the company’s homepage also includes Cartoon Network, MTV, Disney, Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, Spike, TBS, CBS, WB, FX, South Park Studios, Crunchyroll, Fox, TNT and Crackle among those SetJam offers.
For those with longer memories, you may recall SetJam was once a consumer-facing web service, similar to Clicker, which aggregated videos from around the web. It later shifted its focus, becoming the B2B service that Motorola Mobility acquired.
The announcement of the acquisition arrived from Ryan Janseen, formerly SetJam CEO. It reads:
I’m writing to let you know that today SetJam was acquired by Motorola Mobility. We are all very excited about this transition here at SetJam. Motorola and SetJam share the vision of making content delivery, discovery, and consumption seamless across any screen, and as a world leader in video technology, Motorola will provide us with unprecedented levels of reach and distribution.
I want to take this moment to personally thank you for your continued encouragement and support over the past two years. None of this success would have been possible without your backing and belief in us. While this acquisition was in process, we’ve had to be far less communicative than we normally would be. We greatly look forward to reconnecting with all of you in the New Year. In the mean time, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
Cordially,
Ryan
Ryan Janssen
(Former) CEO, SetJam
The announcement comes at a time when Motorola Mobility itself is being acquired by Google for $12.5 billion. Given Google’s own TV intentions with its Google TV service, one has to wonder if there’s a connection between the two moves.