According to a filing with the US Security and Exchange commission (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1424454/000142445410000030/form8-k0920.htm) Rovi Corp. (http://www.rovicorp.com) — a company that specializes in digital entertainment services — has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from Rovi. The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential.
According to claims at the Rovi web site:
° Approximately 111 million subscribers and 91 million CE devices worldwide use their guidance technology.
° The Rovi content protection technology is on approximately nine billion DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
° More than 500 million devices are enabled with their protection technology.
° Rovi has active advertising rights in place with approximately 121 million guides worldwide.
° The company has a unique catalog of entertainment metadata for TV, movies, music and games that includes: more than 1.2 million TV series episodes since 1954; more than 1.8 million pop and classical music albums and 16 million tracks; and more than 430,000 movie titles.
Rovi also licenses interactive program guide and digital content protection technologies to third parties so they can “facilitate navigation of digital entertainment media and protect valuable assets.”