Interview with Boxee CEO, Avner Ronen
Today’s article brings us together with Boxee CEO for a quick interview about the most important aspects of this new media center application.
How long did the development take?
Boxee is based on the open source XBMC project which has been in development since 2002. Boxee specifically has been in development for a little over a year and a half.
What is the number 1 priority for Boxee at the moment?
Our current focus is on our Windows release and enabling Netflix on the AppleTV.
How do you plan on monetizing this service?
While the software is free, Boxee’s revenue sources will be:
- Revenue sharing with premium content providers like Neflix, Hulu, Amazon and others.
- Premium features (applications and plug-ins) for the platform much like iPhone applications. These applications and plug-ins will be available in an Application Directory hosted by Boxee.
- Licensing fees from hardware manufacturers (set top box manufacturers) who would like to include boxee in their platform.
How did you come up with the idea for Boxee?
The idea fom Boxee came out of the original Xbox Media Player (later renamed to XBMC). Avner bought a $,2000 Windows Media Center PC to run digital media in his living room.
After inviting a few friends to come over and check it out, a close friend, mentioned he could have done the same thing with his Xbox using XBMC. The idea for Boxee was born and over the next few years as they became avid XBMC users and contributors to the XBMC community.
In 2007, they decided to take the XBMC code and build a platform that included content available on the Internet as well as social networking functionality on top of XBMC’s great feature-set.
How many people work on the development team?
There are 11 Boxee employees. Avner Ronen, the CEO, and Gidon Coussin, VP of Business Development, both work in NY. The other 9 employees are based in Israel and are focused on development.
Editor’s note: Thanks to Andrew from StageTwoConsulting for getting us in touch with Boxee. Photo courtesy of joepitkin.
I want to hear how is Boxee working for you! I enjoy it a lot.
Still needs improved stability and UI for the local library, but the network based features are amazing and it's also the best looking media center out there. I intend to put it on an old laptop, the displays poor and the keyboard doesn't work but it fits up to my TV and will make a fine, slimline media center with DVD player an all.
Boxee is the main reason why I want to get an AppleTV, nice to hear there doing well!
I've made a terrible mistake to submit this article in the mods section on Digg. Didn't get a lot of traction.