Redux brings social video discovery to Google TV

Video discovery startup Redux has launched a native app for Google TV-powered connected TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices, enabling viewers to navigate curated channels of online content in the same way they navigate linear TV channels.

In addition to professional sources of streaming content like Netflix and Hulu Plus, connected TVs have created vast opportunities for viewers to tune in to online content from other sources. The problem is that there’s no real good way to navigate streams from sources like YouTube and Vimeo, or to surface videos shared by friends and contacts on social networks like Twitter and Facebook on the big screen.

Redux hopes to solve that problem with a 10-foot user interface that allows viewers to navigate channels of online content in the same way that they watch regular TV. The Redux app enables viewers to pick channels of interest from a personalized menu and watch a continuous stream of videos without having to choose them individually. Users can also navigate through channels or videos using the same up-down-left-right remote control functions that they’ve come to rely on for traditional TV browsing.

Most of Redux’s channels were built leveraging curators from its days as a browser-based social video recommendation engine. While it’s focusing more heavily on its TV interface, it’s continued to add curators to build channels of interesting content. With that in mind, it’s partnered with Thrillist and Jetpack Media, the online division of Greene Street Films, for curated channels that will be of interest to their audiences. Users can then tune in to those curated channels and add them to their homepage or find related content.

Redux was already available as an HTML5 web app through the Chrome browser on Google TV, but the launch of a native app, as well as Google’s promotion of Redux, should go a long way to increasing usage on the connected TV platform. The startup reported 3.5 million unique viewers last month, and CEO David McIntosh expects that to grow dramatically over the coming months. He’s also pretty bullish on the next generation of Google TV gaining market- and mind share among consumer electronics manufacturers and consumers alike.

While landing on Google TV is a big step for Redux, the company isn’t stopping there: It’s also working to get its channel-based discovery guide added to other connected device platforms. The next step, according to McIntosh, is not to be just one of many apps on those platforms, but to be tapped as the discovery guide for online video on those devices.

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