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The Smart TV ecosystem is a bit of a wild west at the moment, with app developers forced to negotiate separate contracts with all manufacturers in order to get their apps on TVs.
(Credit: LG Electronics)
The Smart TV Alliance is hoping to change that with its Common Developer Portal due to be formally opened on 1 March 2014.
The portal will provide developers with a way to negotiate a single contract for publishing apps to all of the STA compliant devices. It’s part of the Alliance’s goal of creating a “build once, run everywhere” ecosystem.
“The new Common Developer Portal shows Smart TV Alliance apps are market ready for manufacturers, solution providers and consumers on a variety of televisions and devices,” said Seijiro Yasuki, President of Smart TV Alliance and Chief Technology Executive of Digital Products and Services Company, Toshiba. “It encourages a vibrant smart TV ecosystem and removes the barriers to application development while enhancing the smart TV experience for consumers.”
The announcement was made at CES 2014, with the Alliance also noting that it will be expanding its purview to include connecting smart TVs to the smart home, with a white paper published that outlines the Smart TV Alliance’s smart home capabilities.
The Smart TV Alliance is a consortium of manufacturers and developers, including LG, Toshiba, Panasonic and, most recently, TCL — the number one smart TV manufacturer in China.
