Jinni Powers Comcast X2 Recommendations

WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Cable Show -- Comcast Corp. CEO Brian Roberts unveiled the company's X2 platform to much fanfare on Tuesday, but with limited information on the vendors powering the next iteration of Xfinity. However, Light Reading Cable has learned that Jinni Media Ltd.'s recommendation engine is embedded in the new Comcast X2 interface. Jinni's semantic search technology first made news on the cable scene in 2010 when it was voted the technology most likely to succeed at a Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs) Innovation Showcase. That win opened doors for the Israeli company, which went on to sign multiple deals over the next three years. (See Jinni Puts Cable Guys in the Mood.) Jinni inked an agreement with Microsoft Corp. in 2011. Then, in January of 2013, the company announced seven new licensing agreements including partnerships with Time Warner Cable Inc. and VUDU Inc. (See Jinni Scores Microsoft Deal and Jinni Lands Licensing Deals.) The technology in Jinni's recommendation engine uses standard content metadata, but also Jinni's own data tags to describe intangible qualities such as "mood" and "style." With a machine-learning system, Jinni's recommendation engine can tell users not only what content they might like, but also why it might be appealing. Jinni is exhibiting now for the second year in a row in the CableNET area at The Cable Show. — Mari Silbey, Special to Light Reading Cable