Updated below: Kiora, a startup that offers kiosk-based video rental solutions for low bandwidth regions, has secured funding from Intertrust Technologies Corporation. The exact monetary terms of the funding were not disclosed. Kiora (previously Blue Box Media Technoligies) is headquartered at Hyderabad (India) and Sunnyvale (California,US). According to a statement from the company, Kiora’s service uses a specially designed Internet kiosk for retail outlets or community centers where consumers can fill USB sticks with their choice of premium movies and TV shows. The content can then be downloaded at home for playback on custom-made set top boxes, which, according to the company, will retail at under $20 (Rs 1100 approx). Kiora said that it has already licensed content from major Bollywood studios and has launched retail kiosks in its first test market in the Silicon Valley, where it wants to pilot its offering among the large South Asian community, since Silicon Valley’s conventional video rental outlets offer limited non-Hollywood content. Kiora says that its business will be expanded to other geographies with similar demographics, including other ethnic and regional content popular among immigrant communities across the world, following the pilot. To prevent piracy, Kiora will deploy Marlin-based digital rights management (DRM) protection in its content. Note that Intertrust, which is funding Kiora, is a founding member of Marlin. At the time of writing this post, Kiora offers Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies, although the site also lists Hindi, Kannada and English, though it doesn't offer any titles in these languages.…
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