Boxee partners with Opera to bring apps to its cloud-enabled set-top boxes

Opera Software has deepened its links to the living room after it announced a partnership with Boxee. The Opera Devices SDK will now power Boxee’s new streaming media player, bringing a range of HTML5 apps for Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Vimeo and more to its set-top boxes.

Opera is best known for its mobile and desktop browsers — which have more than 275 million users — but its smart TV business is developing too. The company linked up with Dune to power its set-top boxes in August, and it touts Boxee’s technology as the world’s first ‘cloud enabled’ DVR.

Launched in October in the US, Boxee TV is a $99 set-top box accompanied by a cloud storage service priced at $14.99 per month. The technology allows users to record unlimited amounts of Internet TV which, in addition to broadcast channels, can be played across a range of devices, including TV sets, computers and tablets.

Given the way Internet users engage with social networks while they watch TV, the apps Opera is powering are particularly important, as Boxee COO Tom Sella explains:

In our world, content is king. Using Opera enabled us to add a lot of Apps to Boxee TV without a lot of effort on our part. In addition, working with Opera ensures our content library is well positioned to grow as more companies create HTML5 Apps.

Opera launched its TV App Store back in January, and it features more than 100 apps. The company has courted developers to build content for the store via a dedicated portal, enabling them to make money by integrated ads via the Open Mobile Ad Exchange.

Set-top boxes developed on the Opera SDK began shipping in the first half of this year, and the technology is also used on devices built by Korea’s Intek Digital.

Image credit: .reid. / Flickr