In the past 18 months, Ottawa-based TV app-maker You.i TV has grown from 20 employees to 130, and the company expects that kind of expansion to continue in the next year, according to Matt Nelson, You.i TV’s director of marketing. “Basically, anyone who has a channel, anyone who has a TV brand or even a show itself, wants to build an app now,” he said. “You look at the number of channels and the number of shows in North America alone all trying to build an app, and they need to get it across 25 or 30 platforms. It gets incredibly complex.” That “appification” of TV got a boost last month when Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook introduced a new version of Apple TV, which — unlike previous devices — will support third-party applications. The future of TV is apps, Cook told the audience....
You.i TV, an Ottawa-based company making software for video applications, said Monday it has secured $15 million in funding, led by Los Angeles-based private-equity group Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP. The company said in a press release that its product, You.i Engine, "is a cross-platform app engine that simplifies and accelerates multi-platform app development. TV companies use it to build a custom app codebase that ties together all their backend technologies, while giving them unprecedented freedom from traditional front-end constraints." You.i TV said its projects include tablet and handset apps for Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.'s Shomi service, an iOS and Android app for Corus Entertainment Inc.'s Treehouse channel and a Crackle app for Roku Inc. devices....