Liberty Global joins RDK venture as third JV member

Liberty Global has joined the Reference Design Kit (RDK) joint venture, joining existing members Comcast and Time Warner Cable to develop the Comcast-originated platform for next-generation consumer premises devices for cable.

The move was announced at Cable Congress in Amsterdam yesterday.

Liberty Global will provide technical, financial, and management oversight resources to support the joint venture.

RDK Management is responsible for licensing, code management, training and community support for the platform, designed to create a common framework for powering IP or hybrid set-top boxes and gateway devices for CE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, system integrators and TV service providers.

In Europe, the RDK has been licensed by Kabel Deutschland publicly to date.

“Liberty Global was an early proponent of the RDK, and today we’re taking a strategic stake in the JV because of the clear technical advantages it provides to us and the industry at large,” said Balan Nair, executive vice-president and chief technology officer for Liberty Global.

“We believe RDK provides a baseline of standardisation that will yield faster development and launch cycles of next-generation in-home devices and video services. It’s a key part of our product roadmap. The combination of leading North American and European operators will enable RDK to build global scale and accelerate benefits to all RDK licensees.”