Boxee is breaking out of that box we had put it in and labelled: Upstart Internet TV pioneer unloved by the establishment.
At a San Francisco party on Tuesday night, it announced a partnership with Major League Baseball to offer thousands of games live and on-demand in high-definition.
It also unveiled content deals with Current TV, the Digg recommendation service and Tumblr microblogging service.
Boxee, which has been available in Mac and Linux versions, announced a public Alpha version for Windows.
Avner Ronen, Boxee’s chief executive, told me he thought Boxee could challenge Windows Media Center in the same way Firefox has challenged Internet Explorer.
“We are trying to provide software in terms of putting the user first,” he said.
Boxee gives a big-screen look to users’ media, from photos, music and video on local hard drives to the sources it pulls from the internet.
Its inclusion of Hulu as a source annoyed the video service’s owners NBC and Fox enough in February for them to ask it to stop. They seemed concerned that its presentation of their content on a computer-connected TV competed with regular TV programming of their shows and the surrounding advertising.
Mr Ronen said the baseball deal might now change perceptions of Boxee.
“We got a lot of headlines about the disruption of traditional media, but we are partnering with Major League Baseball and there is no threat. I believe you will see more and more media companies finding their way onto Boxee. We support both ad-based and subscription-based business models.”
The service’s capabilities are being increased by a growing developer community. Tuesday night’s event was also an awards ceremony – for the best of more than 100 applications developed for Boxee.
