Pandora comes to set-top boxes via Vudu

Users of the Vudu high definition video on demand service now have access to Pandora Internet radio, the company said today.

At the end of 2008, set-top box company Vudu unveiled its open source Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform for Vudu hardware, which allowed the device to access Internet services like YouTube, Picasa, and Flickr. The announcement was similar to one made by budget set top box maker Roku several months before. That company's successful Netflix streamer later got Amazon's Video on Demand, and is expected to get a YouTube upgrade in the near future. The move to bolster a discrete service with rich Internet content is one that has been taken by most set-top box competitors.

Pandora is one of the most popular free Internet radio services, thanks in part to an extremely well-downloaded iPhone app. But Pandora's founder Tim Westergren said at the AlwaysOn Conference last month, "As a company we're always thinking, 'What's the next iPhone?' And that's where we're gonna put our resources."

Maybe it's not the "next iPhone," but Westergren said, "We were impressed with Vudu's speed and the quality of development and think that Vudu is a great way for our listeners to access their favorite Pandora stations in the comfort of their living room."

Pandora has been integrated into a number of home entertainment solutions, like Logitech's Squeezebox Boom and Duet, the Sonos PMP, and the Chumby, but the only other high-definiton video solution that also carries Pandora is Samsung's BD-P2550 connected Blu-ray Disc Player.