All the latest news and views on interactive television. (TM)...

Submitted by admin on Tue, 2005-10-25 07:47.

Programmer, NBC Universal Cable, and MSO, Time Warner Cable, have signed a wide-ranging carriage agreement, which, among other things, gives Time Warner Cable the right to offer certain programs from NBC, USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, Sci Fi and other NBC Universal channels on its Start Over service. The latter, which is expected to launch later this year, will allow Time Warner Cable customers to restart TV shows that are already in progress; however, it will not allow them to fast-forward through commercials. The service is based on technology that was developed under the auspices of Time Warner Cable's now-defunct MystroTV project.

The deal also gives Time Warner Cable the rights to VOD content from NBC News (including its flagship shows, "Nightly News" and "Meet the Press") and--for the first time--its various cable properties (including MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "The Abrams Report," and CNBC's "Mad Money" and "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo"). In addition, it calls for NBC Universal to develop "interactive opportunities" for Time Warner Cable and to participate in several of the MSO's new technology trials. "This multi-faceted agreement with Time Warner Cable demonstrates our commitment to providing our affiliates with the services they need to drive their businesses," NBC Universal Cable president, David Zaslav, said in a prepared statement. "Customers will continue to have access to one of the top-rated cable networks on television, USA, while also having the opportunity to utilize new technologies like Start Over. Additionally, we expect Start Over will help deliver more engaged viewers to our advertisers. From HD to VOD and interactive TV, our customers will get to watch the valuable programming we have to offer, from news to entertainment, in new and exciting ways."

Click http://www.itvt.com to subscribe to our free email newsletter, which contains all the news stories you see on this Web site, and additional breaking news and scoops, in-depth features, interviews, and other exclusive content you will not read anywhere else.

Australian advertising sales company, Multi Channel Network (MCn), says that the launch phase of interactive TV advertising on Australia's OpenTV-powered pay-TV platform, Foxtel, has been a success. The company says that it has sold out ITV advertising on the platform for the rest of the year. Companies that have used, or plan to use, Foxtel's interactive advertising capabilities include Toyota (which will launch its second campaign next month), Subaru, Mercedes, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, United Independent Pictures, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, BVI, Canon and Emirates (note: the Emirates i-ad campaign, which will launch next month, will take viewers who press red to an area where they can play a soccer game with their remote; the ad is intended to promote Emirates' sponsorship of next year's FIFA World Cup).

MCn--which has set up a new division, MCn Connect, tasked with driving the development of i-ads from concept to broadcast--says that it plans to air 30 interactive campaigns next year (more than double the number aired this year) and that it will shortly begin offering Dedicated Advertiser Locations (DAL's): i.e. full-screen promotional sites accessed via the red button. "There is no doubt about the power of the red button with advertising," MCn's business development director, Damian Keogh, said in a prepared statement. "We knew that interactive advertising in the United Kingdom was successful on the BSkyB platform, but we have been very encouraged with the responses so far from Australian viewers. We launched a trial for the technology in April of this year and were planning ten campaigns for the year. We have now confirmed 12 campaigns and have no more opportunities available this year."

The BBC is planning to offer a red-button interactive TV application, dubbed "Shakespeare's Stories," to accompany four "modern-dress" productions of Shakespeare plays that will air on BBC One later this fall. (Note: the productions--of the plays "Much Ado About Nothing," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"--are part of a BBC initiative, dubbed "ShakespeaRe-Told," that is designed to bring Shakespeare's work to new audiences via TV, radio and the Web.) According to the Corporation, viewers who press the red button after each production will receive an introduction to the app's interactive experience from actor, David Oyelowo. The app will allow them to view a scene from each of the plays in the original text, and examine the story from four different angles: they will be able to explore the original language in a glossary; view behind-the-scenes interviews with each play's actors, directors and writers (the plays have been extensively adapted to modern contexts); examine the original context of the plays, and access information on Shakespeare's life (this section of the app will include interviews with noted British director, Sir Peter Hall, and with TV Shakespeare expert, Michael Wood); and explore the themes and moods of the plays. The application, which was developed by BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment's ITV team, will be available on all the UK's major digital television platforms, and will also be available via broadband on the BBC's newly revamped TV Web site (see article in this issue).

In other BBC news: the Corporation is offering a red-button application to accompany its new historical drama-documentary series, "Egypt," which traces how the mysteries of ancient Egypt were uncovered by three renowned Egyptologists: Howard Carter, The Great Belzoni, and Jean-Francois Champollion. The application, which is available on all the UK's major digital TV platforms after each of the series' six episodes, presents viewers with a mystery game that expands on the story of the curse of Tutankhamun. The game introduces viewers to Count Louis Hamon (an actual historical figure) who is seeking to lift the curse, and sets them a number of challenges to help him do so. The challenges involve tracing the origins of a "mystical mummified hand" and reuniting the ashes of the hand with a sacred mummy. At the same time, however, viewers have to determine whether Hamon is a genuine mystic, as he claims to be, or a charlatan. The app requires viewers to use the number keys on their remote to choose between various options, in order to unlock the next stage of its narrative. The BBC says that viewers who successfully navigate the app will be able to win "an exclusive scarab if they dare to take on 'the curse.'" Like the "Shakespeare's Stories" app, the "Egypt" app is available to UK viewers with a broadband connection via the BBC's TV Web site.

UK wireless carrier, 3, has launched a subscriber-programmed VOD service on its 3G mobile platform. The service, dubbed "See Me TV," invites viewers to submit 30-second video clips showcasing their talents in front of or behind the camera. The clips are then made available for other 3 subscribers to view, and every time a subscriber downloads one of the clips, the person who submitted it receives 1p: credits from downloads are accumulated in an account, and then transferred to contributors to the service via PayPal. Because 3 has a subscriber base of 3.2 million, the company claims that the most popular clips on the new VOD service could potentially "make thousands of pounds worth of cash." The service is accessed via the 3 Services menu. To facilitate navigation, its content, which is updated daily, is divided into a variety of categories, such as "Stupid Stuff," "Cuddly," and "Dead Impressive." The clips are presented with a title and the name of their "director": the most popular clips appear at the top of the mobile browser.

According to 3's COO, Gareth Jones, the new service is designed to take advantage of the fact that mobile phone users are increasingly using their phones' video cameras in a creative fashion: "Our customers are using their video mobiles in endlessly creative ways to entertain their mates, and See Me TV will take this trend to the next level," he said in a prepared statement. "We wanted to create the ultimate reality channel, where you're the talent and you decide what you want to do. And the more popular your clips, the more money you stand to make. The only limit to what you can earn is your talent--or the lengths you'll go to make an impression."

In other 3 news: the company has expanded its TV offerings via a deal with MobiTV. The deal sees 3 launching seven new channels: Kiss, Shorts TV, CNN, Extreme Sports, ITN, Cartoon Network, and Bravo. The channels are priced at £5 per month. The company says it is also working directly with Vidzone to offer its subscribers access to the latter's mobile music video channel for £1 per day. In addition, it says that it will shortly launch a new, free-to-view mobile TV channel of its own that will show original programming, news and weather updates, and previews of other content offerings on its service.

Microsoft has released a software update for its Windows XP Media Center Edition platform. Update Rollup 2, as the update has been designated, allows end-users of the platform to stream digital video, standard- and high-definition TV, digital music and photos from a Media Center PC to any TV in the household via Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming platform: it is designed to take advantage of the built-in Media Center Extender technology of the Xbox 360, which Microsoft says will be available in North America from November 22nd. Existing Media Center customers can download the update from Microsoft's Windows Update download site. Other features of Update Rollup 2 include support for an additional HDTV tuner, allowing a Media Center PC to support up to four tuners: two analog and two ATSC high- definition. According to Microsoft, US customers will be able to use two NTSC (analog) capture boards and two ATSC (digital) capture boards, allowing personal video recording of two shows at the same time, broadcast as either ATSC digital TV or HDTV. Other new features include "Away Mode," which allows Media Center PC's to perform certain tasks--such as recording shows or streaming content to Media Center Extenders--in a low-power mode (note: this feature will be available in the coming months on new PC's from Acer, Fujitsu Siemens, Gateway, HP, Phillips, Samsung, and Shuttle); and improved DVD burning and management capabilities. Microsoft claims to have sold over 4 million Media Center PC licenses and says that more than 130 PC manufacturers around the world are offering Media Center PC's. According to the analyst company, Current Analysis, Media Center PC's accounted for 46% of the US retail desktop PC market.

In other Windows Media Center news: Microsoft is expanding its Media Center content partnership with MTV Networks. Earlier this month, the latter launched its broadband channel, "MTV Overdrive," on the platform, and it plans to launch its college-targeted broadband service, mtvU, the VSpot service of its VH1 channel, and the yet-to-launch broadband service of its Comedy Central channel on the platform early next year. The services, which will feature exclusive performances, news features, music videos, games and more, will be available through the Media Center platform's "Online Spotlight" area. "Our audiences want to connect with our content on every platform they interact with--linear television, broadband, online, radio, and now on PC's that run Windows XP Media Center," Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks' Music, Films and Logo Group, said in a prepared statement. "Today's announcement helps fulfill our multiplatform entertainment promise. The distinction between TV and broadband programming is becoming less important to our viewers, and the Media Center Edition platform is helping to take the entire entertainment experience to the next level."

VIDEO: To see a 60-second movie clip of the Sunflower Promptu promotion, please click the link http://www.itvt.com/Sunflower-AgileTV-Promptu-60-.mov . It may take a bit of time to load.

Voice-navigation specialist, AgileTV, has signed a predeployment agreement with Sunflower Broadband--a regional cable operator that has also deployed Digeo's Moxi platform--to evaluate marketing strategies for the introduction of AgileTV's voice-activated search and navigation service, Promptu. The companies say that Sunflower will begin a market-wide deployment of Promptu by the summer of 2006. Promptu allows cable subscribers to give voice commands to their EPG by pressing a "talk" button on a special microphone-equipped remote control. Subscribers can, for example, tune to a channel by saying its name or channel number; tune to a currently airing program by saying its name; view a list of programs in a particular programming category by saying "scan" and the name of that category (e.g. "scan news" or "scan sports"); conduct a search by saying "find" and the name of a program, actor or sports team; and use a series of simple voice commands to navigate through the EPG and schedule recordings on a DVR, or to browse and play VOD content and use a VOD service's "trick-play" features (i.e. fast-forward, rewind, pause, etc.). The technology, which is based on a server-centric architecture and which currently works with Motorola DCT2000 and DCT2500 set-tops, makes use of a dynamically managed database of over 100,000 phrases, and, according to AgileTV, delivers over 90% voice recognition accuracy.

Sunflower Broadband and AgileTV will launch Promptu next month to customers in the Kansas communities of Lawrence, Tonganoxie, Basehor, and Piper. The companies say they will educate consumers about the service via such tactics as payments center demo stations, VOD spots, and door-to-door sales teams with DVD players.

YooMedia has signed a partnership agreement with a company called Electra (note: the latter--which is led by a team of interactive TV veterans that includes PlayJam and Optimistic Entertainment co- founder, Jasper Smith, ex-head of Telewest Broadband, David Caswell, and ex-European CTO of Gemstar-TV Guide, Jonathan Drazin--has developed a technology that it says can be used to give instant access from any digital terrestrial channel to rich, multimedia interactive content; the company claims that the technology achieves this without a "significant increase" in set-top box cost, and consumes considerably less bandwidth than other interactive services) to develop a collection of free and premium ITV services for the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview.

According to the companies, the new services, which will be accessible from any channel, will feature richer functionality, graphics and sound than current Freeview ITV services. Content for the services will be delivered by a newly launched datacasting service from YooMedia, and the technology required to receive the service will be licensed to consumer electronics manufacturers for incorporation into set-top boxes, DVR's and integrated digital television sets. YooMedia and Electra say they also plan to collaborate on developing advanced dating and fixed-odds gaming services for the new service. "We are delighted to announce our first datacasting service on Freeview, working in partnership with Electra," YooMedia group managing director, Neil MacDonald, said in a prepared statement. "We developed the datacasting service to provide a sophisticated and state of the art interactive delivery mechanism for the rapidly expanding digital market. Freeview is the fastest growing digital TV platform in the UK with over five million households. Many industry commentators believe that Freeview will emerge as the largest single platform over the coming years and we believe that the time is right for high quality interactive services to be made available on it."

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) is seeking proposals for papers to be included in its 2006 NCTA Technical Papers volume (note: now in its 47th year, the NCTA Technical Papers publication is described by the organization as an "archive of breakthrough ideas and innovative approaches for advancing the technology foundation of the cable and telecommunications industry"). Proposals will be judged by a panel of industry technology experts, chaired by Dan Pike, CTO of GCI Cable, and authors whose papers are chosen for publication will be invited to present encapsulations of their work at the NCTA's 2006 National Show (takes place in Atlanta, April 9th through 11th).

Among the topics that the NCTA says will be of "particular interest" in 2006 are "video over Internet Protocol" and "approaches to enhanced and interactive television." The NCTA says that proposals should provide "enough specifics about the planned presentation to indicate the premise, reference value, content and intended audience associated with your proposed paper." They can be as short as 100 words, but the NCTA says that "a page or more is acceptable." Individuals may submit more than one proposal; however, the NCTA warns that no previously published texts will be considered. The deadline for submitting proposals is December 12th: authors of papers chosen for publication will be notified in January and will need to submit their papers by February 27th. More information and an online submission form can be found at http://www.thenationalshow.com/technicalpapers .

The BBC has appointed Pete Clifton as head of BBC News Interactive. He will be in charge of all BBC News's interactive and on-demand services, including its interactive TV services, its Ceefax and Digital Text offerings, its Web site (which, according to the BBC, has received 4 billion impressions for the year to date), and its broadband services, such as the News Player, which provides news video clips. Clifton has been serving as acting head of BBC News Interactive since the spring, having replaced Richard Deverell, who had been appointed as COO of the BBC's youth channel, CBBC. Prior to that, Clifton was UK editor of the BBC News Web site, and before that, he was editor of Ceefax. His other experience includes a three-year stint as chief sub on the Press Association's sports desk, a stint as a sports sub at the Exchange Telegraph agency, and stints as a news reporter and as the cricket correspondent at the Northampton Chronicle and Echo newspaper. "I'm delighted to be confirmed in the role," Clifton said in a prepared statement. "It's a really exciting place to be, with the move to digital and a truly on-demand news business. The outlook seems to change by the day, so it's going to be a real challenge for all of us. But there's a great team here and we'll have some fun along the way too."

BSkyB has long been expected to purchase a broadband provider, having made no secret of its belief that broadband is key to its future: in a recent speech at the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention, for example, the company's COO, Richard Freudenstein, confirmed that it will eventually move to a hybrid distribution model, under which it will use broadband connections to its set-top boxes to offer VOD and other services: "New Ethernet connections will allow us to deliver services such as VOD over a broadband pipe, as well as over satellite," he told attendees. The company has already announced plans for a broadband VOD service that will deliver content from Sky Movies and Sky Sports to PC's and laptops, and, in the presentation to analysts that followed its most recent earnings announcements, CEO James Murdoch stated that the company plans to eventually add Ethernet connectivity to all its set-tops.

The purchase price of 175 pence per Easynet share appears to be quite generous, representing a premium of approximately 81% over the closing price of Easynet shares on October 14th, the last business day prior to the offer period. Easynet's directors are unanimously recommending that the company's shareholders accept the offer: according to Sky, to date it has received "irrevocable undertakings" and a letter of intent to accept the offer from shareholders that collectively control 21.8% of Easynet's issued share capital. The deal will also see BSkyB retaining Easynet's current management team. "Today's offer reflects the exciting opportunities that now exist to combine quality entertainment with significant high-speed connections," BSkyB CEO, James Murdoch, said in a prepared statement. "Entertainment is at the core of Sky's success. Easynet's innovative network and technological expertise perfectly complement Sky's strengths in programming and in making technologies easy to use. We see value for families in moving well beyond just another triple play to offer a new level of connected entertainment and communications services."

In a press release announcing the acquisition, BSkyB enumerated what it sees as the benefits of the acquisition: "an established presence in UK broadband; a leading position in Local Loop Unbundling in the UK with 232 local exchanges unbundled; managerial and technical expertise to expand this local infrastructure through the unbundling of additional exchanges; ownership of key parts of a national network, giving it control over the quality and availability of services to customers and the ability to offer differentiated and innovative products; an attractive source of new revenues and new customers for BSkyB as a result of involvement in a fast growing segment of the UK communications sector. The number of UK broadband connections increased from approximately 4.4 million to 8.1 million, an increase of 86 percent., in the twelve months to 30 June 2005, and is projected to continue to grow further in the future; the opportunity to build on its nearly 8 million DTH subscriber relationships."

There had been some speculation that BSkyB would attempt to purchase Video Networks, the company behind the VOD-enabled triple-play service, HomeChoice. In conversations with analysts that followed the announcement of the Easynet acquisition, BSkyB CEO, Murdoch, conceded that the company may make additional purchases in the broadband space: "In a marketplace changing as rapidly as this, we are keeping all our options open," he said.

This is cache, read story here

Posted in | login to post comments »

Date For Me

All the latest news and views on interactive television. (TM)...

User login

Browse archives

Who's online

Visit

Syndicate