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- UltimateTV May Be "Contributed" To Sky Global Networks In DirecTV Deal: News Corp's Rupert Murdoch is said to be preparing new bid to acquire DirecTV where Microsoft would also invest $3 billion and contribute Microsoft's UltimateTV interactive television operation to Sky Global Networks (20APR01) (LATimes) (alt.link) (related.link)
The Los Angeles Times reports, "News Corp. is close to finalizing an agreement under which Microsoft Corp. will become its satellite partner. Microsoft has agreed to invest about $3 billion and contribute its interactive television operation, Ultimate TV, to News Corp.'s satellite television company, Sky Global Networks, according to several sources." This is all apparently contingent on the DirecTV deal going through if it ever does. The Los Angeles Times also reports Microsoft would get "preferred supplier" status in such a situation. The Los Angeles Times goes on to further report that a contribution of the UltimateTV operation to Sky Global Networks "would allow Microsoft to exit gracefully from the interactive television business after spinning its wheels for a decade without much success."
Although the Los Angeles Times does not say this, Microsoft would certainly remain in the interactive TV market by continuing to provide software since Microsoft may only be getting out of the service part of the interactive TV business under this scenario. To get things going, at least in the US, someone had to run an interactive television service to find out how to operate one, to prove it technically does work, and in the beginning the service may have to be operated by the technology provider. So, I should probably get ready to slap a Sky logo onto my WebTV box. -ruel- Microsoft's Interactive TV Moves: Ken Kerschbaumer says Microsoft may want to "become the market" but Microsoft still has worldwide and technical challenges to take care of (link.changes) (19APR01) (TVBEurope)
- AOL Versus Microsoft: AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin says "We do view them as our major competitor" (20APR01) (CBS.Marketwatch) (alt.link)
CBS.Marketwatch quotes AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin as stating, "We do view them [i.e. Microsoft] as our major competitor." CBS.Marketwatch also quotes Diamond Cluster International's Paul Carroll as stating, "All of these guys are trying to figure out the ways to reach people, through TV sets and set-top boxes all the rest. Wait until they start competing for dominance of cell phone communications."- AOL & DirecTV News: DirecTV offers free year of AOL internet service to new subscribers who activate one-year "Total Choice" premium programming package by July 14, 2001 (19APR01) (DirecTV)
- Digital TV Strategy Group For Australia: Australian broadcasters ABC and SBS join up with Federation of Australian Commercial TV Stations to jointly form Digital TV Strategy Group to work on developing a common set-top platform and operating system (20APR01) (TheAustralian) (alt.link)
- Interactive TV For Spanish-Language Television: Univision to become compliant with DVB and MPEG standards with upgrade to Scientific-Atlanta PowerVu Plus to be able to provide interactive television content in the future to Univision's 22 million cable viewers (20APR01) (SciAtl) (alt.link)
Univision is a "leading Spanish-language television broadcast company in the United States" which "reaches 92 percent of U.S. Hispanic households through its 18 owned and operated stations, 33 broadcast affiliates and 1,109 cable affiliates nationwide." FYI, according to US Census information, there are 35.3 million Hispanics, or 12.5% of the total population, in the US.- Spanish-Language Television-Via-Internet News: UnoDosTres.com signs up 24+ television stations in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the US to provide Spanish-language TV content to be streamed online, and also signs up Coca-Cola, Studio 21, Skechers, Mirta de Perales, Hallmark Entertainment Network, and MaxLotto to provide advertising (16APR01) (MiamiHerald)
The Miami Herald cites UnoDosTres.com founder Carlos Barba, who was a former executive with Univisión and Telemundo, as indicating "many Hispanics in the United States have ties to family and friends in Latin America" and further quotes Barba as stating, "They would like to watch programming from their homeland." The Miami Herald reports the participating TV stations are getting equity stakes in UnoDosTres in exchange for providing the programming content. The Miami Herald also reports other advertisers that UnoDosTres is negotiating with include McDonalds, Kmart, Claritin, Proctor & Gamble, Banco Popular, NASCAR, Johnnie Walker, and AT&T.- More Scientific-Atlanta News: Scientific-Atlanta says interactive TV is real today on cable systems enabled by Scientific-Atlanta's end-to-end solutions and will showcase those solutions at NAB 2001 (20APR01) (SciAtl) (alt.link) (alt.link)
The news announcement states, "Already 12 interactive applications are deployed across 55 Scientific-Atlanta enabled cable systems that serve 38 million homes. The interactive TV applications in consumer homes today include video-on-demand, t-commerce, enhanced TV, email, and Web browsing."- Ad Targeting For Cable Personal Video Recorders: Jovio is planning to market Jovio Viewer Profiling and Targeting software program to enable cable operators to deliver targeted TV commercials to viewers as well as shorter picture-in-picture ads and static card ads for commercial-skipping viewers (20APR01) (Mediapost)
Mediapost reports Jovio "will partner with cable operators who will give away personal video recorders to customers who will be profiled as they use the PVRs. They will receive targeted commercials in the programs they record on their PVRs." With regard to avoiding the commercial-skipping capability of PVRs, Mediapost quotes Jovio sales and marketing vice president Richard Roberts as stating, "We have a fast forward technology that can insert a camera card static billboard which shows the product or a picture within a picture so that a shorter version of the commercial appears during the fast forward." You can click here to visit Jovio.- Ad Insertion For Interactive TV: Lysis SA to integrate Real Media Open AdStream technology into Lysis Interactive iTV platform (19APR01) (RealMedia) (alt.link) (related.link)
The news announcement states, "At the time when interactive content is scheduled to be broadcast, the Lysis broadcast management system will dynamically insert banner adverts from the Open AdStream server according to the type of content being delivered, the time of day or other categories defined by the operator or broadcaster. These adverts will be broadcast with triggers enabling consumers to click through to out-of-band microsites developed by the advertiser." You can click here to visit Lysis.- Digital TV Datacasting Hits Interference: Robert La Franco reports on the demise of Geocast and also questions the future of iBlast (20APR01) (RedHerring) (alt.link) (alt.link)
Red Herring's Robert La Franco quotes iBlast executive vice president Matt Jacobson as "vehemently" denying "reports of iBlast's imminent demise, pointing to the commercial use of the digital spectrum in Europe as testament to the fact that digital television [along with datacasting] is a real opportunity."- Getting Interactive In The US: OpenTV CEO James Ackerman wants to make interactive television as big in the US as it is in Europe (19APR01) (BusinessWeek)
Regarding when interactive TV may take off in the US, Business Week quotes OpenTV CEO James Ackerman as stating interactive TV "is in its infancy. But that's going to pick up.... If [EchoStar CEO] Charlie Ergin hits his own targets of between 4 million and 5 million OpenTV-enabled boxes in the U.S. by the end of this year, we're not that far away from having an interactive-TV platform in the U.S. that's nearly as big as Sky Digital in Britain."- Efficient Interactive TV: OpenTV and Terayon Communication Systems announce joint marketing agreement to combine OpenTV OpenStreamer Server with Terayon CherryPicker for providing interactive television content in bandwidth-efficient manner (19APR01) (OpenTV)
- Commerical Viability Of VOD Could Be A Long Way Off: Blockbuster to instead launch co-branded pay-per-view service with DirecTV in June 2001 (19APR01) (Videobusiness)
With regard to the split up of the Blockbuster-Enron Video-On-Demand via DSL venture, Video Business quotes Blockbuster chairman and CEO John Antioco as stating, "What we learned from that experience is that the commercial viability of video-on-demand is still a long way off. There are significant technical and financial hurdles that have to be overcome, including the huge economic issues the studios are wrestling with.... If VOD cannot be incremental to the existing business, it's not a good economic answer for the content providers" Video Business cites Antioco as indicating "Blockbuster continues to seek digital rights from the studios to make sure [that Blockbuster] can take advantage of VOD if and when it becomes viable."- Related Enron News: Enron President & CEO Jeff Skilling says Enron is not exiting video-on-demand business despite split from Blockbuster (17APR01) (CBS.Marketwatch)
In covering Enron's first quarter results, CBS.Marketwatch cites Enron president and CEO Jeff Skilling as indicating Enron "was not exiting the content services business despite having scrapped its marketing agreement with Blockbuster Video" and was not laying off employees although employees from Enron's broadband services unit may be reassigned.- AOL Time Warner Testing VOD Via Cable In Multiple Markets: AOL Time Warner looks to future with subscription video-on-demand to begin in coming months (18APR01) (AOLTW)
The link is to the AOL Time Warner quarterly earnings release for the first quarter which, in a section on cable, states, "[S]uccessful tests of Video on Demand services are underway in multiple markets, with Subscription Video on Demand tests scheduled to start in the coming months. These tests demonstrate future opportunities available to the cable business as it continues to expand its digital and broadband offerings."- Related About How Video-On-Demand Is Stuck In Perpetual Pause: Ben Berkowitz says Hollywood movie studios are in no hurry to play along (16APR01) (MSNBC.Inside) (alt.link)
Inside's Ben Berkowitz writes, "Few in Hollywood share this sense of urgency" for deploying video-on-demand right now.- Set-Tops For "The Station" In Canada: Greater Sudbury Telecommunications Inc. to use Urbana set-top boxes and LocalNet portal software in Phase I of $11 million local community broadband project in Sudbury, Ontario in Canada (19APR01) (Urbana) (alt.link)
The news announcement states, "The Station Project will supply the Greater Sudbury Area with high-speed LocalNet services to homes and businesses in the community. Phase I will include Urbana's LocalNet portal implementation and high-speed connectivity to 2,000 residents and provide Set Top Boxes to approximately 1,000 residents that currently lack Internet access." The news announcement indicates Greater Sudbury Telecommunications Inc. is providing fiber and management functions, Alcatel SA is providing switchgear, IBM is providing project and supplier management, Sage Systems is providing home automation system controls and meter reading data collection technology, and Callisto is providing video-on-demand technology. The news announcement indicates that the eventual goal is to hook up all 150,000 residents of the Greater Sudbury region to "The Station."- Connected Urban And Local Communities: Horowitz Associates Inc. is sponsoring an Inaugural State Of Broadband Urban Markets Forum in New York City, May 10, 2001, to discuss the implications of the new urban market for digital services, new channels, interactive TV, internet, and broadband services (17APR01) (Horowitz)
The news announcement states the forum will cover: (1) the new urban market opportunity for digital services, new channels, interactive TV, internet, and broadband; (2) media products that urban consumers know about, buy, view, and use; (3) brand recognition and loyalty among diverse urban consumers; and (4) multicultural segments of the new urban marketplace.- Related On Connecting The City Through Sewer Lines: CityNet Telecommunications Inc. wants to run fiber-optic cable lines inside eight- to-24-inch municipal sewer lines to provide high-speed internet connections (16APR01) (MSNBC) (related.link) (related.link)
- Interactive TV May Need New Remote Controls: Howard Horowitz & Associates conducts research sponsored by Interlink Electronics and finds study participants did not think that existing remote control devices would work in the new interactive TV world (19APR01) (Interlink) (alt.link)
The news announcement states, "The Howard Horowitz & Associates research report shows that remote controls are a ubiquitous part of people's lives. Participants simply did not know what to do without them.... Universally, however, study participants did not think that their existing remotes would be functional in the new world of interactive TV. They could not imagine how 'any more buttons' could be jammed onto their existing home remote controls." The news announcement also discusses Interlink Electronics' IntuiTouch remote control with VersaPad input pad. You can click here to visit Interlink Electronics.- Other Remote Control News: US Electronics Inc. and Fobis Technologies to intro Weemote 2 as remote control for children and is compatible with TV/VCR combo units, TiVo and ReplayTV personal video recorders, Echostar Dishplayer, and other set-top boxes (19APR01) (PRN)
The news announcement indicates the new Weemote 2 will be introduced at at the SCTE Show in Orlando, May 8-11, 2001.- Home Entertainment That Shakes: D-Box provides Odyssee Motion Simulation system with hydraulic lifts for your chair or couch to simulate motion while watching a movie at home (21APR01) (WIRED)
- Set-Top In Variety Of Colors: Metabox 1000 is now available in obsidian, slate, and brushed aluminum (21APR01) (CafeLuxor)
The Meta1000 case is now available in the colors of obsidian, slate, and brushed aluminum. A remark attached to the news item indicates the Metabox 1000 can be made to be available in almost any color including tiger stripes for special orders.- Set-Top For Streaming Video In The Hospitality Market: Nevco Technology intros WinCE-based "Starbox" set-top using STMicroelectronics STPC Consumer-II embedded microprocessor chip (04APR01) (Nevco)
The Nevco Starbox set-top box is directed towards vertical markets including the hospitality market. The news announcement quotes Nevco Technology chief operating officer K. Mark Lee as stating, "In the hospitality market, the Starbox will be a breakthrough for hotel management and guests alike as it delivers full VCR-like functionality to viewers, while freeing up scarce real estate now devoted to VCR racks and head-end equipment, and automating the movie selection process for hotel staff." You can click here to check out Nevco Technology.- Streaming Media GoldPass Deals: RealNetworks' deals and moves for online entertainment include picking former FOX-TV president and Ticketmaster executive Larry Jacobson as RealNetworks new president and chief operating officer (19APR01) (SeattleTimes)
- More On Korean Government-Backing Of Webcasting Industry: South Korea Ministry of Information & Communication to provide $44 million to help develop webcasting industry in South Korea (19APR01) (Newsbytes)
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- UltimateTV May Be "Contributed" To Sky Global Networks In DirecTV Deal: News Corp's Rupert Murdoch is said to be preparing new bid to acquire DirecTV where Microsoft would also invest $3 billion and contribute Microsoft's UltimateTV interactive television operation to Sky Global Networks (20APR01) (LATimes) (alt.link) (related.link)
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