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- TCI signs up Ford and Dominos for Interactive TV advertising (4-5-99) (Advertising Age)
TCI already has a deal with Kraft made in 1998. TCI plans to use a "walled garden" strategy to keep TV viewers within some sort of contained online mall. Advertising Age quotes an unnamed TCI executive as stating, "That's Internet-based functionality within the digital set-top box that operates on HTML, It looks like an America Online, but you only have to use your remote control, not a keyboard, and you can't go surfing all over the Internet." Get the technology in place, then get the content.... But TCI may want to keep you inside their "walled garden." - ATI goes after set-top market (4-6-99) (CNET)
- ATI intros new Set-Top Wonder II reference design using ATI Rage XL and ATI Rage Theater multimedia chips for high-performance graphics (4-5-99) (PRNewswire)
ATI manager of set-top box marketing Dan Eiref said, "OEMs were enthralled with the capabilities of our first-generation set-top design, and a number of manufacturers are building products based around that technology. But they also wanted greater levels of video integration, video/graphics alpha blending, and a design based around low-cost RISC processors. We listened to what OEMs wanted and the Set-Top Wonder II delivers." For those who do not visit the PC-TV pages, ATI also makes the All-In-Wonder TV tuner cards for computers. -
ATI to use Quantum Effect Design MIPS CPU for Set-Top Wonder II box (4-6-99) (PRNewswire)
- TV-via-Net: Digital Entertainment Network to broadcast 20 to 30 TV shows over the Internet (4-5-99) (Los Angeles Times) (alternate link)
- TV-via-Net: TV execs get Net ready for Prime Time (4-2-99) (Industry Standard)
- Yahoo goes Online Anywhere from desktops to palmtops and set-tops (4-5-99) (InternetNews)
- Yahoo targets handheld devices and WebTV (4-5-99) (CNET)
- Communtiy comes to the Web: mentions TV ONLINE magazine for WebTV and Interactive TV viewers (4-3-99) (Los Angeles Daily News)
In reference to Interactive TV set-top boxes, the L.A. Daily News quotes TV ONLINE publisher-editor Phillip Swann as stating, "Our vision is that this is going to be in every home within five to 10 years. Where this thing will really start to take off is when cable providers bring it into the home." - Cable & Satellite Mediacast 99 to host Interactive TV and digital TV experts in London May 17-19 (4-2-99) (CabSat) (alternate link)
- See also: London conferences look at where Interactive TV, digital interactive services, and satellite communications are going (3-19-99) (CabSat)
- Ruel's Spotlight Website: Cable & Satellite Mediacast 99
- Netgame sets up Casares.com internet games for WebTV viewers (04-01-99) (Netgame)
- Marlborough Stirling says "wait and see" on digital TV interactive standards (3-31-99) (M2 Presswire)
Marlborough Stirling, a UK financial services company, advises businesses to prepare "a common format of content and data and business logic that could be kept apart from the interface question and could be applied equally effectively to both the Internet and interactive TV." Interactive TV for enhanced television can be "closed, proprietary and prescriptive" (like TCI's "walled garden") while a more flexible WebTV-like interface would allow TV viewers to "switch easily from programme-watching to browsing." - Nokia delivers Mediamaster 9820T set-tops to Swedish market for digital and interactive TV (3-31-99) (Nokia)
(alternate link)
Nokia Multimedia Terminals Sweden's sales & marketing director Mikael Farjsjo said, "We are convinced that digital television with its value-added services and endless possibilities will transform the way we use television today. The launch of digital terrestrial TV with related interactive services in Sweden is an important milestone, and we are proud to be the first to supply digital set-top boxes to the Swedish market." - NTL introduces Interactive TV service for British TV viewers (3-31-99) (The Guardian)
The Guardian reports NTL "introduces what [NTL] says is Britain's first interactive television service." TV viewers can pay pounds 15 a month for a set-top box that connects to an Internet TV service via a telephone line. - Wall Street Journal Reporter interview of Scientific-Atlanta's James F. McDonald (3-31-99) (WSJ Reporter)
- Inventor of "TV DINNER" honored on 45th anniversary; Inventor says would call it "DIGITAL DINNER" if invented today (3-30-99) (MSNBC-Reuters)
Fun TV News: Reuters reports that retired Swanson marketing executive Gerry Thomas, 77, placed his handprints on a wet block of cement, along with an imprint of the Swanson classic TV dinner aluminum tray, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside Mann’s Chinese Theater. Reuters reports that Thomas coined the term "TV Dinner" as a marketing gimmick to tap into the excitement over the then-new television. Reuters quotes Thomas as saying, "Television was the talk of the day. Television was something that if you had one, you were contemporary, you were cool.... If it were today, we’d probably call it the ‘digital dinner.’" - Brits turn on WebTV and may be more receptive to Interactive TV than previously thought (3-30-99) (The Scotsman)
The Scotsman reports WebTV was encouraged by a test of WebTV in 115 homes in
London and Liverpool that found TV viewers WANT to access the
internet while watching TV. This is in contrast to Open's strategy to focus on advanced
television functions of camera zooms and split screens. Open is UK competition to WebTV.
(Technical zooms and split screens are nice, but you need other interactive content also.) WebTV found that
entertainment features, including movie listings and soap gossip, are major attractions although
market prognosticators say news and sports will be the "killer applications" that TV viewers will want.
- Pacific Convergence Corp. to provide interactive TV to 3.5 billion Asian satellite dish subscribers (3-30-99) (South China Morning Post)
Pacific Convergence Corp. (PCC) was formed in March 1998 and is owned by Pacific Century (60%) and Intel (40%). There is no set date for launch of the service, but it could be operational by July 1999. Subcribers will be using Intel-pentium-chip-based or Intel-celeron-chip-based set-top boxes. - MeterNet offers $11-per-month per-unit set-top lease program to ISPs (3-29-99) (Business Wire) (alternate link)
- MeterNet's set-top lease program page (3-29-99) (MeterNet)
According to the MeterNet webpage dealing with the lease program, this current offering is apparently scheduled until April 30, 1999. MeterNet is looking for quantity orders and it's OAC. The MeterNet folks also say they will "have an open set-top demo session on Thursday, April 1, 1999 at the Dallas Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel from 8-4 for the Industry and ISPs." - WorldGate offers $3.95-per-month Internet TV Over Cable service to Maryville Illinois (3-29-99) (PRNewswire)
WorldGate is making an introductory offer of only $3.95 a month plus an $4.95 installation fee to cable subscribers who would get unlimited Internet access and multiple E-mail accounts. - Texas Instruments has new digital-to-analog converters (3-29-99) (PRNewswire)
Texas Instruments' data converter products manager Tom Lahutsky said, "An STB or video equipment system designer will find these new [digital-to-analog converters] extremely important because they make his job easier. With these devices, a designer can eliminate the discrete analog components that, until now, have been needed to generate the tri-level sync pulses required for HDTV." - Personal video recorders to radically change the way we watch TV (3-29-99) (San Francisco Examiner)
The San Francisco Examiner reports Forrester Research predicts personal video recorders (PVRs), such as TiVo and ReplayTV, will first reduce broadcast commercial viewership by 8 percent and will eventually reduce television commercial viewing in half within 10 years. The Examiner quotes Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff as stating, "It's something the networks should be very afraid of.... We're about two years away from where the public will be really interested in them.... They [now] hold only eight hours of video. It isn't until they can hold 25 to 100 hours of video that it'll really hit. Once that happens, it will completely change the way people watch TV. People will have 100 hours worth of stuff on their hard drive that is recorded in anticipation of their taste." The Examiner reports that Forrester Research found most TV execs were either ignorant of the technology (1/3 did not know about the devices), pooh-poohed its probable success, or were simply skeptical. - TiVo debuts for custom TV viewing (3-29-99) (Los Angeles Times)
- Recording devices let viewers program their own TV schedules (3-29-99) (AP) (alternate link)
Associated Press cites Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff's estimate that there will be 14 million TV viewers using personal video recorders to control their programming schedules by Y2004. AP additionally cites Forrester Research's prediction that by Y2001, digital recorders will be able to store 24 hours of video and cost less than $500 each. AP quotes Bernoff as stating, ``By 10 years from now, personal video recorders will penetrate four out of five homes and overall TV ad viewing will be cut nearly in half. With its advertising base gutted, television will turn upside down.'' - TiVo digital recording box due soon; competitor ReplayTV gets $8 million investment (3-29-99) (CNET)
CNET also reports that Sony and Matsushita are working on digital VHS players that "directly access the Internet.... The VCRs will be able to record digital satellite broadcasts as well as analog television programs, and could also be used to store [data] other than video...." It sounds like this would be similar to how some people have adapted VCR machines as tape backup for computers, but instead you could use the VCR for recording information you get from the Internet. Tape is still good. Just put in a tracking system like there is in advanced video and audio recording-editing tape systems..... - TiVo begins taking orders for $499 fourteen-hour digital recorder and $799 thirty-hour digital recorder at TiVo.com (3-29-99) (WIRED)
There is also a $9.95 per month subscription charge for the TiVo Personal Television Service which is an interactive electronic guide service to help you schedule recording of TV shows. You can instead pay $199 for "lifetime" TiVo Personal Television Service to eliminate the $9.95-monthly subscription charge. WIRED reports that "TiVo has teamed up with HBO, Showtime, The Weather Channel, ZDTV, The Movie Channel, and E Entertainment to create customized showcases of their programs, including previews of upcoming shows and series." - NDS personal video recorder to hold 50 hours (3-22-99) (Electronic Times)
Electronic Times reports that News Corp. subsidiary News Data Systems CEO Abe Peled expects the personal video recorder set-top box holding 50 hours of TV programming to come to market next year. NDS has a demo box based on a Pentium II 233MHz chip with a ten gigabyte drive for recording fifty hours of TV shows. Peled also expects that 100 gigabyte drives to be available by 2005 to allow cable subscribers to have 800 "virtual channels."
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