UK-based digital TV production company, enteraction tv, has appointed ex-Telewest CEO, Stephen Davidson, as chairman of its board. In addition to his cable-industry experience (he left Telewest in 1999, after a five-year stint), Davidson has a considerable amount of experience in banking--which will presumably be very useful to enteraction tv should it decide to go public or need to raise funds for expansion: among other things, he served as vice chairman of investment banking and global head of media and telecommunications, investment banking at Pan European Bank; he also spent stints at BearStearns, Bankers Trust, Chemical Bank and NM Rothschild. In addition, he is chairman of SPG Media Group and is a non-executive director at Inmarsat and Williams Lea Group.
enteraction tv is best known for its work developing television programming and channels for established brands, including the Thomas Cook TV channel which it operates for the travel company of the same name, and London TV which it operates for the London tourism agency, Visit London. It has also announced plans to launch an interactive home shopping channel, Home2, on Sky in the fall. Earlier this year, it acquired participation TV specialist, Red Fig, in a deal worth around £3 million. The latter offers red-button application development services and technologies for integrating multiple types of interactivity in a single show, but is perhaps best known for technologies that allow viewers to interact with programming by using land-line and mobile phones. It recently launched a service that will allow advertisers to use mobile phones as a backchannel through which viewers can interact with their TV commercials. The service is centered on the creation and delivery of WAP or Java branded content microportals, dubbed "MiAds" (see [itvt] Issue 6.11 Part 2).
