--App is Powered by Technology from BIAP Systems
Plano, Texas-based BIAP Systems (note: the company, whose name stands for "Broadband Interactive Applications," was founded in 1998 by a group of former NASA scientists who had met while working on the Space Station) has launched an interactive TV fantasy football application on Time Warner Cable's Green Bay, Wisconsin system. According to BIAP, the Time Warner Cable Fantasy Football Tracker, as the app is called, allows fantasy football players who are watching a football game on TV to track their team's roster with the touch of a button on their remote control, instead of having to run to their computers to get updates on their fantasy team. "Interactive television can make channels more compelling to watch, or make viewers' lives more convenient," BIAP CEO, Tim Peters, said in a prepared statement. "Here is an application that responds to both needs for fantasy football players. Fantasy team rosters are typically drawn from around the country and information about them is equally dispersed. But our technology lets fans check on all their specific fantasy football team players right on their TV's."
The app is powered by BIAP's artificial intelligence software, which the company calls internally the "Action Engine," and which also powers 1) a service dubbed "PITV" (short for "Personalized Information Television") that has been deployed in a number of Time Warner Cable markets and that provides subscribers with personalizable local news, sports, traffic and weather information, local movie listings, financial news, lottery results, and information on local school districts; and 2) "eBay on TV," an interactive TV version of the eponymous online auction service, that has been deployed to DVR-equipped Time Warner Cable subscribers in Austin, Texas. (Note: for more on eBay on TV, see [itvt] Issue 6.08.) The app allows fantasy football players to use an on-screen set-up process to input their fantasy football teams. It then provides continually updated statistics on the players they have chosen from around the league, as well as game scores; passing, rushing, receiving and kicking leaderboards; injury updates; player headlines; and other information of interest to fantasy football players. End-users have the option of viewing this information as a scrolling ticker, or in full-screen or 3/4-screen modes which provide more detailed information. Time Warner Cable says that it plans to launch the new application in additional markets next year.
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