Everest, a regional cable operator that provides triple-play services in The Kansas City area, has launched a suite of interactive TV applications. The applications, which are available free of charge and are accessed via the yellow button on the remote, were developed by Plano Texas-based BIAP Systems (note: the latter, whose name is an acronym for "Broadband Interactive Applications," was founded in 1998 by a group of former NASA scientists who had met while working on the Space Station; it has deployed a number of interactive TV applications on various Time Warner Cable systems throughout the US).
The new Everest apps include a service dubbed "PITV" (short for "Personalized Information Television") 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; "eBay on TV," an interactive TV version of the eponymous online auction service; and fantasy football and baseball trackers (note: features of the latter two apps include a 3/4-screen overlay that provides game scores, leaderboards, roster updates and player news; a single-ticker view that provides personalized player stats and scoring alerts; a full-screen scoreboard that shows scheduled, ongoing and completed games for the current day; full-screen leaderboards; a full-screen view, displaying daily, weekly and year-to-year player statistics; an on-screen indicator which lights up in red whenever one of the players on a viewer's roster achieves a milestone; and a settings menu that allows viewers to personalize the app's start-up screen and to specify the kinds of scoring alerts they want to see). The new apps represent the second phase of Everest's roll-out of interactive TV: last year, the operator launched a TV-based caller-ID application.
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