--Company's Fantasy Football App Available on More Time Warner Systems
Plano, Texas-based BIAP Systems (note: the company, 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; late last year, it signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Time Warner Cable, which has deployed its applications in a number of markets--see [itvt] Issue 7.08 Part 2) has signed an agreement with the Talking Phone Book (note: the latter, a Hearst company, is the third-largest independent provider of Yellow Pages books in the US), under which the latter will be the exclusive sales agent for BIAP's Yellow Pages on TV application. As its name suggests, the set-top-based app allows viewers to access Yellow Pages information on their televisions, using a regular digital remote.
Under the terms of the deal, the Talking Phone Book will offer advertisers the opportunity to have their listings, together with links to interactive microsites, on television. In the 28 markets covered by the agreement, merchants will be able to place interactive display ads, which will appear on screen at the top of the listings, when a viewer searches Yellow Pages on TV (note: the results can be viewed from any channel). When viewers click on an interactive display ad, they will be taken to a microsite containing current business and promotional information. The microsite can be updated on-demand at the request of the advertiser, and viewers can also bookmark their "favorites" for easy access. "What we love about this product is that it can do so much and is available on the one device that people still use more than any other, their television," Greg Garrick, VP of marketing at Talking Phone Book's immediate parent company, White Directory Publishers, said in a prepared statement. "The merchant information can be changed daily, so tonight's restaurant specials can run in a crawl on their microsite. If your phone number changes or you are a new business in town, Yellow Pages on TV can accommodate you immediately."
BIAP says that Yellow Pages on TV will begin rolling out across North America in the coming months. In 2008, the company says, it will also offer a VOD feature that will allow viewers who click on a merchant's interactive display ad to watch contextually relevant long-form videos. A "click-to-call" feature is scheduled to launch at the same time.
In other BIAP news: Time Warner Cable will once again offer My Football Tracker, the BIAP-developed interactive TV fantasy football application that it offered in Columbia, South Carolina; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Austin and San Antonio, Texas, during the last football season (the app, which has received two Emmy nominations, was launched in 2005). This year, however, the app will be available in five more cities--Buffalo, New York; Portland, Maine; and Waco, Corpus Christi, and El Paso, Texas--and will feature what BIAP describes as an "upgraded graphics look." Among other things, the app allows fantasy football players to display constantly updated results from their fantasy team as they watch any channel; and to retrieve football news and information. It immediately sends out alerts if a member of a viewer's team has scored a touchdown or accomplished some other critical milestone; and it has embedded in it the 
nearest NFL team to the viewer--so that, if, say, Buffalo residents access the app, they will find the latest information on the Buffalo Bills already displayed on it. "Time Warner Cable continues to lead the industry in innovation and relevant new products," BIAP CEO, Tim Peters, said in a prepared statement. "Buffalo is the first of many new divisions adding our applications. When we signed our long-term deal with Time Warner Cable only seven short months ago we looked forward to the expansion of interactivity. Buffalo is the first new division to launch and we look forward to many more divisions joining in 2008."
Originally Published: October 12, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.39 Part 3A
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