Miniweb--a company which offers a service, dubbed "TV Key," that
enables broadcasters and advertisers to repurpose Internet content as
interactive enhancements to their shows or commercials on
broadband-connected set-top boxes, thus providing an inexpensive way
to launch interactive TV services (note: the company was founded by
former BSkyB ITV executive, Ian Valentine, who spun the company
off from the satellite provider and now serves as its CEO; its
technology is based on the BSkyB-developed WTVML standard and
was originally used to power the operator's Skynet service)--has
launched its service on the Sky platform. "Today's launch on Sky
makes TV Key functionality available to over 8.8 million TV viewers
in the UK and can be used by any broadcaster or channel on digital
satellite," Valentine said in a prepared statement. "It is the first step on
our interactive road map. Our mission is to change the economics of
interactive TV so the industry can deliver video-rich interactive
services over broadband to multiple types of TV device. Through the
use of on-air TV Keys and content delivered via Freephone, this new
service is a more economical approach, more aligned to a broadband
world, making interactive TV affordable for all broadcasters,
advertisers and channel owners. These online services will seamlessly
migrate to broadband-enabled TV devices as they become available in
the market. I urge anyone who previously saw the economics as a
barrier in leveraging the power of interactive TV to get in touch."
Miniweb's platform is billed as making it easy to "repurpose...Internet
content as an enhanced TV service with continuation of channel video."
The company offers various tools and templates for designing, building
and publishing Web-based interactive TV sites, which are then
accessed via the remote control, using an alphanumeric "TV Key" that
can be displayed on the TV screen, as an interactive prompt (thus
serving as the equivalent of a red-button icon) over a program or
commercial.
