June 21, 2003 -- [itvt] Interviews Tyrone Lam, President & COO of Buzztime Entertainment ITV trivia games channel, Buzztime Entertainment, has been in the news recently, signing licensing deals with Digeo and with Media General-subsidiary, Boxerjam, and achieving carriage on a 3rd cable system (Susquehanna Communications' Williamsport, PA system. It is also carried on SusCom's York, PA system and on Time Warner Maine's Portland system). The company is a subsidiary of NTN Communications, which for the past 20 years or so has offered interactive trivia games in bars and restaurants throughout North America via its NTN Network. Buzztime's president and chief operating officer, Tyrone Lam, recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about the company's new licensing deals, about its efforts to build community around its service, about its plans for a significant expansion of its product offerings over the next 18-24 months, and more.

May 27, 2003 -- [itvt] Interviews Michael Collette, CEO of Ucentric Michael Collette is CEO of Ucentric Systems, a Maynard, MA-based company which develops set-top box software that allows personal video recording (PVR) on multiple TV sets in a household. Ucentric recently announced that it will begin a field trial of its technology with MSO, Comcast, and set-top box manufacturer, Samsung, later this year (see [itvt] Issue 5.04 Part 2 5/14/03). Collette recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about that trial, about the problems he sees with TiVo's approach to PVR, about how he sees the PVR industry developing in the future, and more.

May 14, 2003 -- [itvt] Talks with James Ackerman, CEO of OpenTV, about the Company's Foxtel Deal Australian pay-TV provider, Foxtel, announced that it will deploy a raft of OpenTV technologies to support the ITV service which it aims to roll out next year on its existing digital satellite network and its planned digital cable network. As part of the deal, OpenTV will also provide Foxtel with project management and other professional services. Ackerman provides [itvt] with his perspective on the significance of this deal.

April 28, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview with Nick DeMartino, Founder of the AFI's Enhanced TV Workshop Nick DeMartino, director of new media ventures and associate director of strategic planning at the American Film Institute (AFI), is the founder of the AFI's Enhanced TV Workshop, which each year brings together TV producers and design and technology experts with the goal of building working enhanced TV prototypes. (Note: the AFI just issued a call for entries for its 2003 Workshop--see article in this issue.) He recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about the history and goals of the ETV Workshop, about the requirements for participation, about the Workshop's plans to reach out to the international ITV community, and more.

April 17, 2003 -- Feature: Ashley Highfield Explains BBC's Decision to Devote More Resources to ITV [itvt] recently caught up with Ashley Highfield, director of new media at BBCi, to get some more insight into the BBC's announcement last month (see [itvt] Issue 4.99 Part 1 3/19/03) that it would restructure BBCi to focus the division's resources on developing new ITV services and on ensuring that it has a robust infrastructure in place to support those new services.

April 1, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview with Carolyn Fairbairn, Director of Strategy & Distribution at the BBC. Carolyn Fairbairn is director of strategy and distribution at the BBC, reporting to director general, Greg Dyke. She recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about what she considers to be the most important issues facing the BBC over the next few years, about the BBC's DTV investment priorities, about its controversial decision to bypass BSkyB's conditional access system and transmit its digital channels unencrypted on the Astra 2D satellite, and more.

March 19, 2003 -- iBurbia: Enhancing ITV Research [itvt] looks at a new facility in Britain where companies test their ITV content applications and interactive advertising in a living room setting.

March 12, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview: Deron Triff, VP of Digital Ventures, PBS Deron Triff was recently named vice president of digital ventures at the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). He recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about PBS's new agreement with TiVo, about its strategy for on-demand platforms, about how it plans to make money from free- on-demand content, and more.

March 4, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview: Abe Peled, CEO of NDS Dr. Abe Peled is CEO of News Corp.-subsidiary, NDS, a prominent player in both the conditional access and the ITV industries. He recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about his impressions of Rupert Murdoch, about why he turned down the opportunity to purchase Wink, about the market conditions that have ensured that ITV is more widely deployed in the UK than in the US, about the kinds of technologies NDS is currently working on, about the lawsuits facing the company, and more.

February 24, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview: Bruce Vandenberg, Head of Digital at Celador UK-based Celador is the company behind "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and a number of other successful formats. It just launched an interactive version of "Millionaire," following an agreement between BSkyB and the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network ("ITV"), that will see the ITV network supporting interactivity on all 3 of its channels on SkyDigital. Bruce Vandenberg, who heads up Celador's interactive ventures, recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about the significance of the launch of the interactive version of "Millionaire," about his philosophy that interactive TV should "proceed from" programming content, about current and future trends in interactive-TV-enabled programming, about how interactivity can rejuvenate existing content, about how advertisers need to change their techniques in a PVR-enabled TV universe, and more.

February 18, 2003 -- [itvt] Interview: Tim R. Wahlers, President & CEO of Vidiom Broomfield, CO-based Vidiom Systems is an ITV consulting company that worked closely with CableLabs on the development of the OCAP specification, and which is currently working on an implementation of OCAP for a major US MSO. Timothy R. Wahlers, the company's president and CEO, recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about why he believes OCAP significantly improves on the MHP standard, about the state of relations between the cable and consumer electronics industries, about how to accelerate the uptake of OCAP, and more. (Note: Michael D. Malcy , Vidiom's VP of business development and marketing, also took part in the conversation.)

[itvt] Interview: Reggie Bradford, CEO of N2 Broadband N2 Broadband's VOD-related products--which include technologies for "pitching" and "catching" VOD content, and for asset management and back-office management-- are widely deployed in the headends of US cable MSO's. [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow recently spoke to N2 Broadband's president and CEO, Reggie Bradford, about how the skills he acquired while working as chief marketing officer at WebMD have proven useful at N2 Broadband, about his belief that "local-content-on-demand" will play an important role in the future of VOD, about the company's R&D priorities, about whether it is planning to expand into international markets, and more.

[itvt] Interview: Dr. Richard R. Green is president and CEO of CableLabs, the non-profit research-and-development consortium established in 1988 by the US cable industry. CableLabs will be holding its members-only Winter Conference in Broomfield, CO, next week, at which it will present some of the R&D projects it has been working on over the past year, review various new technologies from 3rd parties, and give members an opportunity to discuss the technological, business and legal issues currently facing the cable industry. Dr. Green recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about his background, about his involvement in early digital TV projects, about the first time he met John Malone and Brian Roberts, about developments he would like to see take place in the set-top box market, about ongoing efforts to unify CableLabs' OCAP specification with the ATSC's DASE specification, about the potential impact on the US cable industry if Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. acquires satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, about what CableLabs is doing to foster the development of ITV, and more.

[itvt] Interview with Scott Newnam, CEO of GoldPocket Interactive - Founded in 1998, GoldPocket Interactive develops and supports ITV applications for such high-profile clients as the Game Show Network, AMC and A&E. The company has also been at the forefront of an initiative to develop open XML-based ITV production standards. GoldPocket co-founder and CEO, Scott Newnam, recently talked to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about how the company's work in ITV originated in its focus on what he calls "mass-participative communication," about why it made business sense to give away a million dollars, about why he decided to move the company from Boston to Los Angeles, about his priorities for the coming year, about why he is convinced that cable operators are finally starting to embrace ITV, and more.

[itvt] Interview: Jenifer Cistola, VP of marketing at Scientific-Atlanta - Jenifer Cistola heads up product marketing for US set-top box manufacturer, Scientific-Atlanta (which last week released financial results for its fiscal 2nd quarter: see article in this issue). She recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about her role at the company, about the differing priorities of the various US MSO's, about why DVR's are more popular in the US than Europe, about the company's ongoing R&D efforts, and about what needs to happen for ITV to really take off in the US.

[itvt] Interview: Ben Mendelson and Art Cohen of the ITV Alliance - The Interactive Television Alliance (ITA), a new trade association established to represent the interests of the ITV industry, held its first annual meeting and announced its board of directors at last month's BroadbandPlus show in Anaheim, CA. [itvt]'s editor-in-chief, Tracy Swedlow, recently spoke to the ITA's president, Ben Mendelson, and its chairman, Art Cohen (who is also senior vice president at ACTV), about how and why the organization was founded, about how it is structured, about its plans to use an infomercial to build consumer awareness of ITV, and more.

[itvt] Interview: Rick Mandler, VP & General Manager of Disney/ABC Enhanced TV - [itvt] Interview: Rick Mandler heads up the Walt Disney Internet Group's Enhanced TV division. Before the 2002 Holiday break, Mandler spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about Disney/ABC's ITV strategy in general, about why ITV is important to the ABC TV network, about how the decision is made to add interactivity to a show, about the factors that drive usage of ITV apps, and more.

[itvt] Interview: Tom Barreca and David Knise, SVP & VP of AMC Digital Ventures - [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow recently spoke to Tom Barreca and David Knise, who are respectively SVP and VP of AMC Digital Ventures, about why AMC decided to enhance MonsterFest--it's most heavily promoted programming event of the year--with ITV; about the 3-way collaboration process between AMC, GoldPocket and ExtendMedia; about ITV's role in the future of AMC and its sister networks; and more.

[itvt] Interview: Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Wink Communications - Wink CEO, Maggie Wilderotter, is stepping down after nearly 6 years at the helm of the company. In an exclusive interview with [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow, she talks about the secrets of Wink's success, about Liberty's decision to place the company under the OpenTV umbrella, about Peter Boylan (who is heading up Liberty's ITV efforts and recently became chairman of OpenTV), about her new consulting role at OpenTV, about the new direction taken by OpenTV's longtime rival, Liberate, and other topics.

[itvt] Interview: Greg Ballard, CEO of SONICblue - Ballard spoke to [itvt]'s Swedlow about the direction SONICblue will take under his leadership, about Ken Potashner, about the company's ongoing legal dispute with Hollywood, and more.

[itvt] Interview: John P. Roberts, senior vice president of interactive and online entertainment at the Game Show Network - John P. Roberts has led the development and deployment of the Game Show Network's many ITV deployments.

[itvt] Interview: Mike Hayashi, SVP of subscriber technologies & advanced engineering Time Warner Cable - [itvt] recently interviewed Mike Hayashi. Hayashi's career spans the history of ITV.

Contributed Article: "Next-Generation Television Audience Will Be 'Actualized'" - Written by Jason Stoval of Grim.TV, this article presents his company's ideas about participational storytelling.

Photos from The 2nd Annual Bandies Awards held in Anaheim, California - The evening's events showcased the best accomplishments in the U.S. and the winners, themselves.

Photos from CCTA's Western Show 2001 in Anaheim, California - A series of photos that document whath happened at the event and a few application suprises. November 27-30, 2001

Opinion: The Changing Face of Privacy - How will concerns for privacy affect the emergence of Interactive television platforms?

American Film Institute Enhanced TV Workshop Teams 2001 - AFI announced the collaborative teams that will develop various projects towards completed ITV prototypes.

Photos from the August 2, 2001 [itvt] Rectangle Event - A series of photos that document the First Summer Party 2001 that [itvt] Rectangle Events gave at KQED's studios in San Francisco, California.

Contributed Article: "Wired Solutions are Shorting Out the Networked Home for Consumers" - Written by Rick Lisa of Motorola, this article argues the need for a digital set-top box or server to connect all electronic devices in the home.

Strong Letter to Congressman Edward Markey from Dr. William Schreiber Criticizing 8VSB - This letter appears with his full permission exclusively on [itvt].

American Film Institute Prototyping Course - This powerpoint presentation, now available as clickable .jpg images, was prepared by executives at Spiderdance, a well-respected production and application design firm. The presentation outlines how to develop content prototypes for interactive television with a special emphasis on synchronized TV applications. It debuted at the AFI-Intel Enhanced TV Workshop, July 2000.

All Change in the UK - By Jon Dobinson, for [itvt] now of Phosphorus. This contributed article details how fast the interactiveTV scene is changing in the United Kingdom. It was written just as BSkyB's Sky Digital interactive service, Open, debuted in March, 2000. All interactive services being launched by MSO networks there are mentioned. A discussion about the advertising business and the state of the digital signal are also included.

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