dtt

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

UK incumbent telco, BT, said Monday that it has signed a contract with BSkyB for the wholesale supply of the latter's Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels. The channels will be made available, via digital terrestrial, on BT's hybrid DTT/IP platform, BT Vision, the IP element of which is powered by Microsoft's Mediaroom software. They are slated to launch August 1st--i.e. in time for the August 14th kickoff of the UK Premier League soccer season.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it has deployed its iView middleware platform with Slovenian telecom operator, Amis. The platform is powering a service, called AmisTV2.0, which launched commercially last September in Slovenia and Croatia and which offers such services as network PVR, pause-live-TV, restart TV, catch-up TV, and an EPG, as well as VOD services that feature reminders, favorites, user profiles, application skinning, search and parental ratings.

UK incumbent telco, BT, has launched a new set-top box for its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered hybrid IP/DTT service, BT Vision.

Telecom Italia on Wednesday unveiled a hybrid set-top box, dubbed CuboVision, that it says provides access to digital terrestrial TV channels, various Web-based video and information services (including YouTube and LA7.tv), and a library of on-demand pay-per-view films, and also allows users to organize personal content such as photos, videos and music.

French IPTV set-top box manufacturer, Netgem, announced last week that it has been tapped by Australian telco, Telstra, to supply the set-top box and software for the latter's new T-Box service. The service is a hybrid DTT/IP offering which combines reception of Australia's free-to-air SD and HD digital terrestrial channels with IP-delivered live and on-demand programming from Telstra's BigPond TV and BigPond Movies services. The Netgem box that it runs on features dual tuners, a 200GB hard drive, the ability to view and record free-to-air TV programs up to seven days in advance, and the ability to pause and rewind live TV.

Electra Entertainment--a company that was founded in early 2003 by Static 2358 founder, Jasper Smith, and former Gemstar-TV Guide CTO, Jonathan Drazin (note: Smith serves as its CEO and Drazin as its CTO; its chairman is former BT and BSkyB director, John Swingewood)--on Monday provided a few more details about its flagship Trove interactive TV technology.

--Teams with Abertis on Solution for Delivering DTT on the Internet
--Announces New Silverlight Deals in Europe
--Previews Silverlight H.264 and AAC Support

At the IBC show in Amsterdam earlier this month, Microsoft launched its Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA), a platform for enabling broadcast TV on the PC. According to the company, the platform's functionality is made possible by its new Windows Media Center TV Pack, and enables the PC-TV hardware ecosystem to integrate virtually any free or premium TV service worldwide into Windows Media Center, while providing strong protection for pay-TV content.