Hospitality

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

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

DoNotDisturb TV--an in-hotel TV channel that features short-form programming from such broadband video Web sites as http://www.strike.tv, http://www.mydamnchannel.com and http://www.break.com, as well as UGC received through its own Web site--is being watched by over 19% of hotel guests who have access to it, according to the channel's operator, LodgeNet Interactive-subsidiary, The Hotel Networks (THN). According to THN, the viewership percentage--which is based on data gathered by THN and LodgeNet through in-room set-top box monitoring--is higher than for many popular cable channels.

Packet Ship, a company that specializes in Linux-based software components for VOD, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that its Media Delivery Platform (MDP) is powering on-demand movies as part of Hoist Technology's Eyecom IPTV solution for the hospitality market. Hoist plans to distribute Eyecom IPTV primarily in the Scandinavian, Russian and Polish markets, where it claims to have a large customer base of hotels. According to Packet Ship, the Packet Ship MDP was integrated with Philips NetX client devices, Dreampark's Dreamgallery middleware and Cyphaware's Cyphalock DRM to securely deliver movie content from Hoist's central office in Sweden to hotels served by the company.

Next 1 Interactive--which bills itself as an interactive media company specializing in travel and real estate--announced Monday that it has completed its acquisition of Resort & Residence TV from Televisual Media Works, a company owned by Gary Turner, the founder and former chairman and CEO of defunct interactive TV advertising and channels company, The Media Group (which was originally called Turner Media Group, and which for a long time served as EchoStar/DISH Network's ad sales rep company). According to Next 1 Interactive, the purchase includes all the channel's branding elements and interactive applications, including apps that allow viewers to use their remotes to interact with advertising, make RFI's and engage in tcommerce.

Microsoft last week announced that French telecommunications and network services provider, Viapass, has selected its Microsoft Mediaroom platform, equipped with the platform's recently launched virtualization feature, as the basis for an interactive TV-enabled IPTV service that its Viapass TV subsidiary plans to offer to hotels, hospitals and MDU's.