Icareus

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on our upcoming TV of Tomorrow Show event, TVOT NYC Intensive (December 10th in New York City--early-bird pricing ends this Sunday!), we are covering stories in this issue in headlines format:

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on our upcoming TV of Tomorrow Show event, TVOT NYC Intensive (December 10th in New York City)--and because of the large volume of news currently being generated by the IFA and IBC shows--we are covering stories in this issue in headlines format:

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on The TV of Tomorrow Show 2012, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on The TV of Tomorrow Show 2012, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus, said Wednesday that it has developed a "new kind" of interactive, over-the-top (OTT) TV offering that will be targeted at senior citizens in Finland. The company says that the first customer of the "SeniorTV" OTT Platform and service is a Finnish company called EcoTec that is launching it under its own brand, SmartCare TV.

Interactive TV software specialist Alticast's Alticast Taiwan arm said Tuesday that it has launched ITV casual games from Icareus Studios, the ITV content production arm of Finnish ITV specialist, Icareus, on Taiwanese cable operator KBro's MHP-based platform (note: for more on Alticast's work on the platform, see the article published on itvt.com, October 7th, 2008). KBro--which is controlled by the Carlyle Group--is Taiwan's largest MSO, with 12 cable systems and 1.1 million subscribers--around 120,000 of which currently have interactive TV-enabled set-top boxes.

Due to the large volume of interactive TV-related news generated over the past few days, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus, contacted [itvt] Tuesday with an update on its trading activities for 2009. In spite of the ongoing recession, the company claims to have ended the year with "positive feelings": "Despite the world economy being as cold as the winter in Finland, we at Icareus are quite satisfied with the year 2009--both our turnover and results improved and we have been able to build new promising customer relationships," Icareus managing director, Toni Leiponen, said in a statement emailed to [itvt]. "Furthermore, the new year looks better then ever before, so we are eagerly looking forward, into the future."

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus (note: the company's offerings include a range of authoring and delivery solutions for MHP, OCAP/tru2way, MHEG and other platforms, as well as an extensive catalog of off-the-shelf interactive TV games and other applications), contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that it has delivered a range of interactive TV solutions to Bruneian national broadcaster, Radio Television Brunei (RTB). The broadcaster--which operates five digital TV channels, RTB 1 and RTB 2 (simulcast), RTB 3 (HD), RTB 4 (international) and RTB 5, as well as five radio networks--is using the solutions to power MHP-based interactive TV services.

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus (note: the company's offerings include a range of authoring and delivery solutions for MHP, OCAP/tru2way, MHEG and other platforms, as well as an extensive catalog of off-the-shelf interactive TV games and other applications), said Wednesday that it has acquired Shanghai-based Innosonic Information Technology, a subsidiary of Finnish mobile company, Innosonic. According to Icareus, the deal means that it now owns all Innosonic China's products and rights.