soccer

UK cable operator, Virgin Media, last week unveiled a free, Web-based, two-screen interactive TV app that is designed to accompany live broadcasts of Premier League soccer games. Dubbed Sofa Stadium and incorporating social networking, real-time voting and game statistics, the laptop app debuted on Saturday in time for the first game of the Premier League season, and is available at http://www.sofastadium.co.uk.

DirecTV on Tuesday announced plans to offer a multiscreen interactive TV Soccer Mix Channel (channel 480) in both HD and SD, that will allow viewers to watch up to eight games from the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League simultaneously--thus, the company says, "provid[ing] a comprehensive view of each day's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League coverage."

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.

Zugara, a Los Angeles-based interactive marketing company that has developed a number of high-profile augmented reality applications (see, for example, the article published on itvt.com, November 17th), contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it recently worked with BBDO and Zoic Studios to develop a soccer-themed AR app for AT&T that ran within a banner ad on ESPN.com.

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 apologize for any inconvenience to our readers. We will resume our regular format and publishing schedule tomorrow (Tuesday).

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

CBS Sports contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it has tapped South African-born two-time NBA MVP, Steve Nash, for a project that will see him traveling to South Africa and filing a series of video segments and reports on the 2010 World Cup, as well as interacting with viewers through social media. The reports will be produced in partnership with Nash's production company, Meathawk.

AT&T on Tuesday unveiled its plans for interactive TV, VOD, online and mobile coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Among other things, the plans call for the telco to offer the first-ever Spanish-language interactive TV application to run on its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV.

UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster, ITV, last week launched a two-screen interactive TV service, called "ITV Live," that will reside on its ITV.com Web site.

OTT specialist, Roku, and pay-per-view event provider, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), announced a multi-year deal, late Sunday, that will see all major UFC events featured on Roku, starting with the May 29th UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans PPV event from the MGM Grand Garden Arena. "We are always looking at the latest technology and the newest ways to bring the UFC experience to our fans," UFC president, Dana White, said in a prepared statement.

Time Warner and Verizon announced Wednesday that they are partnering on a TV Everywhere initiative that will make a range of Time Warner's cable programming available online to Verizon FiOS TV subscribers. (Note: the TV Everywhere distribution model--which was originally championed by Time Warner's chairman and CEO, Jeff Bewkes--seeks, via authentication technology, to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on multiple Web sites and platforms, and thus aims to head off the threat posed to pay-TV services by the increasing availability of over-the-top programming).

Univision Interactive Media, the digital division of US Spanish-language broadcaster, Univision, announced Wednesday that it has launched a free, video-enabled soccer application, called Univision Futbol, in the Apple App Store. According to the company, the app, which was developed in partnership with July Systems, is currently available for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch, and a version that has been optimized for the new Apple iPad will be available in time for the upcoming soccer World Cup.

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

Turner Broadcasting-owned cable channel, TNT, and NBA Digital, the new media arm of the National Basketball Association (NBA), will tonight (Thursday) present a special interactive edition of the show "TNT NBA Thursday," (airs at 8:00PM Eastern) that integrates TNT, NBA TV and NBA.com.