ActiveVideo Claims Data from its Deployments Show ITV Generates New Revenues

ActiveVideo Networks (formerly ICTV)--a San Jose, Calif.-based company which offers a platform that it bills as intelligently streaming both traditional and Web-based content to digital set-top boxes and Web-connected CE devices and as combining the personalized, dynamic, socially connected experience of the Web with the quality, immediacy and remote-control navigation that end-users expect from television--claims that data on audience viewing and usage habits that it has gathered from announced and unannounced field deployments of its platform in the US demonstrate that interactive TV can generate new revenue both for cable operators and programmers.

According to the company, the data indicate that reach, frequency and engagement are increasing at ActiveVideo-enabled TV's, as viewers use interactive TV applications to preview and upgrade to new levels of service, and to initiate and complete home-shopping purchases. It also claims that viewers' interactions with its platform are "laying the foundation for advertising opportunities through a pattern of consistent use." "These metrics are important to our industry because they are visible proof of the value of interactive television within the media ecosystem," ActiveVideo Networks president and CEO, Jeff Miller, said in a prepared statement. "The numbers show that when subscribers get the services they want, operators realize a significant return on their investments in interactivity. For the first time, we can prove that there is a clear and direct link between the deployment of ActiveVideo services and the bottom lines of operators and programmers."

Among the examples cited by ActiveVideo Networks of the revenue-generating ability of ITV applications on its platform:
--A 545% increase in tier upgrades over traditional Web and telephone ordering since the launch of an interactive TV preview channel in late December.
--Initiation of tcommerce sessions by around 10% of ActiveVideo-enabled households, as well as "significantly increased" sales totals since the initial system launch of home shopping last fall.
--An average ActiveVideo session length of 14.7 minutes, 359% longer than the average online video view and 46% more than the average Hulu view.
--Usage on more than 47% of applicable set-top boxes across all ActiveVideo-enabled households during 2008.

The ActiveVideo-powered interactive TV preview channel features content clips and other programming information, all of which is navigable by the remote control. It also offers a one-click order button in order to expedite the ability of viewers to upgrade to a new service level. The company claims that during the first 14 weeks after the channel's launch, ActiveVideo-enabled households upgraded their pay-TV service at an annualized rate of 2.3%. It also claims that the tcommerce service on its platform is averaging around two visits per unique viewer, despite a strict requirement that only sessions of 20 seconds or longer be counted. During the order process, the company says, 22% of ActiveVideo subscribers who arrive at the service's log-in page and 45% of subscribers who log in complete their transactions.