Zappware Powers Design-Themed Interactive TV Portal on Telenet

Belgian interactive television technology provider, Zappware (note: the company last year appointed Patrick Vos, who had headed up its international sales efforts, as CEO, in what it said was part of an ongoing strategy to focus more on international markets--see [itvt] Issue 8.23 Part 1), announced Friday that it has been tapped by the Pontes Group, a Belgian "idea-management" software and services company, to develop a design-themed interactive TV portal for Belgian cable operator Telenet's digital platform. Dubbed IconTV, the new portal, which serves to promote a new annual design show called Icons & Co that will be taking place later this month, is accessed via the "Extra" button on the Telenet remote. It features high-quality images of a diverse range of "design and lifestyle" products that will be featured at the show.

The new portal is based on a new Zappware "iFormat," called "iCatalogue," which the company says is designed to enable companies to promote products and services through fully interactive digital TV catalogs. (Note: Zappware bills its iFormats as being built with a modular design that facilitates rebranding, customization and deployment on multiple TV platforms. They are designed for use with Zappware's iView Platform--which the company bills as a platform-independent production environment--and can be updated and scheduled with content by customers in-house. The company says that they interface "seamlessly" with external content providers, so that existing information and services can be repurposed "with a minimum of human intervention.") According to Zappware, the new iCatalogue iFormat presents viewers with product images and descriptive text, and supports supplemental photo galleries and VOD. RFI capability (note: Zappware claims that its platform's RFI capability is compliant with EU privacy regulations) and even product-related multiple-choice quizzes can be added for each featured product via modules, the company says.

"Among our vast offer of interactive formats, iCatalogue is definitely the best choice for this design portal idea," Zappware interactive TV producer, Marc Vervoort, said in a prepared statement. "In order to promote different brands and their respective products, you need a user-friendly interface allowing browsing of different categories and their respective items. This new iFormat was conceived and developed with exactly that in mind." Added Rob Mahieu, managing partner at Pontes and the executive behind the IconTV concept: "In Zappware I found a valuable and enthusiastic partner to brainstorm and to shape and develop my idea for an interactive advertising medium for design on the Telenet digital TV platform. The result is world's first IDTV design portal, visibly very well thought-out and perfectly meeting the contemporary needs of TV-watching design lovers and content-providing designers and design manufacturers." And added Edwin Hardy, CEO of Pebblemedia: "As Telenet's interactive sales house, Pebblemedia found a very innovative partner in IconTV. IconTV is the first to launch a fully integrated marketing concept on the Telenet IDTV platform. IconTV not only offers its partners a state-of-the art landing environment, allowing partners to use video and call-to-actions via the Telenet PIN code; IconTV is also a concept that integrates the necessary traffic building via broadcaster airtime, including red-button
interactivity."