emuse Revamps Sapo Interactive TV Portal on Portugal Telecom's Mediaroom-Powered IPTV Platform

Dublin, Ireland-based interactive TV applications provider, emuse, announced Wednesday that it recently teamed with Portuguese Internet portal, Sapo.pt, which is owned by incumbent telco, Portugal Telecom, to revamp the interactive TV version of the portal on Portugal Telecom's Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV service, Meo. Dubbed Sapo at Meo, the new version of the interactive TV portal launched last month.

According to emuse, it worked closely with Sapo to develop an innovative, customized application on the Meo platform that receives live Web feeds from Sapo.pt and repurposes them for the new interactive TV portal. Among other things, the new ITV portal offers news, a line-up of national and international content, and a range of localized information, including weather and traffic info, and lists of local amenities together with maps. emuse says that the upgrade of the ITV portal focused primarily on optimizing usability and performance by providing the maximum amount of information within an intuitive and simple user interface. "Working with Portugal Telecom again on their latest IPTV project is an excellent opportunity for us to further hone our IPTV expertise" Dominic Laval, emuse's director of emerging markets, said in a prepared statement. "The Sapo at Meo service is data-rich and user-friendly, along with offering quick and efficient response times; these facilities are key to providing a successful service on an IPTV platform, so emuse and Portugal Telecom have joined forces to put together this latest compelling application. Added Vera Pinto Pereira, Portugal Telecom's director of TV services: "Meo has redefined the concept of watching TV in Portugal, introducing new and innovative services, such as pause-live-TV, recordings, TV guide, etc. Working with emuse, is an excellent opportunity to continuously differentiate ourselves from our competitors throughout innovative, user-friendly and useful applications like the Sapo at Meo service."

Portugal Telecom also recently tapped emuse to develop an interactive TV service for the Meo platform, called Meo Magazine. The service provides viewers with program information (including recommendations), reviews, trailers and links to other content on the platform. It also allows viewers to upgrade their subscription packages using the remote control, and supports one-touch recording and VOD ordering (note: for more on the service, see the article published on itvt.com, June 11th).