-- MegaPhone Labs Touts Dialplay TV Product
MegaPhone Labs is gaining some momentum for its interactive TV solution, which lets viewers use phones to respond to polls, games and other interactive overlays in programming.
Rather than wait for U.S. cable MSOs to deploy interactive TV technology such as EBIF, New York-based MegaPhone says programmers can reach more than 100 million U.S. homes today with phones. The Weather Channel and NBC flagship station WNBC-TV are using its DialPlay TV product, and MegaPhone CEO Mark Yackanich says the company is talking to other programmers that have expressed interest in using DialPlay TV to interact with viewers.
Yackanich says MegaPhone isn't pitching phone-based solutions as a replacement for set-top based interactive TV products that allow viewers to use a remote control to respond to interactive overlays. But he says DialPlay TV -- which adds interactive inlays video to programming at a broadcaster's operations center or control room – is a quicker and less expensive way to reach viewers.
"Any cable programmer should be working with EBIF, but why not do this right now? We have a simple solution that's easy to deploy," Yackanichadded.
Viewers watching content from WNBC-TV, The Weather Channel and other networks that deploy DialPlayTV can dial toll-free numbers to respond to polls or trivia games. MegaPhone also launched a Web-based controller that allows viewers to use any mobile device to interact with programming, including laptops, tablet computers and smartphones.
Encouraging viewers to use their phones to play games and other interactive enhancements also helps programmers with audience retention, Yackanich said, noting that one of MegaPhone's customers has seen 75 percent of viewers that play a game one week return the next week to play again. 
