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

The US's third-largest cable MSO, Cox Communications, announced Wednesday that it has upgraded the on-screen interface of its VOD service, Cox On DEMAND. According to the company, the new interface provides faster and simpler navigation and is available immediately across its digital cable footprint. "Our goal with this upgrade is to provide customers with an even more attractive, fast and intuitive On DEMAND experience," Chris Pantoya, Cox's VP of marketing, said in a prepared statement. "The features make navigation easy, particularly since there is much more programming to see."

According to Cox, the upgrade includes:

Albeit a few days later than promised (note: at the recent NewTeeVee conference, Amy Banse, president of Comcast Interactive Media, stated that it would launch before Channukah, which began last Friday evening), Comcast on Tuesday rolled out its initial implementation of the so-called "TV Everywhere" content distribution model (note: the "TV Everywhere" model, which was originally championed by Time Warner CEO, Jeff Bewkes, ultimately 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

The BBC said Tuesday that 2009 has been the most successful year to date for its BBC Red Button interactive TV service, with an average of over 11 million viewers pressing the red button each week, and with more content launched through the service than ever before.

Paris-based interactive TV games specialist, Visiware, announced Tuesday that its Playin'TV games are now available on Infostrada TV, a Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform operated by Italian telco, Wind Telecommunications.

According to the company, six games from its Playin'TV catalog that have been adapted for the Mediaroom platform--"Solitaire," "Reversi," "Tactic 2 Vitamin," "Twin Match Ocean," "Tweezle Lab" and "Buzzbee"--are now available free of charge in Infostrada TV's "Extra" section.

Verizon announced Monday that it has launched an interactive TV version of its In-Home Agent customer self-help tool on its FiOS TV platform (note: a PC version of the tool was launched this summer--see the article published on itvt.com, August 25th). According to the company, the new tool uses "the advanced FiOS network" to diagnose issues, report back to customers, and then quickly and automatically fix most problems.

Imaging and video technology specialist, HDlogix (note: the company's main product lines are ImageIQ, a suite of image and video optimization and enhancement technologies; Clique, a set of mobile and desktop video communications client software applications; and Hue, a range of HD Web cameras), contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it powered what it says was the first live 3D broadcast ever to be shown on giant screens at a major sporting event--during last Sunday's football game at Cowboys Stadium between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Diego Chargers, which was attended by 80,000 fans who were given

Live Internet broadcast service provider, Ustream (note: the company recently announced the availability of a Ustream Live Broadcaster iPhone app in the iTunes App Store--see the article published on itvt.com, December 10th), contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it will be powering live, interactive feeds of today's (Tuesday) Golden Globes nominations and tomorrow's (Wednesday) premiere of the new James Cameron movie, "Avatar."

Comcast announced Monday that it will today (Tuesday) launch an HD VOD collection showcasing music videos, biographical footage and live performances from Shakira, thanks to an exclusive partnership with the Colombian singer (note: the MSO also recently launched a similar exclusive HD VOD collection featuring singer, Taylor Swift--see the article published on itvt.com, December 3rd).

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that last year acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced a deal last week to incorporate verve-media's interactive commerce functionality into the Roxio CinemaNow platform.

The BBC has announced the line-up of content that will be available through its red-button interactive TV service this week:

NBC last week announced the launch of a new social media game, called "Mission: Chuck Me Out" (http://www.chuckmeout.com), that is designed to reward viewers who use popular social networking sites to promote the network's returning action-comedy series, "Chuck" (note: the series' third season premieres at 9:00PM Eastern, January 10th, before the series moves to its regular day and time--Mondays at 8:00PM Eastern--on January 11th).

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, said last week that it partnered with Tokyo-based Gotcha Media to deliver a live stream of last month's Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) heavyweight title bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers. According to the company, its live Internet streams of the event generated "ground-breaking" viewer numbers in Japan, and viewership of the on-demand version of the fight continues to grow even a month after the event. Ooyala claims that its platform's scalability allowed Gotcha Media to deliver high-quality video to over 15,000 concurrent viewers in Japan.

Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment presenter, AEG, is trumpeting the success of AEG Digital Media, the live and on-demand Internet video streaming business unit it launched in early October following its acquisition of Incited Media. In less than 60 days, the company says, AEG Digital Media--which it describes as a "provider of complete, turnkey, no-fail multimedia broadcast solutions" and which it says it formed in order to extend its reach to new audiences across the globe--has delivered over 25 events, including:

UK incumbent telco, BT, said last week that it has signed a VOD deal with Twentieth Century Fox that will make a number of the latter's shows available on BT Vision, the telco's Microsoft Mediaroom-powered, interactive TV-enabled hybrid IPTV service (note: the service is enabled via a hybrid set-top box that allows viewers to access linear channels from the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, alongside IP-delivered on-demand and interactive content).