emuse

SpotCrime, a Baltimore-based start-up that bills itself as "the largest independent data and news company mapping crime worldwide," has launched an interactive TV application in DirecTV's TV Apps app store (http://tvapps.directv.com). The app provides DirecTV viewers nationwide with near-real-time crime data, including listings of local crime incidents and a map of that local criminal activity.

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.

Accedo Broadband, a Stockholm-based aggregator and distributor of interactive TV applications and content for IPTV and broadband-connected consumer electronics devices (note: the company, which was founded by telecom and media entrepreneurs, Michael Lantz and Fredrik Andersson, offers a range of applications, but is best known for its games), announced last week that it has launched interactive TV games on Portugal Telecom's Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform, Meo. According to the company, it has launched two games services on the platform so far--one targeted at children and the other at a general audience.

Dublin, Ireland-based interactive TV authoring solutions provider, emuse, is powering an interactive TV application for the Fox8 reality series, "Australia's Next Top Model," on the OpenTV-powered Foxtel pay-TV platform. Dubbed "Game On" and accessed through the red button, the new application allows viewers to play along with the show by giving their opinions as it unfolds and guessing who will be eliminated at the end of each episode. Immediately after the show's broadcast, opinions and results from the "Game On" app are made available on the "Australia's Next Top Model" Web and 3G sites.

Dublin, Ireland-based interactive TV advertising and authoring
solutions provider, emuse, has teamed with Carat to create a
video-enabled ITV advertising campaign, dubbed "Join the Quest," for
Disney's new "Chronicles of Narnia" movie, "Prince Caspian."
According to emuse, the new campaign--a bespoke version of which
was also created for the Sky satellite platform--is the first interactive
advertising campaign to launch on BT Vision, the Microsoft
Mediaroom-powered IPTV service of UK incumbent telco, BT (note:
the service offers a range of on-demand content via a hybrid set-top
box that also receives channels from the UK's free-to-air digital
terrestrial service, Freeview). The BT version of the campaign provides

--Signs IPTV Deals with Russia's Corbina, Taiwan's Chunghwa

Microsoft contacted [itvt] late last month to let us know that it has
released the beta version of its Microsoft Mediaroom Presentation
Framework to nearly 150 companies around the world, including
content providers and application developers, as well as operator
customers such as AT&T and BT. According to the company, the
Presentation Framework beta will allow service providers--either on
their own or with third parties--to quickly and cost-effectively build
and deploy rich-media IPTV services and applications that allow for
the "seamless blending" of a show's broadcast and Web elements.