sky

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of interactive TV technology/operator news for the past few days.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of interactive TV content news for the past few days:

Sky News said Monday that its iPhone/iPod touch application has been downloaded over a million times since its launch last May. The UK satellite TV operator's news arm also announced Monday that it is launching a new mobile Internet service. (Note: Last week, Sky News also announced the launch of an interactive TV widget for the Yahoo! Widget Engine--see the article published on itvt.com, January 11th.)

Broadband video publishing solutions provider, Brightcove, announced Wednesday that Italian pay-TV operator, Sky.it (Sky Italia), has selected its platform for online video content management and for publishing advertising-supported, customized video players on its online properties and across the Web. According to Brightcove--whose other Italian customers include MTV Mobile and Il Sole 24--its platform is enabling Sky.it, which has just under 5 million subscribers, to extend distribution of sports, news and lifestyle-related programming to the Web, reaching a larger audience and expanding monetization opportunities through enhanced advertising opportunities.

BSkyB and Microsoft announced Wednesday that the Sky Player broadband video service will be added in the UK to Windows Media Center in Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system, enabling live and on-demand over-the-top viewing of Sky's pay-TV content, including movies, sports coverage, entertainment and children's programming and more. Earlier this year, the companies announced a deal to offer Sky Player on the Xbox 360 (see the article published on itvt.com May 29th): that service is slated to launch October 27th.

UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB, announced last week that it plans to take advantage of capabilities provided by its existing Sky+HD set-top box and service to launch a 3D channel and a "pull" VOD service (i.e. a true VOD service, vs. the "push"-VOD services--such as Sky's own Sky Anytime--typically offered by satellite-TV operators).

As expected (see the article posted on itvt.com yesterday), Microsoft and UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB (Sky), have announced a partnership to offer a version of the latter's Sky Player broadband TV service on Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console. According to the companies, the service will launch on the Xbox LIVE content service in the UK and Ireland in the fall (note: in their press release announcing the new service, the companies did not specify whether a subscription to the premium Xbox Live Silver or Gold services will be required in order to access it), and will allow Xbox owners to access 20 or so live channels, as well as on-demand programming.

BSkyB's Sky News arm on Wednesday launched a free-to-download iPhone and iPod touch application on the UK and Ireland Apple App store. According to the company, the new advertising-supported app delivers breaking news via video, images and text, and presents users with seven different content categories: top stories, UK news, sports, business, world news, showbiz and "strange news" (based on a popular feature from skynews.com).

Portland, Oregon-based interactive TV authoring solutions provider, Ensequence, announced Monday that it has been chosen by Welsh-language broadcaster, S4C, to create and deploy interactive TV services for the UK's Freeview free-to-air digital terrestrial and Sky pay-TV digital satellite platforms. The new deal represents Ensequence's first multiplatform deployment in the UK.

UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB, announced Thursday that its Sky+ HD service has now been deployed in over a million Sky households (1,022 million, compared to 465,000 this time last year), following record sales in the first three months of 2009. The company says that the growing popularity of HDTV has also contributed to the rapid growth of its Sky+ DVR service, which is incorporated in all Sky+HD boxes: including the Sky+ HD customer base, Sky says, the Sky+ DVR service (which is powered by technologies from NDS and OpenTV) added 406,000 net new subscribers during the quarter and is now in over 5 million homes--almost one in five homes in the UK and Ireland.

UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB (Sky), announced Tuesday that it is launching a green button-based "bookable" and "on-demand" advertising service that will allow viewers to easily access long-form advertising.

UK-based interactive TV design company, Pushbutton, announced last month that it has teamed with gambling channel, Sky Vegas, to launch an interactive TV version of the arcade-style, "tumbling faces" gambling game, "Chain Reactors," on the latter's service on the UK's Sky satellite-TV platform. In order for a player to win money, a series of what Pushbutton describes as "amusing and quirkily animated tumbling faces" must match up in clusters of at least five in a grid. Lining up the faces causes a "chain reaction," wherein the matched faces disappear in a puff animation. New faces then tumble down the screen to replace them.

Australian interactive TV applications provider, Two Way Limited, contacted [itvt] earlier this week to let us know that Sky Racing Active, an interactive TV wagering service that it has created for betting company, Tabcorp, and the Foxtel pay-TV platform, has won an ASTRA Award for "Most Outstanding Use of Interactive Television." ASTRA (note: the name is an acronym for the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association) is the industry organization for Australia's pay-TV industry.

--Announces Plans to Relaunch Interactive Game Show, "QuizNation"

--Company Looking to Expand Internationally