New Visiware Interactive TV Games Offering Leverages VOD Platforms

--Company Launches New Version of Playin'TV on New Zealand's Sky TV
--Forms ITV Poker Partnership with Bluff Magazine

Paris-based interactive TV games company, Visiware, has launched an interactive TV games offering that leverages VOD platforms to offer video and other rich-media content. Dubbed Playin'VOD, the new offering will initially be targeted at cable and IPTV operators, but will later be available for mobile phones and personal media players, and also for hospitality deployments, the company says. "Visiware is reinventing gaming on TV," Visiware executive chairman, Laurant Weill, said in a prepared statement. "In partnership with producers and authors, we are building the biggest catalog of interactive VOD games...Playin'VOD features high-quality games and opportunities to increase ARPU for TV over IP, cable, and all platforms which can deliver video-on-demand."

Titles offered on Playin'VOD at launch include:

• "My Fitness Coach," a personalizable fitness application that allows viewers to input their height, weight and fitness goals, and then choose an exercise program that is tailored to their needs.
• "Playin'Karaoke," a karaoke application with rich graphics.
• Various casino games, including "Texas Hold'em Poker," which feature video backgrounds.
• "Football Challenge," a game enriched with real-life sports footage.
• "Minikids VOD," a version of the company's "Minikids" ITV games offering that features rich graphics.
• "Playin'Motion," a series of arcade games that feature video backgrounds.

In other Visiware news:

• The company has launched a new version of its Playin'TV ITV games channel on New Zealand pay-TV platform, Sky TV. According to Visiware, the new version--which it says will also be launched by its other customers, including DISH Network in the US--features a more attractive design, with improved images and graphics; simpler and more user-friendly navigation; more games (it now offers a total of 34 titles); and improved speed. The portal, which is located on channel 50, is priced at NZ$5.95 per month (note: under a special launch promotion, it is priced at just NZ$1.00 this month). "The Playin'TV games portal which Sky subscribers in New Zealand can now enjoy is the result of many years of research and development," Visiware SVP, Pascal-Hippolyte Besson, said in a prepared statement. "Its features make it a highly ergonomic product which meets the needs of our subscribers by providing a greater gaming experience. The new version of our Playin'TV portal will be deployed progressively throughout the world, starting with DISH/EchoStar in the US."
• The company has formed a partnership with Bluff Magazine, a poker-themed publication with international distribution, that sees the partners targeting the Australian and New Zealand markets with an ITV game entitled "Poker: Texas No Limit." The game, which is available on Visiware's flagship ITV games channel, Playin'TV (channel 50 on New Zealand's Sky TV and channel 555 on Australia's Austar), is sponsored and promoted by Bluff Magazine, and features the magazine's branding. It offers tutorials and mini-games, as well as a competition with real-time ranking in which viewers can win various prizes.

NBC Universal Redesigns its VOD Web Site

NBC Universal's Digital Distribution arm has redesigned its Universal Studios VOD and PPV site (www.universalvod.net). According to the company, in addition to information on Universal VOD and PPV movies, the site now offers a "Rate this Video" application, "Send to a Friend" functionality, games, a fresh look with more streamlined navigation, and "one-click access" to behind-the-scenes footage, trailers and photo galleries of upcoming VOD and PPV offerings. The site has also been optimized for search engine indexing, and allows consumers to sign up to receive information on upcoming releases, sweepstakes, give-aways, and other offers.

Major Studios Announce Plans for Premium VOD Service

Earlier this month, Viacom, its Paramount Pictures unit, MGM Studios and Lionsgate announced that they have formed a joint venture that will launch a premium VOD service and linear-TV channel in the fall of 2009. According to the companies, the venture will have access to Paramount and Paramount Vantage titles released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2008, and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2009: it will have exclusive access during the pay-television window to such recent and upcoming films as "Iron Man," "Star Trek," "Cloverfield," "Shutter Island," "Love Guru" and "Valkyrie" and various currently-in-production titles, including new installments of the "Robocop" series, the companies say. It will also have access to the five participating studios' movie libraries, as well as to their new, original TV series. The deal between the companies calls for Viacom to provide the new venture with operational support, including marketing and affiliate services through its MTV Networks division. "This venture has the potential to be a game changer for the industry," Viacom president and CEO, Philippe Dauman, said in a prepared statement. "We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer. By combining the output of Paramount with MGM and Lionsgate, two film and television powerhouses, we are creating a premium film and television programming brand with unique flexibility to bring consumers the very best blockbuster movies and innovative TV series."

Ken Jennings to Guest on PlayCafe's Interactive Game Show Channel

PlayCafe, a company that bills itself as "the first Internet TV network for game shows" (note: its Web site streams live, free-to-play game shows, on weekdays from 6:00PM-8:00PM Pacific, that allow viewers to play along, chat with hosts and other players, form teams, contribute questions, and win prizes), contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that Ken Jennings, the holder of the record for the longest winning streak on the US game show, "Jeopardy!," will be appearing as a special guest this evening. He will participate in an interactive real-time quiz in which any visitor to PlayCafe's Web site will be able to take part. Various prizes will be on offer, including personalized answering machine messages from Jennings, and copies of his latest book, "Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac." PlayCafe was founded by alumni of PayPal and Google. Its backers include First Round Capital.

KoldCast Launches Broadband TV Service

An Irvine, Calif.-based company called KoldCast last month launched a free broadband video service, called KoldCast TV, that features a range of on-demand programming and support for full-screen HD. The company also launched three different media players, designed for use by its content partners and viewers (the players can be embedded in blogs and social networking sites), as well as a service, dubbed CenterStage, that allows aspiring entertainers to create their own microchannels. "The official launch of KoldCast TV represents the opening of a sophisticated new distribution channel for television and movie production companies, filmmakers, producers, musicians and entertainers of all disciplines who are quickly recognizing that the Internet can now efficiently deliver programming into significant numbers of households and businesses in an entertaining fashion," KoldCast president and CEO, David S. Samuels, said in a prepared statement. "In its heart, the entertainment industry knows, as do many savvy viewers, that we are at the beginning of the new golden age of television. We have designed our network site in a way that allows viewers to enjoy finding and watching the fresh and creative on-demand programming available to them. The number-one complaint we hear about the standard video-centric Web sites is that good programming is just too hard to find. The key words here are 'good programming' and 'hard to find.'"

According to its press materials, KoldCast believes that "consumer familiarity with traditional television guides and menu systems is something to be respected." It therefore uses a simple, four-level menu system to guide viewers to programming: 1) Network, 2) Channel, 3) Show and 4) Episode. At the first level, viewers select a "network" of interest, such as the Comedy network. Once a network is selected, its channels are displayed (for example, Comedy Series). Viewers then select a show from the channel, and an episode from the show. The service also offers various interactive/community features, such as commenting and blogging: however, in order to take advantage of those, visitors to the site must register.

According to KoldCast, its three Advanced Media Players can be individually programmed by the company to play any subset of its programming in any venue. In addition to full-screen and HD support, the players include a drop-down "eye lid" that can be branded by the company's partners. The three players are the AMP01 (a single-video embeddable player), the AMP12 (a 12-video custom programmable player with co-branding features), and the Affily8 (an eight-video custom programmable player with co-branding and graphics-support features).

KoldCast describes its CenterStage service as "an entertainment initiative that combines Talent MicroChannels with a searchable database and Network Channels." According to the company, the service allows talent to create their own channel, featuring their own video uploads, still photos and biographical information: viewers can communicate with the talent via a blind messaging system. "We have just begun to reach out to the entertainment industry to introduce them to CenterStage, where any talented individual pursuing a genuine career within the entertainment industry can create their own personal MicroChannel on KoldCast TV," Samuels explained. "Here they can introduce themselves and their work to our viewers and to the entertainment industry at large, so we have organized this collection of MicroChannels into a searchable database that can be easily mined for this purpose. And soon, some of the best videos from these MicroChannels will be featured on our CenterStage Network and related Channel line-ups. It's very cool and there is much more coming." The company says that ad revenues generated by each MicroChannel will be shared with the channel's talent, and that the next release of the service will allow musicians to sell music directly through their MicroChannels.

Since its launch, KoldCast has announced programming deals with entertainment news and picture agency, Splash News (provides its service with multiple daily installments of breaking entertainment news), and with Michael Airington, the comedian behind the MySpace blog, "Views from a Broad." The latter deal will see KoldCast TV co-producing (with Airington) 24 original episodes of a new show entitled, "Showbiz Schmooze with Ester Goldberg."

Usage of CBS Sports' March Madness on Demand Increases Significantly

CBS Sports contacted [itvt] last week to provide statistics on the broadband video service it offered for the recent NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship (popularly referred to as "March Madness"). According to the company:

• From March 20th (opening day) through April 7th (championship game), there were 4,759,306 total unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video player, compared to 1,800,383 total unique visitors last year (i.e. from March 15th through April 2nd, 2007)--meaning that the service enjoyed 164% year-over-year growth.
• A total of 4,925,566 hours of live streaming video and audio were consumed on the player during the tournament, compared to 2,716,236 hours last year--representing 81% year-over-year growth.
• The service attracted 571,297 VIP registrants, compared to 468,720 last year--representing 22% year-over-year growth.
• The service's "Boss Button" (allowed viewers--many of whom were expected to be using it at work--to quickly hide the service) was used 2,534,988 times.

The year-over-year comparisons are slightly skewed by the fact that this year the player offered all 63 March Madness games, while last year it offered only 56 games (i.e. through the regional semifinals). Taking that into account (i.e. counting only games viewed through the regional semifinals), the year-over-year comparisons are as follows:

• There were 4,003,241 total unique visitors in 2008, compared to 1,701,532 last year (an increase of 135%).
• 4,294,400 total hours of live streaming video and audio were consumed in 2008, compared to 2,716,236 hours last year (an increase of 58%).

VideoClix in Video Hotspotting Deal with Revision3

Vancouver-based VideoClix, a provider of "hotspotting" (i.e. clickable video) technology, has signed a deal with Revision3, a company that bills itself as "an actual TV network for the Web" and that develops and produces original broadband TV shows. Revision3 plans to use VideoClix' technology to enable its viewers to click on different objects within a video--for example, show hosts and products--in order to access additional information and "interesting facts." The first Revision3 show to employ the technology is one of the company's most popular, "DiggNation," which began using it April 11th. Other shows set to offer hotspotting as a result of the deal include "Internet Superstar," "Tekzilla" and "The Totally Rad Show." "I've always been a curious TV viewer, wanting more information immediately," Revision3 CEO, Jim Louderback, said in a prepared statement. "VideoClix allows Revision3 viewers to satiate their curiosity instantly and enhance their engagement with the product at hand. This technology is a boon to viewers, to our producers and to the advertisers of Revision3." Added VideoClix founder and CEO, Babak Maghfourian: "We are really excited to bring Revision3 on as one of our anchor content partners for the beta launch of VideoClix.tv. Their diehard viewers, with their voracious appetite for information and entertainment, will thoroughly enjoy the VideoClix experience."

BBC Three Relaunched with More Interactivity, UGC, Social Networking

The BBC recently relaunched its younger-skewing digichannel, BBC Three, as a multiplatform service with programming that heavily features interactivity, user-generated content and social-networking components. The channel, which according to its controller, Danny Cohen, aims to "become Britain's ambitious multiplatform network, combining television and the Web into a single, integrated offering," now simulcasts all its programming on the Internet; invites viewers to upload clips of themselves introducing their favorite programs, the best of which are featured during the channel's peak-time schedule; and, according to its press materials, promises to produce original, online content with "the passion and production values normally associated with TV," and to place "innovative, interactive ideas at the heart of key programs."

New, interactive shows on BBC Three include:

• Lily Allen and Friends," a talk show which the BBC says is "based on the social-networking phenomenon that helped [the eponymous singer] launch her career," and whose studio audience consists entirely of people who have signed up as Allen's online friends on bbc.co.uk/lilyallen. The site also hosts exclusive content from Allen, which viewers can add to their own social-network profiles and Web sites, and invites viewers to help "shape the show" by contributing to discussions and posing questions to guests. --"The Wall," a weekly comedy series that features a Web site where viewers can post their own comedy sketches, ask celebrity guests questions, access exclusive video content, and, according to the BBC, "become part of the performance."
• "Upstaged," which the BBC describes as a "multiplatform entertainment event open to anyone across the country who thinks they are worth watching." The show, whose Web site is based on KickApps' white-label social TV platform, invites members of the public who have aspirations to become entertainers to audition online to go to two specially built glass boxes (located in Bristol's Millennium Square"), where their performances are streamed online or filmed for broadcast on BBC Three. The show's online community then votes on the performances, and one of the boxed-in performers is replaced each day throughout the show's run. The first five weeks of the show's eight-week run were streamed exclusively on the Web, while the last three weeks were accompanied by programming on BBC Three.

According to the BBC, its revamp of BBC Three is paying off. One month after the channel's February 12th relaunch, its share amongst 16-to-34 year-olds was 3.9%, representing a year-over-year improvement of 44%; its weekly reach among that demographic was 4.5 million, representing a 33% year-over-year increase (note: the week of the channel's relaunch saw it record its highest-ever weekly reach: 4.8 million/37.1%); and its overall reach was 14.1 million viewers, representing a 27% year-over-year increase.

NBCU's Digital Studio to Develop "Brand-Centric" Interactive Entertainment

NBC Universal last week relaunched its Digital Studio, which is now tasked with developing and producing "brand-centric" digital content (including both episodic programming and what NBCU describes as "deep interactive experiences"), distributing them across the company's various digital properties, and also finding and developing quality digital programming into which advertiser brands can be "organically integrated."

OMG Digital (in cooperation with its sister companies, Davie Brown Entertainment and OMG Entertainment and Sports) has signed on as the new unit's first partner. According to NBCU, the partnership is a "first-of-its-kind" relationship that will provide brands with a "seat at the table" during the development phase of the unit's original digital content, and that will create a "new paradigm" for branded entertainment by ensuring that content is "created around an advertiser's marketing plan." "This is the first time that programming with the distribution potential of NBC Universal will be centered from the start around advertisers," OMG Digital CEO, Matt Spiegel, said in a prepared statement. "When we were presented the opportunity of a strategic alliance with NBC Universal Digital Studio, it was immediately apparent to all that combining the strength of NBC Universal's storytelling and the breadth of their distribution network with our insights and understanding of brands offered a unique way of giving brands a seat at the table with writers and producers in developing episodic programming that ties directly to brand needs." According to NBCU, the new Digital Studio will offer advertisers "full service solutions," including access to top writers, producers and talent, high-quality production expertise, consumer insights, and measurement and analysis services.

To date, the new unit has announced two of its productions:

• "Gemini Division," which stars Rosario Dawson and Justin Hartley and which is produced in association with Electric Farm Entertainment (the company behind the online series, "Afterworld"). Set "five minutes in the future," the hybrid live-action/animated sci-fi series follows a New York City homicide detective as she investigates the murder of her fiance and uncovers "an underworld of genetically fabricated life-forms that bring into question the legitimacy of her own relationships and being." Brands involved in the series' development include Intel, Microsoft, UPS and Acura TSX. The series is scheduled to debut this summer.
• "Woke Up Dead," which is also produced in association with Electric Farm Entertainment. The series, which is currently in pre-production, centers on a college student who discovers he has "zombie-like" capabilities, such as the ability to be submerged under water without having to come up for air, and whose "entire life is quickly thrown into a tailspin, as scientists, military officials, religious zealots, the United States government" and his girlfriend "race for answer at any cost and by any means necessary."

The new unit is led by Cameron Death, who holds the title VP, NBC Universal Digital Studio. Its other senior staff include Suhaila Suhimi, who holds the title, director of brand strategy, and who was previously digital director at OMD (working with such brands as Frito-lay, Absolut, FedEx, Hertz and Hersheys), and Nichol DeGruccio, who holds the title, executive producer of digital production, and who most recently served as executive producer for original online video series at NBCU.

Zappware Deploys Interactive TV Applications in Switzerland and Belgium

Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, said last week that it has successfully delivered a series of interactive services to Swiss cable operator, ESR Sion. The services--which are running on Motorola 1920C hybrid DVB-C/IP HD set-top boxes equipped with KreaTV middleware--will be offered in the city of Sion under the brand, netcomTV. According to Zappware, the netcomTV offering includes HDTV, an interactive portal, an EPG, startover TV, catch-up TV and network PVR. The offering is based on Zappware's iView for Operators, a suite of services which the company claims is compatible with a broad range of set-top and middleware platforms. The netcomTV service's VOD component employs VOD management products from EventIS, VOD servers from Motorola, and conditional access technology from Latens. "We deliver interactive services which are TV platform-independent (MHP, OpenTV, IPTV...) and which we have pre-integrated with a variety of EPG and VOD technology vendors," Patrick Vos, Zappware's director of business development, said in a prepared statement. "This off-the-shelf, pre-integrated approach allows small- and mid-size operators to offer a cutting-edge suite of [interactive TV] applications to their subscribers, independent of the set-top-box/middleware platform and/or headend technology selected by these operators."

In other Zappware news:

• The company says it has developed a walled-garden service for Belgian healthcare provider, Socialistische Mutualiteiten (SM). The service, which is located in the "Extra/Health & Lifestyle" section of cable operator Telenet's interactive TV portal (note: Telenet uses MHP middleware running on ADB set-tops), provides information tailored to the viewer's region, interactive quizzes, and the ability to order brochures. Starting this month, the service also allows viewers to watch informational videos and to search for local SM offices. Zappware says that its iView Portal product allows SM to update the service's content via a user-friendly Web interface. The new walled-garden service is being promoted via red-button i-ads running on regional TV stations: Telenet digital viewers who press red while watching the spots are taken directly to the service. According to Zappware's commercial director, Herman Eerdekens, the service is based on the company's iFormats offering: "The client was not only seeking a better performance but also a fast time-to-air," he explained. "That is why we proposed an iFormat-based solution. Zappware's iFormats are solid interactive services which we have deployed before and which we built in a modular way for easy rebranding, customization, and deployment on various TV platforms."
• The company says that it has completed a major revamp of ProsiebenSat1/SBS broadcaster VT4's Digitext service on the Telenet platform, enabling it to support branded direct marketing campaigns, and also making it more easy to access. According to Zappware, the revamp allows VT4 to offer advertisers such services as branded request forms, and brand-sponsored quizzes in its digital teletext service. In addition, the service can now be accessed in two ways: as before, via the remote control's digital teletext button (pressing the button takes the viewer to an index page, where the TV show s/he was watching appears in scaled-down mode), and now also via the red button (pressing red brings up a "Direct Access" menu, overlaid over the program the viewer was watching: the pop-up menu allows the viewer to click directly to the specific areas of the Digitext service s/he is interested in, and also allows VT4 to promote other interactive TV services, including games, walled gardens and its clients' branded direct marketing campaigns).
• Earlier this year, the company created a VOD-enabled interactive TV application to enhance a commercial for Danone's Danette candy products. The commercial, which ran from mid January through mid February, invited viewers to decide which new flavor of Danette candy Danone should launch (note: the launch was scheduled to take place in March): viewers who pressed the red button during the commercial could access videoclips of a "Miss Danette Caramel," a "Miss Danette Pure Chocolate," and a "Miss Danette Nougat," each of whom introduced themselves to the viewers and tried to win their votes. Once viewers cast their votes, they were able to take part in a quiz, for a chance to win one of three 4,000-Euro trips or 250 MP3 players.

Liquidus Officially Launches its VOD Classifieds Offering

Liquidus, a Chicago-based company that has actually been working on VOD classified advertising with Comcast Spotlight since 2005 (note: last fall, it signed a five-year deal with the MSO), recently emerged from semi-stealth mode and officially launched its flagship products for transforming still images into video-enabled classified ads (via such techniques as pans and zooms, and the insertion of graphics, music and voiceovers), and for then distributing them. The company, which says it is now providing VOD advertising services to a number of cable companies in addition to Comcast (including Bresnan, Bright House, Charter, Cox and Time Warner Cable), claims that the products are generating on-demand classifieds in 30 cable markets, where they reach around 10 million households. The products are: 1) SpotSense, which provides advertisers with an online interface for creating and modifying VOD ads on a weekly basis, and for then selecting the markets in which they will run; and 2) VideoLink, an extension of SpotSense that allows advertisers to create and modify video-enabled classified ads for distribution on the Internet (the company says that, when VideoLink ads are updated, they automatically update in every location to which they have been distributed). "Today is a big day for the future of video-based advertising," Todd Holmes, co-founder and CEO of Liquidus, said in a prepared statement. "We have a proven solution that solves the major hurdles advertisers have faced to date--dated ads, poor user interface and no way to generate localized ads on a mass scale nationwide. Customers can now advertise on TV and the Internet 24/7, place ads locally or nationally, and modify ads quickly so the content is always fresh. Traditional mass-market advertising is dead." Liquidus claims to be producing "tens of thousands" of video ads each week, and says that that number will grow to 150,000 per week by mid-2008. It also says it plans to extend its' products capabilities to other media channels, including mobiles.

Shalom TV Launches National VOD Service on Comcast

Shalom TV, a TV channel devoted to Jewish culture, has launched a line-up of free programming on Comcast On Demand--marking, the channel says, the first time that a major US cable operator has offered a Jewish-themed channel as part of its national VOD line-up--as well as on Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey's VOD service. The channel's programming includes Jewish-themed English-language films, subtitled Israeli films, news and public affairs coverage, cultural and celebrity shows, shows devoted to Torah study, and original children's shows. "Comcast is committed to delivering programming that reflects the diverse interests of our customers, and Shalom TV does that," Diana Kerekes, Comcast's VP of video content, said in a prepared statement. "We're pleased to now make it available at no additional cost to the majority of our digital cable customers with On Demand."

According to Shalom TV, Comcast serves nine of the top 11 Jewish markets in the US, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Miami/South Florida, San Francisco, and New Jersey. Comcast previously offered the channel as an SVOD service in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC, and has been offering it as a free-to-view service in those markets since launching it nationwide on February 1st. Among the other Comcast markets where the channel will be available are Atlanta, Denver, Hartford and New Haven, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Memphis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Portland, Richmond, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Tucson.

DISH Launches Second Phase of its Election-Year ITV Application

Earlier this year, US satellite TV provider, DISH (formerly EchoStar), launched the second phase of its election-year interactive TV application, DISH Decision 2008. The first phase, dubbed "You Decide 2008" and based on technology from BIAP, presented DISH subscribers with a series of questions designed to help match their opinions with various candidates' positions. The second phase, which was jointly developed with OpenTV, is designed to help them narrow the 2008 presidential field by providing them with "unbiased" information on the candidates' positions on key national issues.

To use the application, viewers first press the "DISH Interactive" button on their remotes in order to access the DISH platform's ITV portal, DishHOME. When they select "News," a prompt screen appears, where they see an option for "Dish Decision 2008." After they select it, the names of the Democratic, Independent and Republican presidential field appear, and, once they select a candidate's name, they are taken to an information screen that presents brief positions on such issues as the environment, the "war on terror," taxes and immigration.

In addition, DISH subscribers can participate in daily, weekly and monthly polls, using their remote, the Web or an SMS service (provided by Cellpoint Mobile). The combined results are tabulated and fed back to the various platforms via OpenTV's Participate platform. "We are excited to launch DISH Decision 2008 and we are proud to offer interactive applications that provide DISH Network customers with information about the upcoming presidential elections ahead of the February primaries,'' DISH EVP, Michael Kelly, said in a prepared statement. "This is another example of DISH Network's leadership as an ITV provider through our unique and compelling interactive applications.''

DirecTV Rolls Out Multiple Interactive TV Services

--Forms Audience-Measurement Partnership with TNS

US satellite TV provider, DirecTV, continues to roll out interactive TV services as an integral part of its sports coverage and of its service offering in general (note: the company is also expected to launch a VOD service this quarter; a report in the Wall Street Journal stated that the service will employ a combination of push-VOD and broadband technologies: a small selection of popular titles will be pushed to subscribers' DVR's, while around 3,000 titles will be available via those DVRs' broadband connections, the newspaper said). Among the highlights:

• When purchased with the "SuperFan" option, its MLB Extra Innings out-of-market subscription service offers a Game Mix channel with a mosaic of up to eight live games on a single screen (note: viewers can click on any of the games, in order to listen to its audio or watch it in full-screen mode). In addition, the regular version of the service provides viewers with several interactive features, including up-to-the-minute scores from all Major League Baseball teams, info on MLB standings and stat leaders, and real-time in-game box scores to track game performance for each player.
• For the 2008 Masters Golf Tournament, the company offered a "Masters Mix" mosaic channel that allowed viewers to access three supplemental views of the course in addition to a feed of CBS's and ESPN's linear-TV coverage. Viewers could use their remotes to switch between audio from the mosaic's feeds, and to select one of them to watch in full-screen mode. DirecTV subscribers with DVR's could also access a selection of supplemental VOD content from the tournament.
• The company's 2008 NCAA Mega March Madness subscription service offered a Game Mix mosaic channel that allowed viewers to watch (and access in full-screen mode, if desired) four broadcasts; an interactive application that allowed viewers to access real-time tournament scores and statistics; and an on-screen tournament bracket that allowed viewers to use their remote controls to input and track their own game picks. In addition, for the first time, each of the 37 March Madness games that were available in HD offered access to scores and stats via DirecTV's interactive on-screen L-wrap; and viewers could schedule DVR recordings of games remotely on the Web or on their mobiles, using DirecTV's free DVR Scheduler service. In order to promote the service's interactive features, as well as its expanded HD coverage, DirecTV hired UCLA Bruins' men's basketball head coach, Ben Howland, as its official spokesperson.
• Its Game Lounge ITV games service has become the exclusive provider of Pat Sajak Games' interactive version of "Code Letter Crossword Connections," a game that combine's Sajak's patent-pending "Code Letter" system with a traditional crossword puzzle; in addition, it says that its deal with Pat Sajak Games will result in a number of the latter's other titles being launched on the Game Lounge service on an exclusive basis (note: Pat Sajak Games' eponymous founder is the longtime host of the US gameshow, "Wheel of Fortune"). The deal also sees Sajak lending his celebrity to DirecTV's Game Lounge marketing efforts. "The success we experienced with Game Lounge last year far exceeded our expectations," DirecTV's SVP of new media and business development, Steven Roberts, said in a prepared statement (note: the company claims that the service last year passed the 130,000-subscriber mark and generated over 50 million plays). "This year, we are thrilled to be taking the platform to the next level with new and exclusive games, as well as bringing on one of gaming's most iconic figures, Pat Sajak, to DirecTV Game Lounge. We believe that partnering with Sajak will bring a familiarity and comfort level to the platform that will resonate well with gamers of all ages." In addition to the new Game Lounge titles from Pat Sajak Games, DirecTV plans this year to offer new titles from Mattel ("Skip Bo," "Polly Wheels," and "Barbie"), Nickelodeon ("Dora the Explorer"), and Cartoon Network ("Samurai Jack" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends"), as well as "Cyberchase," a new, math-based game from WNET New York and PBS KIDS GO. Game Lounge offers ITV games in a number of categories, including puzzle, word, card, casino, edutainment and arcade-style games that are based on prominent consumer and entertainment brands. A number of its casual games, including "Monopoly," "Slingo," "Scrabble," "Scramble," "Bejeweled 2," "Solitaire" and "Poker," allow players to challenge one another for Game Lounge tokens. The service is offered both on a monthly subscription basis (for $5.95) and on a category-specific play-per-day basis (for $1.95).
• The company's extensive coverage of the recent South by Southwest music festival on its original entertainment channel, The 101, featured an ITV application that allowed viewers to access performance schedules and information on participating bands and performers.
• The company's NASCAR Hotpass service now features an application that runs under a feed of its national NASCAR broadcasts and allows viewers to use their remotes to access in-car audio from 13 different drivers.

In other DirecTV news: Earlier this year, the company announced a deal with audience-measurement company, TNS Media Research, to co-develop TNS DIRECTView, a national opt-in audience-measurement panel of 100,000 DirecTV subscribers--which it claimed will be the largest such panel ever. The deal will see TNS Media Research measuring total viewing--including live and DVR viewing of programming and commercials--by the 100,000 "representative" households on a second-by-second basis. The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two companies, under which TNS launched audience-measurement services last year focused on DirecTV's interactive subscribers: DirecTV uses the service to better understand its subscribers' anonymous use of the ITV applications it offers. TNS will market the new panel through InfoSys, offering subscription-based services that are billed as providing extremely detailed data on national viewing patterns. Companies that have signed up for the new services to date include Starcom Worldwide: "This announcement is exciting as it is further proof that the digital evolution is fueling a revolution in television audience measurement," Tracey Scheppach, Starcom's director of video innovations, said in a prepared statement. "With the TNS DIRECTView service, Starcom is thrilled to be able to take another important step in understanding and using second-by-second behavioral data to acquire more knowledge and deliver greater accountability on behalf of our advertisers."

Pushbutton Revamps National Geographic Channel's ITV Service on Sky

UK-based interactive TV design company, Pushbutton, has redesigned and reengineered the ITV service that its long-standing client, National Geographic Channel, offers on the Sky satellite platform. According to the company, the revamp of the service is intended to switch its emphasis to bonus video and promotional reels for new shows. "With top-quality short-form videos always available from National Geographic channel, it made sense in the YouTube era to plug that into NGC's interactive TV service," Pushbutton's director of interactive television, James Cumberbatch, said in a prepared statement. The service also now has a completely new look, based on a series of "skins" that are each intended to reflect the branding of one of National Geographic's series: a new skin appears on the service every couple of weeks, in conjunction with new series launches and other programming-promotion activities.

According to Pushbutton, the new design has been achieved by developing the most flexible palette for an ITV service that the company has created to date: it says that all assets, including bitmap images, backgrounds, videostreams and button shapes, can be quickly reassembled to create new skins, thus allowing much greater creative freedom for interactive producers. While various interactive features from the previous version of the service--such as a "fact ticker," votes, competitions and a "viewers' club"--have been retained in the new version, they now sport what Pushbutton describes as a "more attractive image-heavy look and minimal text."

In addition, Pushbutton says, the National Geographic ITV service has been strengthened on the backend, in order to allow the channel to use it more effectively as a vehicle for sponsorship. Among other things, the service now supports "deep linking" from a trigger directly to a specific item in the service; and supports multiple responses with different phone tariffs, in order to allow, for example, a sponsoring car manufacturer to embed a brochure or test drive request into its sponsor's area. Other new features include direct sign-up from the service for the National Geographic viewers' club, in order to allow the channel to aggressively market membership via the service.

Australia's Foxtel Offering Wide Range of ITV Services in April

--Launches ITV Trivia Games for Australian Football and Rugby

Australian pay-TV provider, Foxtel, recently contacted [itvt] to let us know about the various interactive TV services it is offering in conjunction with its programming this month (note: Foxtel's ITV services, dubbed Foxtel Active, are powered by OpenTV middleware):

• The fourth series of the reality show, "Australia's Next Top Model" (began April 22nd) is once again featuring a red-button application. The app allows viewers to vote for their favorite model, access exclusive bonus footage, find out more about the lives of the show's contestants, and win prizes.
• The 2008 MTV Awards (air April 26th) will feature an interactive TV app that allows viewers to select from four options: 1) the awards show's live broadcast, 2) commentary from selected at-home viewers, 3) backstage footage, and 4) special highlights, starting with the red carpet.
• Sky News will dedicate two channels of its Active ITV service to ANZAC Day (April 25th): the first dedicated channel will replay major ANZAC Day events, "allowing the audience to view these ceremonies at a time that suits them"; while the second channel will broadcast interviews with and features on Australia's and New Zealand's war veterans.
• Fox Sports is allowing viewers to select from up to four British Premier League soccer games, through Foxtel Active's Viewer's Choice application, during games broadcast on its linear channel on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. It is also offering interactive content to enhance its coverage of National Rugby League, Australian Football League and Super 14 Rugby Union: while watching a game, viewers can press the red button to view alternate camera angles, score updates, team and player statistics, and various different audio channels, such as referee comments or main stadium sound.
• Movie Network is offering red-button ITV content during its premiere of the film, "Flushed Away." The content includes video extras, movie information and a quiz.

In other Foxtel news: the operator has launched two new interactive TV games that invite viewers to test their knowledge of the Australian Football League (AFL) and Australia's National Rugby League (NRL). Entitled "AFL Daily Trivia" and "NRL Daily Trivia" respectively, and developed in partnership with Two Way TV Australia, the new games each provide viewers with 20 questions, updated on a daily basis. They are located in the "Brainteaser Trivia" section of Foxtel's ITV games portal, Gamesworld (channel 555). "By adding these new categories relevant to individual viewers, Foxtel is creating a personalized interactive service that can be expanded in the future with more sports and other genres," explained Patrick Delany, Foxtel's executive director of content, product development and delivery. The Gamesworld portal, which can also be accessed by selecting the "Active" button on the Foxtel remote, offers ITV games in three genres: "Kids Family," "Casino Sport" and "Brainteaser Trivia." Each genre is priced at AUS$6.95 per month (AUS$16.95 for all three), and individual games are priced at AUS$1 each.

AT&T Launches Flickr Application on its U-verse IPTV Service

--Launches ITV Services in More Markets
--Launches Free Olympics VOD Service
--Signs VOD Deal with Rotten Tomatoes

US incumbent telco, AT&T, has generated a fair amount of interactive TV- and VOD-related news over the past few weeks:

• The company has teamed with Yahoo!-owned photo-sharing site, Flickr, to launch an interactive TV application on its U-verse IPTV service. Dubbed AT&T Online Photos from Flickr, the application allows customers to use their TV sets to browse and view slideshows of their flickr.com photo collections. AT&T--which stresses in its U-verse marketing efforts that the service is IP-based--claims that it is the only video service provider to offer such an integrated TV/Web photo service: "AT&T Online Photos from Flickr is yet another example of the benefits of U-verse TV," Brian Buffington, AT&T's executive director of U-verse marketing, said in a prepared statement. "Because of the powerful integration that Internet Protocol enables, we're able to bring customers' online photos to their TV, without any hassle. We make it easy to display and enjoy your favorite memories from the comfort of your couch, on the biggest screen in the house." The new application can be accessed by tuning to channel 91 or from the U-verse TV menu: customers then select from their Flickr photo sets, which are automatically available from their master AT&T High Speed Internet account, and they can either browse their photos or start a slideshow.
• The company has rolled out its existing line-up of interactive TV services in two new markets: Oklahoma City and San Diego. The services, which are offered at no extra charge, include 1) AT&T U-bar, which presents customizable weather, stock, sports and traffic info on the TV screen without interrupting the current program, and which allows customers who are also AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet customers to personalize it from their AT&T Yahoo! home page, so that it displays weather info for specific locations, their personal stock portfolio and scores for their favorite teams; 2) Yellowpages.com TV, which lets customers use their remotes to search for local businesses; and 3) AT&T Yahoo! games, which allows customers to use their remotes to play such games as "Sudoku," "Solitaire," "JT's Blocks," "Mah-jongg Tiles" and "Chess."
• In order to capitalize on interest in the 2008 Olympic Games, the company has launched a new category of free content on the U-verse TV VOD service. Dubbed AT&T Team USA On Demand, the new category features coverage of US Olympic Team hopefuls, as they train for and compete in various sports, including gymnastics, beach volleyball, track and field, BMX, tae kwon do, swimming and diving. Specific titles on offer include "AT&T Tips and Training," an original production that provides sport-specific training tips from several US Olympic Team hopefuls; and "USA Gymnastics Behind the Team," which features interviews with current and former athletes and coaches, and footage of training camps and competitions. AT&T also recently offered on-demand coverage of the 2008 Masters golf tournament on the U-verse TV service, as well as on broadband and wireless.
• The company has formed a partnership with movie guidance site, Rotten Tomatoes, that sees the latter providing recommendations (including its "Certified Fresh" accolade, which is awarded to movies that have been reviewed by 40 or more accredited film critics and have achieved a score of 75% or more on its "Tomatometer") for movies on the U-verse VOD service. The recommendations appear on-screen via the AT&T U-verse Theatre channel; in the free "U-guide" monthly entertainment magazine that AT&T offers to all U-verse customers; in monthly VOD brochures mailed to customers; and online at the AT&T U-verse U-connect entertainment site.
• It has signed an agreement with Players Network to offer the latter's "gaming lifestyle" channel, Vegas on Demand" on the U-verse VOD service. The deal provides U-verse customers with around 50 free shows per month from a library of around 1,000 titles.

BT Develops Digital Content Store for UK Broadcaster, ITV

--NBC Universal's PictureBox Service to Launch on BT Vision

BT Media & Broadcast, which is part of the UK incumbent telco's Global Services division, says that it has developed a digital content store, based on its BT Mosaic service, for the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network (generally referred to in the UK by the acronym, "ITV"). The store allows ITV to offer its vast television library on-demand to Internet users and other broadcasters, and thus enables new business models to supplement the broadcaster's staple of advertising revenues. Once ITV's content is digitized, BT says, the BT Mosaic service lets the broadcaster quickly edit its programs in file format for distribution to consumers across a range of networks and devices. In addition, the company claims, the service will allow ITV to provide other broadcasters with access to its programming archive, enabling those broadcasters "to respond to trends in their own markets and edit programs that fit with their local customs and laws." "BT Mosaic will enable ITV to reinvent its channels to market to reflect the way consumers--and other broadcasters--interact with content both in the UK and globally," ITV's technology director, Richard Cross, said in a prepared statement. "The BT-developed content store is the core platform that will enable ITV to flourish in the new, globalized, digital world. BT worked collaboratively with ITV and invested significant time and effort in developing this innovative service, and we are excited by the prospect of working together to give new audiences worldwide access to years of ITV's high-quality television."

BT claims that its service architecture features a user-friendly workflow interface which makes management of complex, multi-function technologies simple, protects investment against future shifts in technology, and integrates into ITV's wider business processes to ensure that HR, legal and commercial considerations become more streamlined. To date, BT has digitized 20,000 ITV programs: those programs--which include cult series like "Inspector Morse" and "The Saint," and specially edited features like "The Cold Feet Guide to Parenthood"--are already available on ITV's Web site.

In other BT news:

• The company has signed a deal with NBC Universal that will see it launching the latter's PictureBox SVOD service on its Microsoft-powered IPTV service, BT Vision (currently has around 200,000 subscribers), on May 5th. The service, which is also available on the UK's Top-Up TV and Tiscali TV platforms, will offer 28 titles at any one time, including new-release and library movies from NBC Universal and other content providers. Films covered by the deal include "Atonement," "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Constant Gardener" and "King Kong." "I am delighted to have reached an agreement with NBC Universal to make the PictureBox service available on BT Vision," Marc Watson, BT Vision's commercial director, said in a prepared statement. "PictureBox represents a significant development for BT Vision, and we are confident that the combination of current and library titles, refreshed on a regular basis, will prove highly popular with our customers." (Note: according to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, NBC Universal plans to launch an SVOD service, dubbed TV Box, that will be devoted to its TV programming. Belinda Menendez, NBC Universal's head of international TV, told the publication that the new service--which like PictureBox will be marketed internationally--will be the "television version" of PictureBox.)
• Earlier this year, the company signed a deal with Disney-ABC International Television to bring a range of the latter's current and classic TV series to the BT Vision platform. BT said that the deal would make over 650 episodes (of such shows as "Lost," "Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty," "Grey's Anatomy," "Ghost Whisperer," "Dirt," "Alias" and "Criminal Minds") available for rental on the platform in a post-DVD window. The programming is available either on a pay-per-view basis or as part of BT Vision's £6-per-month TV Pack and £14-per-month Value Pack offerings.

blinkx Launches Interactive Broadband TV Service, blinkx BBTV

San Francisco-based video search company, blinkx, has launched a broadband TV service, dubbed blinkx BBTV, which it says leverages the company's patented speech and visual recognition technology to link programming to relevant information on the Web. The service, which launched April 2nd and which is available free of charge (it requires end-users to download a 1.8MB file), currently offers a library of independent movies and programming from blinkx's video-search partners. It employs hybrid peer-to-peer streaming, Microsoft DRM technology, and a point-and-click channel interface, and presents content in full-screen mode. "Broadband Internet connections are fast enough today that with the right technology, it's possible to deliver an experience that's equal in quality to television," blinkx founder and CEO, Suranga Chandratillake, said in a prepared statement. "Consumers are accustomed to online video: short-form, often amateur clips that play in a Web browser--blinkx BBTV delivers online television: full-length, professional TV programming, delivered in exceptional quality. The Web is the largest repository of connected information in the world--on any subject and from myriad sources. BBTV delivers television over the Internet, but it also fuses that TV with the wealth of information on the Web, rather than appearing as just another layer floating above it."

Key features of the new service, according to blinkx, include:

• Speech-based navigation: the company says that its patented speech recognition technology enables BBTV to automatically create a speech track of a piece of video, thus allowing end-users to search through content word-for-word and jump to specific points in the video, simply by searching for a spoken word or name.
• Clickable video: end-users can "shift-click" on a word in the speech track to access additional information on a person, location or object within the video.
• Automatic Web linking to program-relevant content--such as background info on actors and personalities, movie reviews, and information on locations shown within the program--on Google, Wikipedia, IMDB and other news, entertainment, travel and sports sites.

blinkx, which says that the new service is fully compatible with its AdHoc contextual advertising platform, promises that the service will add "dozens" of additional channels and an array of premium video content in the coming months, and that it will be powering similar services for its partner media and entertainment sites.

Babelgum Revamps its Interactive Broadband Video Service

--Company Commissions its First Film

Babelgum--a company that operates a service it describes as an "interactive Web TV portal" featuring " only professionally produced content spanning film, news, sports, documentaries, music videos, concerts, lifestyle and trends, animation and scripted programs"--last month launched a new version of its platform that includes a completely redesigned interface and various Web 2.0 features and social-networking tools. The new version is also now compatible with the Mac OS, as well as with the Windows XP and Vista OS's.

Babelgum's service now invites viewers to join a series of "communities" (note: the first three to launch were "Films & Festivals," "Motorcycling" and "Nature & Conservation"), each of which includes videoclips, an interactive message board, and links to custom profiles of other members who share an interest in the community's eponymous subject area. In addition, the service now allows viewers to create and manage new niche communities, as well as customize their own profiles, save their favorites and create their own personal video playlists. "At Babelgum we are committed to giving our viewers the best experience possible," Babelgum CEO, Valerio Zingarelli, said in a prepared statement. "The new site sophistication, along with an ever- burgeoning content library, certainly ensures we are giving our users what they want and when they want to view it, but with much greater ease and enjoyment." Babelgum claims that the introduction of communities allows its service to make "content available to users in the widest and most meaningful way possible to them." The service's content is also still accessible through traditional genre or branded channels within a channel directory; via a search engine; via "smart channels" (created by each user and personalized according to their interests); and via a list of most-watched videos.

Babelgum's revamp of its Web TV service also sees it offering the following features:

• an advanced search function provides an automatic selection of keyword options as users type in search terms, and allows them to search by best-rated and most-watched.
• titles now receive the service's "most popular" designation as the result of what the company describes as "an enhanced collaborative filtering that ranks video on the basis of implicit (most watched) as well as explicit (most positively rated) choices."
• users can now share content with their friends and embed video on personal Web sites, blogs and in social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
• the service now offers a content-management system that Babelgum claims makes it easier for content-owners to manage and monetize their assets. The system includes a video preview function; allows content-owners to modify their clips when they have already been published on the service, without having to remove them and re-upload them; allows content-owners to tag their content for discovery purposes; and also allows them to schedule the simultaneous upload of multiple pieces of content.

In other Babelgum news: Earlier this month, the company announced the commissioning of the first film from its "Digital Studio Initiative" (note: the latter is a 10-million-Euro fund through which the company is investing in the development of exclusive content for its platform). The film, which will be shown within its service's "Nature and Conservation Community," is being produced by Insomnia Media Group, Emmy-winning producer, Philip Alberstat, and Emmy nominee, Randy Bradshaw, and directed by Oscar nominee, Leslie Iwerks. It will showcase the impact on the aboriginal people of northern Alberta of the oil industry's attempts to harness the natural resources of the Athabasca Oil Sands region. It will be over 80 minutes long, Babelgum says, and will be released in 15 to 20-minute segments. "This documentary represents several firsts for Babelgum," the company's director of content, Mark Cranwell, said in a prepared statement. "It is the first high-profile program for our Nature and Conservation Community which is intended to raise awareness of major environmental issues. It is our first original production that serves as beacon programming to complement our library of licensed programs. And finally, it is our first effort to demonstrate the initial and ongoing value of programs released first, and exclusively, on the Internet. It challenges the traditional way of windowing content and we are extremely excited and hope that this is the first of many original productions for Babelgum."

HBO Launches Branded Channel on YouTube

--Also Launches Premium Broadband Programming Service

Premium programmer, HBO, recently launched a branded promotional channel on YouTube. The channel features promotional clips from HBO's own feature and documentary films, and from such HBO series as "Flight of the Conchords," "The Wire," "Def Comedy Jam," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Real Sports" and "Entourage." It also features full-length episodes from the programmer's original series, "In Treatment," and is slated to offer "special YouTube-only features" in the near future. "We are delighted to bring HBO content to the YouTube community and fans of our shows," Joseph Giraldi, HBO's director of digital distribution and partnerships, said in a prepared statement. "We invest significantly in developing HBO programs and are always searching for new promotional platforms. We are thrilled to continue this tradition by offering the global YouTube audience access to our wide variety of content."

In other HBO news: The company recently launched a premium broadband programming service, dubbed simply HBO on Broadband. The service--which is currently available only in Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin to HBO subscribers who also subscribe to Time Warner Cable's digital tier and Road Runner high-speed Internet service (note: TWC is one of HBO's sister companies)--is billed by HBO as offering 600 titles each month. It also offers a streaming linear channel.

PBS KIDS Sprout to Launch Interactive Programming Block

Multiplatform children's programmer, PBS KIDS Sprout (offers programs on linear TV, VOD and online), has announced plans to launch an original afternoon programming block that "makes viewers the stars." Entitled "The Sprout Sharing Show" and scheduled to debut May 5th in the 3:00PM-6:00PM Eastern timeslot, the block will be hosted by a group of hand puppets, who will introduce viewer-submitted videos in which preschoolers will show off their talents and what Sprout describes as their "'Look what I can do!' moments." The videos will air in the new block interstitially between existing Sprout programs, such as "Fifi and the Flowertots," "Jay Jay the Jet Plane," "Pingu," "Dragon Tales," "Fireman Sam," and a new, interactive show called "PICME." The latter, which was conceived by Irish production company, Jam Media and which is licensed by HIT Entertainment, will use Jam Media's proprietary software--called Head- hunter--on a Web site, to enable parents to superimpose a digital image of their child's head onto a 2D Flash-animated body. Sprout will then randomly choose one of the resulting animated image mash-ups each weekday to appear on "PICME." "The Sprout Sharing Show" will also showcase viewer-submitted artwork, which Sprout says will be transformed into animated shorts by the Little Director company, using a "unique technology that allows children's drawings on paper to become animated stories." "Sprout is the only preschool network 'made for you, by you,'" Andrew Beecham, Sprout's SVP of programming, said in a prepared statement. "Whether it's showcasing a child's homemade birthday card on the live 'Sunny Side Up Show,' sharing a viewer-submitted craft on 'The Good Night Show' or airing kids' homemade videos on 'The Sprout Sharing Show,' Sprout's linear channel is taking user-generated content to the next level by completely integrating it into our unique 24-hour format that follows the day of preschooler from breakfast to bedtime."

Scripps Networks in Broadband Video Deal with TidalTV

Scripps Networks has signed a deal with TidalTV, a start-up that is shortly scheduled to launch a broadband TV service featuring professionally produced, branded programming (note: TidalTV, which was founded by Advertising.com co-founder, Scott Ferber, has raised $15 million in VC money from New Enterprise Associates and Valhalla). According to the parties, their agreement will make ad- supported programming from Scripps' HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network and Fine Living Network channels available both in TidalTV's programmed channel line-up and in its library of on-demand content. Shows covered by the deal, include "House Hunters," "Designed to Sell," "Sweat Equity," and "The Perfect Party." "Scripps Networks strives to make our video content widely and easily accessible to users," Doug Hurst, SVP and general manager of non-linear distribution at Scripps Networks, said in a prepared statement. "TidalTV users will have access to hundreds of videos from Scripps Networks--including full-length episodes of some of their favorite shows."

In related news: TidalTV last week also announced a deal to carry National Geographic Channel's programming on its new service.

Gotuit in Deals with Sports Illustrated, MLS, Carleton University

Gotuit Media--a company that offers metadata technologies which, among other things, allow end-users to instantly access the parts of a piece of video that interest them, and which can also be used by video publishers to allow end-users to make mash-ups out of their content--said last week that Sports Illustrated has once again tapped it to power a version of its SI FilmRoom video portal service devoted to the NFL Draft. According to Gotuit, the Sports Illustrated 2008 NFL Draft FilmRoom, which launched April 15th and which is offered free of charge (it is supported by in-stream and in-page advertising), uses its metadata technology to provide viewers with advanced video navigation and search capabilities: viewers can personalize their experience of the portal and navigate its video library by Mock Draft, Player, College or Position. Once the draft is complete, there will be new playlists organized by Actual Draft Order and NFL Team, the company says. Viewers can also search the entire video library to build dynamic playlists. "This is our sixth FilmRoom with SI, as they understand that how you organize and present your video library is as important as the video itself," Dan Gill, Gotuit's VP of business development, said in a prepared statement. "Presenting multiple paths for viewers is critical, as viewers have different reasons for visiting the video portal. Who are the QB's in the draft? Who does SI project to be taken first? Who is from my alma mater? Who did my team take? Gotuit's patented technology uses metadata to give viewers an easy and simple way to get to the video most interesting to them."

Earlier this year, Sports Illustrated tapped Gotuit to power an SI FilmRoom video service devoted to the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The service, which was sponsored by RadioShack, let fans personalize their viewing of regular-season video highlights of their favorite teams in the tournament: a "By Seed" view allowed them to watch video of just the top-seeded teams in the tournament; a "By Conference" view let them watch a playlist of the teams in a specific conference (e.g. Big East, Big 10); a "By Team" view let them use an alphabetical list to reach video of a particular team; and a "Still Alive" playlist was updated throughout the tournament, as the field shrank from 65 down to the eventual champion. In addition, fans could share direct links and embed video in their own sites and blogs. "We are honored to continue to deploy innovative video products with Sports Illustrated," Gotuit's Gill said in a prepared statement. "They share our vision of providing viewers with the ability to personalize their video viewing experience in a simple and intuitive manner. In SI's FilmRoom, Gotuit's rich metadata and patented technology empowers SI to present the video library in ways that puts their users in complete control of their viewing experience. Also, Gotuit's advertising logic ensures that users see an optimized amount of targeted advertisements no matter what path they take through the library."

In other Gotuit news:

• Major League Soccer has selected the company to power its QuickKicks broadband video portal for the third consecutive year. According to Gotuit, the new portal makes each televised MLS game (including the playoffs and the championship) viewable online through several video playlists, including Game Highlights, Goals, Saves, Best Runs, Set Pieces, and specific player highlights from two players on each team; offers deep video search capabilities across its entire library and within each game video; offers viral sharing features, such as direct links and embeddable players (down to individual plays); and provides a new feature called MLS QuickKicks One-Touch. The latter focuses on one star player from MLS Prime Time Thursday on ESPN2 and one star player from Saturday night's soccer action; every play for that player is presented for each game, allowing viewers instant access and the ability to customize their own highlights packages for MLS stars, Gotuit says. "We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Major League Soccer, as QuickKicks is one of the best examples of unleashing the full potential of a video library using metadata," Gotuit CEO, Mark Pascarella, said in a prepared statement. "Without the need for any video editing, MLS is able to surface their top plays and top players to drive audience engagement, session time, and monetization of their game video. Gotuit's patented technology makes this possible and helps MLS truly differentiate their video portal."
• The company says that Carleton University is using its technology to power a broadband video portal, dubbed Carleton University VideoNotes, that allows students to view, index, annotate, remix, search and share video of class lectures. "By allowing students to create their own lecture highlight reels with their own comments and annotations, we are providing a rich, personalized learning and enhanced studying experience," Patrick Lyons, manager of instructional innovation at Carleton University, said in a prepared statement. "We believe students will get great value from being able to search the lecture videos to find the precise topic or concept they are interested in reviewing, then see their classmates' notes and playlists for that topic." The new Gotuit-powered portal enhances an existing broadband VOD service through which Carleton University's 30-year-old distance-learning service, CUTV, has been making available video of all its courses for the past three years. At launch, VideoNotes offers full-length video from each lecture, uploaded shortly after class. Students can index the video by marking key segments and adding their own information, such as Note Title, Description and Keywords. According to Gotuit, all this metadata is searchable by the community, allowing end-users to search inside each video lecture for particular segments of interest. End-users can then compile the key segments across the lectures into Video Notebooks for particular topics and study guides, and can send links and share their Video Notebooks with other users. "Using the Gotuit approach of harnessing metadata vallows Carleton to deploy a solution that does not require editing videos or storing new videos for each student's VideoNotes," Gotuit's Pascarella said in a prepared statement. "This means it is easy to implement and easy to scale. We see offerings like Video Notebook becoming a core component for many educational institutions moving forward."

Frontline's "Bush's War" Breaks Online Viewership Records

PBS says that its 4.5-hour Frontline special on the Iraq invasion and occupation, "Bush's War," which aired on its linear TV network in late March, is breaking Frontline's records for online viewership, with more than a million views of its streamed video segments in the first few days following its broadcast. According to PBS, "Bush's War" is easily on track to become the most widely viewed film in Frontline's online archive. "The unprecedented response to this Web site marks a turning point in Frontline's history, where we truly have become a multiplatform series," executive producer, David Fanning, said in a prepared statement. "The primetime television audience is part of a larger footprint that now includes a sizeable number of online viewers, as well as those who watch Frontline on-demand, through timeshifting devices, and on digital cable channels." (Note: in addition, a number of recent Frontline titles are also available for purchase on iTunes.)

Frontline's online presentation of "Bush's War" includes an interactive, annotated timeline of the Iraq war and the "war on terror," that features 175 embedded videoclips and links to over 400 interviews Frontline has conducted with Bush administration insiders, military commanders, foreign policy experts, world leaders, and journalists. Frontline is a pioneer in broadband video, having offered full-length programs online--free and with no commercials--since 2002. Its video archive currently includes over 70 reports. Beginning with "Bush's War," Frontline's video is now available in full-screen mode, using new Flash technology.

ESPN in Broadband Video Deal with AOL

Sports programmer, ESPN, is syndicating its video content through a third-party Internet portal for the first time, thanks to a new deal with AOL that sees it offering short-form video on AOL's AOL Video and AOL Sports services (note: ESPN.com's own video portal has proven fairly popular: according to ESPN, consumers viewed its videos over 1.2 billion times last year, representing a 54% increase over 2006). The video content includes highlights from games and major sporting events and clips from ESPN's original programs, and is presented in an embedded ESPN player on a dedicated ESPN channel page. "ESPN.com video is second to none, and we are excited by the expanded reach afforded us through this syndication agreement," Matt Murphy, ESPN's SVP of digital video distribution, said in a prepared statement. "Working with AOL allows us to offer new benefits to fans and advertisers--viewers can now access the programming they want, whether they are on ESPN.com or AOL's portal, while our advertisers benefit from a larger online video audience than ever before. The potential is tremendous and we hope fans will be seeing more syndicated video from ESPN.com in the future."

Content available on ESPN's embedded video player on AOL includes "SportsCenter Right Now," a twice-daily round-up of sports headlines, highlights and breaking news; clips from such shows as "Mike and Mike in the Morning," "Pardon the Interruption" and "Around the Horn"; and breaking news and game clips from major professional and college teams. The player also provides links to ESPN.com content related to the video it is playing.

LiveHive Creates Two-Screen ITV Apps for NBA's Raptors and 76ers

--Teams with NBC on Two-Screen App for 2008 Figure Skating Championships

LiveHive Systems, an Ontario-based company that specializes in two-screen interactive TV solutions, said last week that it has signed an agreement with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to provide a synchronized interactive experience on www.raptors.com to accompany broadcasts of the Toronto Raptors' NBA playoff games. Dubbed "Raptors Shot Caller presented by Ford," the new service debuted last Sunday in conjunction with the start of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. Fans access the service by going to the Raptors' Web site and clicking on a "Shot Caller" game banner, or by simply going directly to raptors.nanogaming.com. The service includes the standard line-up of entertainments offered by LiveHive's flagship NanoGaming platform, including real-time game predictions, trivia questions, and instant recall challenges: fans who register for the service receive points for answering questions correctly and making accurate predictions, and high-scorers can win such prizes as autographed Raptors jerseys and playoff tickets. The fan with the highest single-game score will also win a grand prize. The service also implements a number of features provided by the newest version of the NanoGaming platform, including polling, group play (fans can invite their friends to play along with them, so that the group can have its own competition and leaderboard), enhanced live chat (allows fans to interact with sponsors, teams and broadcasters), and a downloadable Facebook application that lets users compare their scores with those of their Facebook friends and broadcast their own results after each game on their personal newsfeed. LiveHive's new deal with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment builds on an existing relationship with the company: in January, LiveHive provided a similar service for MLSE during regional telecasts on Leafs TV of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey games.

In other LiveHive news:

• The company was recently tapped by Comcast SportsNet and the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team to develop a Web-based two-screen interactive TV service to accompany broadcasts of 76ers games. The service, dubbed "Get to the Net" and based on the NanoGaming platform, debuted in early March and is being offered during every 76ers game program produced by Comcast including during the playoffs. Accessed either via comcastsportsnet.com or Sixers.com, the new service presents fans with a stream of game-related questions and challenges, including game predictions, memory challenges and trivia on the 76ers and basketball in general. Players accumulate points for correct answers, and compete against one another to win prizes based on their point totals: the prizes are awarded after each game, with the highest-scoring viewer winning use of a luxury suite at the Wachovia Center for an upcoming 76ers game. The service also includes a live chat application, and allows fans to download a "Get to the Net" Facebook application to access bonus statistics, earn badges and compare their results with those of their Facebook friends. According to LiveHive, "Get to the Net" was the first service of its kind to be offered in conjunction with NBA team telecasts. The new service has been promoted on the air by Comcast SportsNet during broadcasts of its shows "SportsDay," "Daily News Live" and "SportsNite," and is also promoted during halftime breaks of 76ers games.
• The company was recently tapped by NBCSports.com to create a two-screen interactive TV service to accompany NBC telecasts of the 2008 US Figure Skating Championship. Dubbed "Skate-Off," the service allowed viewers to answer trivia questions and make real-time predictions, in order to score points and win prizes "This will be the first time that figure skating has gone this route in live TV telecasts," LiveHive president, Dave Bullock, said in a prepared statement. "Figure skating is a huge sport, and through NBCSports.com Skate-Off we can deliver interactive TV to a brand new audience. Fans want to interact and engage with the competition, which includes athletes and other viewers, while they are watching. NanoGaming will let figure skating fans experience the excitement of the US Championships as the action unfolds."

Jacked in Two-Screen Interactive TV Deal with LA's KCAL9

Santa Monica, Calif.-based two-screen interactive TV specialist, Jacked, Inc. (note: the company's flagship product, Jacked SportsTop, is a browser-based virtual desktop that features a dashboard of widgets and that is designed to provide synchronized two-screen ITV experiences specifically for sports broadcasts), recently signed a deal with Los Angeles TV station, KCAL 9, that sees it providing the latter with a two-screen ITV service to accompany all its live broadcasts of LA Lakers basketball games throughout the rest of the current season, as well as next season.

The service--dubbed the "Carl's Jr. Lakers Live SportsTop" and featuring a range of interactive content, commerce, communication and advertising widgets--is part of a sponsorship package for the eponymous fast food chain that includes on-air, online and in-game promotions. Located on KCAL 9's Web site, it presents viewers with a catalog of widgets that they can drag and drop onto the screen, in order to customize their interactive experience (note: viewers can save their settings for future games). At launch, a total of 16 widgets were available, including Scoreboard, Player Profile, Box Score, Play-by-Play, Video, Team and Cheerleader photos, Flickr Fan photos, Team News and Ticker, and a trivia game. A chat widget allows viewers to interact with one another and with KCAL personalities, and gives them the option of setting up private chatrooms (note: for NBA games, Jacked offers what it calls the Jacked Heat Index, a patent-pending application that uses analytical metrics to dynamically index each player's performance at any specific moment during the game, so that viewers can follow players and see at which points in the game they are underperforming, meeting, or exceeding expectations; in addition to using game stats, the widget adds a time component, so that a player becomes "cold" when he or she is underperforming or spending a large amount of time on the bench). According to Jacked, its platform monitors the TV broadcast and automatically populates the widgets in real time with relevant content. The company touts this capability as providing advertisers with the opportunity to "extend their brands to consumers online when they are most engaged in the broadcast experience."

Jacked's platform incorporates standard IAB leaderboard, banner and button ad units, as well as new proprietary ad units that dynamically size and publish to the widgets on the end-user's screen: the company says that the ads can be tied to events during the broadcast and geo-targeted, and that they will eventually also be synchronized with broadcast ads. "This partnership marks a key milestone for Jacked in its effort to establish a local SportsTop network enabling broadcasters like KCAL to collaborate with advertisers like Carl's Jr. to provide sports fans with a truly unique and engaging cross-platform experience," Jacked CEO, Bryan Biniak, said in a prepared statement.

In other Jacked news:

• In order to encourage usage of its service by football fans, Jacked conducted a sweepstakes promotion around this year's Super Bowl: users who registered on the company's Web site before kickoff could enter its "Football Challenge Sweepstakes" to have a chance of winning a $100,000 cash prize for making 20 correct predictions about the game. The company also used the occasion of the Super Bowl to launch a number of new features on its SportsTop platform. The new features are a Video widget, which uses the company's "Searchcasting" technology to look for team and player videos related to the game that is currently being broadcast, and that also includes a search function that lets viewers search for specific videos within the widget; a Player Profile widget, which automatically highlights players, based on key events taking place during the game; a News widget, which automatically searches for relevant news during a game; and a Chat widget.
• Late last year, the company announced that it had expanded its partnership with NBC Sports and NBCSports.com to provide the latter with a two-screen ITV service, dubbed NBCSports.com Play Action, to accompany its "Sunday Night Football" broadcasts. The new deal built on an existing deal between the companies, under which Jacked provided NBC Sports with a two-screen application for its broadcasts of Notre Dame football games.

ITV-Enabled Disney Travel on Demand Unveils New Programming Line-Up

--Service to be Available on Comcast

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts recently contacted [itvt] to update us on the programming line-up for the second season of its promotional VOD service, Disney Travel on Demand. The service, which is available on Cablevision's and Time Warner Cable's VOD platforms (note: thanks to a recently announced distribution agreement, it will also now be available on Comcast), and which features programming on Disney's various themeparks and resorts, has launched three new original programs: "What's Cooking with Cat Cora" (in which the host takes various families "into the kitchens of Disney's world-class restaurants, giving each member a task, which results in an amazing meal"), "Exploring the Magic" (in which the stars of various Disney Channel shows, such as Moises Arias from "Hannah Montana" and the Spouse brothers from "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody," showcase "some of the new and more interesting sides of Disney Parks and Resorts for kids"), and "Disney 24 Seven" (in which viewers are taken "on a journey behind the scenes to show you round-the-clock operations" of a Disney park or resort). In addition, a new episode is being added to the series "Disney Travel Insiders" (in which celebrity hosts, such as Eva LaRue, provide viewers with tips on how to make the most of their trip to a Disney park).

Disney Travel on Demand, which launched in May of last year, also offers interactivity on Cablevision's ITV-enabled iO digital cable platform: a "Talk to Agent" feature allows Cablevision subscribers to click a button on their remote to receive a call back on their phone from a Disney travel representative, who can book a vacation for them at a Disney park or resort (note: according to Disney Parks and Resorts, subscribers receive their call back within 15 minutes of using the application).

Showtime Conducts Multiplatform, Interactive Campaign for "Tudors"

Premium programmer, Showtime Networks, is promoting the second season of its costume drama series, "The Tudors," by releasing a full episode of the show on over 60 non-TV platforms, and by launching an array of promotional interactive services around the show. The first episode of the show's second season was made available through the CBS Audience Network, as well as on portal sites such as Yahoo!, Amazon Unbox, NetFlix, and MSN; on TV-themed sites such as TV.com and TVGuide.com; on video-aggregator sites, such as YouTube and Veoh; on social networking sites, such as Gather.com; on various blogs; and on iTunes. It was also offered to customers of Verizon Wireless's V CAST mobile video platform; and Showtime subscribers could additionally watch it on their pay-TV operators' Web sites (such as Comcast.net, DirecTV.com or Charter.net). The promotional release of the "Tudors" episode follows a similar--though smaller--campaign last year: "The strategy to release a full episode on digital platforms has proven to be a very effective tool for Showtime, not only increasing consumers' exposure to premium television programs, but also to help drive subscription to the network," Robert Hayes, SVP of Showtime Digital Group, said in a prepared statement. "We had a tremendously successful launch for 'The Tudors' last year, and we have expanded the reach of the campaign to even more digital platforms this year. This is our most ambitious multiplatform push yet to subscribers and non-subscribers and we expect to have a combined reach of over 190 million users."

Interactive applications launched to promote "The Tudors" include:

• "Bed, Wed, Behead," a Facebook game that allows members to rate their friends.
• A "humorous" video campaign, entitled "The Great Tudors Mystery" (wkts-tv.com), that "lets people convince their friends that they are the rightful heir to King Henry VIII's fortune."
• A "Tudors Royal Portrait" application (thetudorsportrait.com) that lets users create, download and share personalized Tudor-style portraits as widgets and desktop wallpapers.
• A "Tudors" wiki (tudorswiki.sho.com).
• A Tudors countdown widget (sho.com/site/tudors/downloads.do)--an embeddable Flash application that allows users to "watch the hours, minutes seconds tick away until the premiere."

Two Way Gaming in Deals with Pitch Entertainment, WagerWorks

--Two Way TV Licenses ITV Games to Bigfizz

Two Way Gaming, the recently formed joint venture between UK-based interactive TV production company, Two Way TV, and gaming technology specialist, Zone4Play (note: for more on the formation of the new venture), has formed a strategic partnership with Pitch Entertainment, a gambling service provider that specializes in digital TV and Web content. As part of the companies' partnership, they have created a new gaming brand for the UK market, Pitch Gaming. Two Way Gaming has developed a casino Web site for the new brand (Pitchgaming.com), supported by an interactive/participation TV game show, entitled "Pitch Roulette," that is broadcast on the Sky satellite platform. The show is designed to attract new customers, who can then be directed to the Pitchgaming.com Web site, where they can gamble 24/7. "TV is a great medium through which to acquire customers for gaming Web sites," Two Way Gaming managing director, Guy Templer, said in a prepared statement. "The online casino we have launched will boast many unique features such as live croupiers, streamed video games and live table games. Players are able to place bets on the live TV shows via our Web sites." Added Pitch Entertainment CEO, Anton Kaszubowski: "We are really pleased to be partnering with Two Way Gaming because it is one of the few companies that offers cross-platform gaming. With our Pitch Gaming proposition, customers can plug into the Web site as well as become involved with the TV show via their phone, creating a totally interactive and very entertaining gaming experience."

In related news:

• Two Way Gaming has formed a partnership with interactive gaming software supplier, WagerWorks, that sees it integrating the latter's WagerWorks rgs system. According to Two Way Gaming, this integration will provide Two Way Gaming's white-label customers with access to a wide range of online branded games, including "Monopoly," "Cluedo," "Wheel of Fortune," "The Price is Right," and WagerWorks' suite of casino games. The deal also provides Two Way Gaming customers with access to WagerWorks' "MegaJackpots" suite of progressive-style games, which offer a start-and-reset jackpot of £1.5 million. Two Way Gaming operates several gaming channels on the UK's cable and satellite platforms, which offer around 50 hours of programming a day; in addition, it runs white-label services for a number of major media companies, including Channel Five and Virgin Media. The company plans to conduct cross-marketing activities between its TV channels and its new WagerWorks rgs gaming offering. "We have found an excellent partner in WagerWorks," Two Way Gaming's Templer said in a prepared statement. "Their WagerWorks rgs system is very flexible and offers huge potential. Combined with our gaming TV shows we have got an innovative cross-platform offering audiences will love. In the coming months the deal will see us putting together some exciting new properties for TV."
• Two Way TV has signed a deal with a company called Bigfizz that sees it licensing eight of its interactive TV games--"String 'em In," "Deal with It," "BuzzWords," "JellySets," "Match Blox," "Tactiles," "Tactiles Attack" and "Picnic Antics"--for use on the latter's "Skill With Prizes" terminals, located in UK pubs, movie theaters and bowling alleys. The deal is in line with Two Way TV's new strategy of expanding its games onto new commercial platforms (note: the company's television presence includes its own branded games channel on Virgin Media, a white label games service on BT Vision, and the licensing of its game, "String 'em In" to Sky for the latter's Sky Games portal). "This latest licensing deal is part of our strategy to aggressively expand and extend our presence on games platforms, so that a wider audience can enjoy our unique and inclusive interactive games," James Turner, Two Way TV's head of sales, said in a prepared statement. "Bigfizz is a well-known games developer for pub consoles, and we are excited about the market potential of this new partnership."

Accedo in Interactive TV Games Deals with PCCW, TEO, Sonaecom

-Launches "International Multiplayer Community for IPTV"

Accedo Broadband, an 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, including game, quiz, puzzle, video-art, karaoke, weather, communications and user-generated content apps; last year, it signed deals to provide games packages to BT's IPTV service, BT Vision, and to Inuk's Freewire IPTV service), has generated a fair amount of news over the past few weeks:

• The company has signed a deal with Hong Kong-based IPTV operator, PCCW, that will see it launching a games channel on the latter's now TV service (which has around 882,000 subscribers). The channel will feature a broad selection of casual games from Accedo's flagship Funspot range that will be constantly updated, based on demand from now TV customers. "Casual gaming remains a core business area for Accedo, and we are happy to work with PCCW to create the most advanced IPTV gaming service in the world," Accedo CEO, Lantz, said in a prepared statement. "Accedo's state-of-the-art gaming solution and huge portfolio of IPTV games will make it possible to keep the game channel fresh and attractive for all casual gamers. We will offer a number of advanced features, including a multiplayer gaming solution."
• The company has signed a deal with Lithuanian telco, TEO, that sees it offering its interactive TV games as part of the latter's IPTV service, Interactive GALA. The deal covers a range of casual games, including casino, card, puzzle, strategy, board and quiz games. "We have been impressed by the high growth of the Interactive GALA IPTV service (+300% in 2007) and we believe that the Lithuanian market is showing a huge potential," Accedo's Lantz said in a prepared statement. "Casual gaming on the TV has proven to be a popular activity and it is our firm belief that usage will continue to grow considerably over the next few years."
• The company has unveiled a service, called "Funspot Arena," which it bills as "the world's first international multiplayer community for IPTV." According to the company, the service allows end-users to play games with other end-use