Interactive-TV Firms ACTV, Intertainer Make Splash At Cable Confab
06/14/1999
Dow Jones Business News
(Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Two small interactive-television companies, ACTV, Inc. and Intertainer Inc., are looking to grab attention from the big boys at the annual convention of the National Cable Television
Association in Chicago.
The promised convergence of TV and the Internet has attracted the
attention of the biggest names in broadcasting, cable, hardware and
software. But the giants are looking to smaller firms to lead the way to content that actually will fuel demand for such costly services.
ACTV (IATV) announced a deal Monday with General Instrument Corp. (GIC), one of the leading makers of cable set-top boxes, to develop a way to deliver addressable, targeted advertising via digital cable, satellite and broadcast television. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
ACTV 's HyperTV software enables the broadcast of targeted Internet
content and chat simultaneously with a related TV program. HyperTV
embeds a stream of Web addresses and other interactive content into the video signal, and/or streams them over the Internet directly to a user's computer. ACTV already has deals to supply interactive programming to General Instrument and Scientific-Atlanta Inc., another major maker of set-top boxes.
Under the new deal, ACTV and General Instrument will create a system to enable advertisers to target commercial advertising to specific
households and individuals. The system also will offer electronic-commerce and interactive-TV opportunites, such as couponing.
Meanwhile, Intertainer, which offers "on-demand" viewing of movies and
other programs, announced a deal with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which on
Monday unveiled a software platform for interactive television.
Microsoft's new platform will incorporate Intertainer's technology,
which aims to deliver video content directly to consumers' TVs whenever they want - posing a big threat to video-store chains like Viacom Inc.'s Blockbuster.
Like ACTV , Intertainer also has deals with General Instrument and
Scientific-Atlanta. Privately held Intertainer also has attracted key
minority investments from General Electric Co.'s NBC, U S West Inc.,
Comcast Corp., Sony Corp. and Intel Corp.
The Los Angeles Times said Monday that Intertainer plans to announce a
series of deals at this week's cable-industry convention. According to
the paper, Intertainer has landed agreements with Walt Disney Co.'s
Disney Channel and ESPN, News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox and with the
Public Broadcasting Service to develop interactive content and
e-commerce opportunities.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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