TCI Music and ACTV
This article is dated but I don;t recall seeing it before and it's REAL CLEAR!!
ACTV and TCI Team to Spin Music onto the Internet
By Alan Breznick
In another sign of convergence between the television and computer, ACTV Inc. and TCI Music Inc. will team
up to offer music videos on cable linked to synchronized music content on the Internet, starting later this year.
The two companies, both partly owned by Liberty Media Group, will use ACTV's HyperTV technology to dish
up the TV-Web service to cable subscribers with PCs. Viewers watching a music video on the Box Music
Network will be able to log on to a special Web site for song lyrics, band member biographies, feature stories on
the musicians, trivia questions and CD purchases, among other things.
The two partners hope to generate revenues through interactive TV and Web ads and increased home shopping
sales. "I think we'll have an immediate revenue stream from advertising," said Alan McGlade, president/CEO of
the Box.
Designed to entice consumers to use their TV sets and personal computers in tandem, HyperTV is similar to the
"enhanced TV" service that ABC Sports and ESPN Internet Ventures have been testing with football telecasts,
most recently with the Fiesta Bowl last January. It's also similar to Showtime's online scoring of boxing matches
that it televises and synchronized TV-Web content tests occurring at A & E Networks.
ACTV executives aim to go beyond these TV-Internet convergence experiments, however, and offer a
comprehensive commercial service that supplements music, sports, news and other TV programming with Web
content automatically delivered to a viewer's PC. They're pursuing strategic partnerships with cable operators and
other content licensing deals with cable networks, broadcasters and syndicated programmers.
"We are looking to leverage off the programming we're aligned with, particularly Liberty Media," said David
Reese, president/COO of ACTV, whose company is 10% owned by Liberty.
Analysts praised the move by ACTV, which has been seeking to license its HyperTV technology to programmers
for months.
"It's a real score for ACTV," said Gary Arlen, a new-media consultant in Bethesda, Md. "Multi-tasking is
definitely on the rise, especially with short-form entertainment programming."
(June 7, 1999)
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