Digital Coast 99: Channel-Surfing On The Web
By Laura Randall, Newsbytes
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,
10 Sep 1999, 1:46 PM CST
A Vancouver, British Columbia Internet startup is adopting a "free PC"
strategy to market its TV-for-the-Web software.
Planetville, the name of the company and its Website, this week
joined the ranks of companies scrambling to give TV viewers alternatives to
"appointment television" with easy-to-use TV recording devices. Instead of integrating
the devices into next-generation TV sets or other TV equipment, however, Planetville
is offering its services via the PC.
The company equips users with PC-based TV tuner hardware and MPEG (Motion
Picture Experts Group) software to generate the convergence of broadcast TV with
the Internet. The equipment works on computers with modem speeds of 28.8
kilobits-per-second (Kbps) and higher.
Customers who sign up for Planetville's service receive a TV tuner card that attaches
to their computers and picks up a cable or antenna signal, which lets them watch TV
and view local listings from the Web.
In exchange, Planetville gets access to customers' channel-surfing habits and
demographic data. Planetville will use the information to develop Web pages and
personalized TV listings and to attract advertisers, said Eric Camirand, the
company's co-founder. The effort is similar to attempts by computer companies and
Internet service providers (ISPs) to boost sales by offering customers who sign up for
monthly Internet access a free computer.
Planetville rolled out its service this week at the Silicon Alley Reporter's Digital Coast
99 conference on convergence.
The company expects to get most of its revenues from advertisers who are featured
on one side of the television program as it's playing, Camirand said. Planetville aims
to eventually give PC users the options now offered by digital TV device firms like
TiVo and Replay. Through Cinax's WinVCR software, which costs $99, PC users can
also record and fast-forward TV shows, as well as watch two-hour movies on their
computers.
Planetville also plans to offer software that lets users pause live TV on their
computers, according to Camirand. "Basically, we're offering the PC version of TiVo
and Replay," Camirand told Newsbytes.
More information is available at planetville.com.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com.
13:46 CST
Reposted 14:25 CST
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