Gemstar-TV Guide and ICTV Announce Integration Agreement
Integration Of ICTV's Browser And TV Guide Interactive Provides Operators With A Complete, Working Solution For New Revenue Streams
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LOS GATOS, Calif. & TULSA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 27, 2000-- Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. (Nasdaq: GMST - news), developer and licensor of TV Guide Interactive -- the leading digital cable on screen guide, now in 5 million homes -- and ICTV, supplier of the most powerful browser available to all digital set tops, today announced that the two companies have completed an integration agreement.
The resulting solution, which allows simple switching between TV Guide Interactive to various ICTV applications, will be demonstrated at this year's Western Show.
``Integration of the two products provides MSOs with a real solution to quickly and easily add the leading Interactive Program Guide, an e-mail client, T-commerce and broadband content -- ranging from walled garden to fenced prairie to open Internet access -- into their systems currently in the field without out ordering a truck roll,'' said Robert Clasen, CEO, ICTV. The integrated system will work with any GI set top, including DCT 1200s and 2000s.
``This is a great step forward,'' said Wesley O. Hoffman, president of ICTV. ``MSOs have been looking for a way to offer a service that provides strong competitive differentiation while driving cash flow growth. With TV Guide Interactive integration, we can drive Broadband TV content and applications on any Motorola set top. MSOs don't need middleware of any kind to deploy a suite of solutions which, according to industry analysts, represent combined revenue potential in excess of $20 per sub per month.''
Toby DeWeese, TV Guide Inc.'s vice president of Corporate Development believes TV Guide can build significant additional revenue by leveraging the Broadband capabilities of ICTV's platform. ``Advertisers are clearly willing to pay more for targeted ads that capture a consumer's attention and hold it. We know we can build these sorts of advertising solutions using rich media with interaction and streaming video or audio. With ICTV at the headend, we can build these solutions and integrate them as extensions of the campaigns we initiate in our Guide. It's potentially very powerful.''
About Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.
Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., (Nasdaq: GMST - news) is a leading global technology and media company focused on consumer entertainment. The company has four major business sectors: the Technology and Licensing Sector, which is responsible for the development, licensing and protection of intellectual property and technology; the company's technology includes the VCR Plus+® system, the interactive program guide (``IPG'') marketed under the GUIDE Plus+® and TV Guide Interactive(SM) brands and the electronic book (``eBook''); the Interactive Platform Sector, which owns, operates and derives recurring income from advertising, interactive services, content sales and e-commerce on the company's proprietary IPG and eBook platforms; and the Media and Services Sector, which operates the TV Guide® magazines, TV Guide Channel(SM), and other television media properties, as well as a media sales group that services all of the company's media platforms; and the Investments & Holdings Sector, which operates a variety of businesses including the startup Television Games Network.
The IPG is built into televisions, VCRs or set top boxes (cable, satellite, telco, Internet) and presents a multi-day television program guide on the television screen from which the consumer can view, select, tune to or record programs. The eBook is a reading device that can store tens of thousands of pages and permits a user to take instant delivery of any book, magazine or newspaper they purchase over the telephone.
The company's media properties reach more than 100 million U.S. homes on a weekly basis. The company's products and services are available in more than 50 countries worldwide. The company's services, technology and intellectual property are licensed to major technology, media and communication companies in the consumer electronics, Internet, personal computer, satellite, cable television and telco industries. Licensees and customers include AOL, AT&T, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Dish Network, Matsushita, Microsoft, Philips, Sony, Time Warner, Thomson multimedia, Zenith and others.
The company has more than 140 issued U.S. patents in the general area of audio-visual technologies with more than 3000 claims, more than 150 issued foreign patents, and continues to actively pursue a worldwide intellectual property program and currently has more than 400 U.S. patent and more than 600 foreign patent applications pending with more than 5,000 claims.
About ICTV
ICTV supplies world-leading communications infrastructure for ITV solutions to network operators. The company's digital ITV delivery platform provides cable operators with a headend-based solution that enables delivery of broadband Internet, email and Interactive TV applications to any digital set top.
ICTV's TV Browser, which can be used to support Walled Garden or Open Internet Access applications, is the only open TV Browser capable of supporting diverse sources and types of broadband, streaming media. The TV Browser is uniquely capable of supporting a large selection of rich media plugins such as Real Networks' Real Player, Apple's Quicktime, Macromedia's Flash and Shockwave and Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
Any application running on the ICTV platform can run on any digital set top box. The system does not require any sort of middleware application in the set top. Employing a patented frequency reuse solution, ICTV is fully scalable on any two-way HFC cable system. All standard Internet content and applications will work on the ICTV system -- including broadband content requiring large bandwidth or advanced plug-ins. The company has 19 issued patents and 10 patents pending.
Investors and strategic partners include ACTV (Nasdaq: IATV - news), Adelphia (Nasdaq: ADLAC - news), Cox (NYSE: COX - news), Lauder Partners, Liberty Digital (Nasdaq: LDIG - news), Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news), OpenTV (Nasdaq: OPTV - news), Shaw Communications (NYSE: SJR - news; TSE: SJR.B - news), and Gemstar-TV Guide (Nasdaq: GMST - news). ICTV can be found on the World Wide Web at ictv.com.
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Contact:
Jeff Rosenberg Public Relations
Jeff Rosenberg, 818/709-8270 (for ICTV)
jeff@jeffrpr.com
or
ICTV
Catherine Duenas, 408/364-9432
cduenas@ictv.com
or
Gemstar-TV Guide International
Lauren Snyder, 212/852-7585
lauren.snyder@tvguide.com
Gary Gamino, 918/488-4336 (Investor Relations)
gary.gamino@tvguide.com |
