anyone know about Wink?
Viewers to Receive Interactive TV Show Enhancements and Advertising Without
Need For Costly Add-Ons or Dedicated Set-Top Boxes
NEW YORK, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- NBC today announced a programming partnership with enhanced television developer Wink Communications to program a diverse portion of NBC's fall 1997-98 schedule with interactive enhancements that work directly on TV sets and standard cable set-top boxes. NBC will add interactivity to prime-time entertainment, weekend sports and other informational programming using the Wink ITV Enhanced Broadcasting(TM)standard and will offer advertisers interactive commercial opportunities.
NBC is the first US broadcast network to embrace the Wink ITV platform,the leading enhanced television technology already accepted by major cable operators, cable set-top box manufacturers and consumer electronics manufacturers for roll-out in the coming months, well before the widespread deployment of more costly broadband interactive television services. NBC's launch of Wink ITV-enhanced broadcasts is planned for late summer to coincide with the new TV programming season on NBC.
Wink ITV -- which works with broadcast, cable and satellite signals -- will provide NBC with increased revenue opportunities through new advertising streams and transaction capabilities. Wink ITV enables NBC and its advertisers to add enhancements to broadcasts, allowing viewers to interact with such features as on-demand plot summaries, trivia quizzes, profiles of athletes, actors and other program participants, sports scores and other statistics, viewer polls, and other interactive programming. Transactional elements will be added to both program and advertising content via such applications as brochure, coupon and product sample requests, merchandise order forms, and other direct response, enhanced options.
Said Thomas S. Rogers, President of NBC Cable and Business Development: "NBC is committed to programming options that offer the best and most diverse opportunities for viewers, advertisers and cable operators. Wink Communications offers easy-to-use enhanced television viewing options that are available today using existing television and cable set-top box technology, and allows us to work with the cable industry to bring interactive elements of our programming to cable subscribers."
"Today's move is another example of NBC's leadership in programming and interactive technology," said Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Wink Communications.
"Wink ITV brings interactivity to regular TV sets. Wink already is a standard on digital and advanced analog cable set-top boxes adopted by the three leading manufacturers, and a standard on Japanese TV sets, and will be available in US television sets in 1998."
"The Internet has been a terrific new avenue to the consumer for NBC, but the real game is bringing Internet-like features to the TV set, in the family room, with full-motion video," said Martin J. Yudkovitz, President of NBC Interactive. "Wink's visionary technology lets us deliver to our loyal viewing audience, via our existing NBC broadcast and cable signals, enhanced TV and transaction capabilities today, not just off in the distant future."
NBC's Wink-enhanced program elements will be viewable atop the TV broadcast or cable picture in an easy-to-use interactive graphical overlay, with which viewers can interact using existing set-top box and television remote controls. The Wink ITV platform allows NBC to package interactive value-added information that doesn't require viewers to tune away from their favorite shows or commercials to access these enhanced features.
Many of the world's largest and most influential manufacturers of consumer electronics and cable equipment already have embraced the Wink ITV open standard. In the US, General Instrument, Scientific-Atlanta, and Pioneer currently are building a range of analog and digital equipment to support Enhanced Broadcasting: General Instrument's CFT-2200 is the first analog cable set-top to support Wink, with the company's DCT-1000 the first digital set-top to do likewise. In Japan, Sony, Toshiba and JVC already are marketing TV sets and related products that receive and record Wink ITV broadcasts, and Matsushita has announced it will ship Wink-enabled products under the Panasonic label later this year.
Wink's software does not require major changes to televisions and set-top boxes, therefore adding almost no costs, even to a $300 TV set or $150 cable converter. In addition, Wink enhancements require no dramatic upgrades to existing cable, telecommunications, broadcast or direct satellite infrastructure.
Back-end infrastructure for NBC's Wink ITV enhanced programming will be provided by Sun Microsystems. The stability and scalability of the Sun Solaris platform and Sun's Ultra workgroup servers make it an ideal choice for this NBC enhanced television initiative.
Wink Communications, headquartered in Alameda, California with a subsidiary in Tokyo, was founded in 1995 and is focused on adding interactivity to mass-market consumer electronics. Compact software development is a core competency of the company. Investors included General Instrument, Scientific-Atlanta, Toshiba, NTT and Benchmark Capital.
NBC Interactive, the leader among traditional media companies in the interactive field, is part of the NBC Cable and Business Development Division of NBC. NBC Interactive is responsible for all aspects of content development and production for the Internet and other interactive platforms and also produces specialized programming and custom content solutions for other companies, sponsors and partners. The division oversees NBC.com (www.NBC.com), the network's primary site on the World Wide Web, featuring original interactive episodes of some of NBC's most popular shows from daytime
to primetime to late night, boasting characters and plot twists only found online. Launched in August 1995, NBC.com was the first television network online.
NBC Interactive also creates programming utilizing new technologies such as Intercast, developed with Intel, which allows users to watch television on personal computers while accessing related online text and graphical content. In addition, NBC Interactive serves as development center for new businesses such as MSNBC, the unique cable and Internet service that resulted from a
partnership between NBC and Microsoft. NBC Interactive also manages NBC Interactive Neighborhood, a new local Internet service offered to NBC's 215 owned-and-operated stations and affiliates.
NOTE: Wink, Wink ITV, and Enhanced Broadcasting are trademarks of Wink Communications, Inc.
CO: Wink Communications; NBC Interactive
ST: California, New York
IN: CPR MLM ENT
SU: PDT |
