April 19, 1999 17:43
****ACTV Acquires New Patent For TV-Web Link
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1999 APR 19 (NB) -- By Laura Randall,
Newsbytes. ACTV Inc. [NASDAQ:IATV], the creator of a Web-based TV system, announced it has acquired a patent from Wall Street media analyst Tom Wolzien, a move the company hopes will solidify its position in the race to tie electronic commerce with
convergence activities.
ACTV says the Wolzien patent, combined with ACTV's existing HyperTV technology, will enable the company to offer "the first comprehensive software solution for the convergence of video and audio with the Internet."
The patent "completes our three-year plan to be a major player in the convergence of television and the internet," William Samuels, chairman and chief executive officer of ACTV, said on a conference call that drew about 200 investors and analysts Monday.
ACTV's two main products are Individualized Television, which allows viewers to switch among digital channels that offer different feeds from one sports event, and HyperTV, which synchronizes Web programming and Internet chat groups with television.
ACTV says the Wolzien patent will strengthen its HyperTV technology by letting viewers pull content from the Internet directly from a link embedded in a TV program or commercial. The company hopes to widely license the technology, Samuels said.
ACTV is competing with other, more-powerful companies like Microsoft and RealNetworks to develop technology for converging television with the Internet. Also, only 2 million households currently have digital cable boxes, compared to about 70 million with regular cable.
But ACTV has two advantages over the competition, Mike Shronstrom, an analyst at Niediger Tucker Bruner, told Newsbytes: "They're doing it now, and they have the patents that suggest they have peremptory control over this space."
Shronstrom is forecasting that ACTV's revenues will jump from $7 million in 1999 to as much as $50 million in 2000, in large part due to the company's deal with Fox Sports to package its individualized television product as a premium channel called Fox Sports Plus.
Financial support for ACTV's new product will likely come from an added investment by Liberty Media Group, which announced last week it would add $9 million to its original $5 million investment in ACTV. The additional investment was a case of Liberty Media's decision to "exercise a 10-year option early," Samuels said on Monday's conference call.
The venture with ACTV would allow Liberty Media, a Denver-based holding company which owns large stakes in Time Warner Inc. and iVillage, to use ACTV's programming technologies to leverage its own large portfolio of programming.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
16:34 CST
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