Actv is mentioned. Says AT&T is going to use us in the Dallas area. Of course you can't do Actv justice in a few sentences. Still, they don't leave us out anymore.
The idea behind video-on-demand and other services: To get you to buy.
New promise for interactive TV industry
By Patricia Horn
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
CHICAGO - For years, excited technology gurus raved over the potential success of video-on-demand - the ability to download a movie instantly instead of schlumping to the video store or scheduling HBO couch time at 8:10 p.m.
But video-on-demand has always shown more potential than reality. Its promise drove more than one company into the corporate graveyard.
Now it may spin its financial rewards.
At the National Cable Television Association meetings in Chicago last week, video-on-demand and other digital-age wonders grabbed the buzz from celebrities such as boxing great Evander Holyfield, movie star Peter Fonda and Playboy playmates.
Part of the digital hum was the melding between what's on TV and what's online. WorldGate, the Bensalem, Pa., WebTV competitor, introduced technology that could - with one click - hyperlink a viewer from a television show to the program's Web site - using picture-in-picture on the TV screen.
Oxygen, a cable TV channel for women, plans to make its debut next February. But its Web site is already online. Oxygen expects its viewers to simultaneously watch, chat online and buy, buy, buy.
"Television is great at getting people curious," said Geraldine Laybourne, a founder of Oxygen. "The Web is great at drilling down" - providing more information for specific interests.
To get more women online - so they can make Oxygen's advertisers happy by shopping - the network is planning to have Oprah Winfrey, an Oxygen backer, host a 12-part series on training women to use computers and the Internet.
Other networks also have pushed the edge on integrating Web surfing with TV broadcasts. They include Fox's new Family Channels and Tri-State Media's cable news service, based in Oaks, Pa.
Cable companies, programmers and technology gurus expect video-on-demand and other TV technologies to succeed this time because they offer opportunities for consumers to spend money.
In other words, you may be poorer, but TV land will be a lot more fun.
Part of the interactive TV industry's confidence comes from that black cable set-top box that connects to your television set.
The new set-top boxes - such as the DCT-5000+ from General Instrument of Horsham, Pa., and Explorer 2000 from Scientific-Atlanta of Atlanta - do more than unscramble ESPN and HBO. They give cable companies and consumers the power to add services such as high-speed cable modems, cable telephone service and electronic commerce, or to hook in other electronic devices, such as computer printers.
These new boxes turn a TV into a computer-TV-telephone. Because the boxes send signals both to and from your TV quickly, you can order and receive a video instantly, buy a product over the Web from a TV ad, print a coupon, or use TV-Internet-e-mail services such as WebTV and WorldGate.
For example, once cable companies offer phone service, GI's DCT-5000 will enable you to identify - from the TV screen - who is calling. You will be able to send calls to voice mail, look up recent phone calls and search the Yellow Pages.
You can "simultaneously watch TV, talk on the phone, surf the Web - all on the TV screen," said Denton Kanauff, vice president of marketing for General Instrument.
General Instrument will start shipping its DCT-5000 boxes later this year. Scientific-Atlanta already is shipping its Explorer 2000s.
Consumers will not be able to start cable-telephone service just by buying one of the new set-top boxes: the services available will depend on your cable company. Some new advanced services are available now. Others, such as cable-telephone service, should start during the next two years.
Still others, such as some interactive TV services, will be available through satellite or telephone companies, as well as cable.
Cable companies, online services and video-on-demand companies crave a slice of the billions of dollars that Americans spend on video rentals and sales each year. But to make a profit, video-on-demand companies had to charge more than consumers were willing to pay. The new technology should change that.
Cable companies - such as Comcast, Adelphia and Suburban Cable in the Philadelphia area - already are experimenting with video on demand and other interactive services.
Comcast, for example, is working with Culver City, Calif., company Intertainer in Willow Grove, Pa. Suburban Cable and Adelphia are working with DIVA of Menlo Park, Calif.
Vivid Technology of Chalfont, Pa., is another video-on-demand company. It is also working with Philadelphia-area cable companies, as well as testing other services, such as interactive on-screen banking for CitiBank.
With most of these services, you can download - whenever you wish - movies, TV shows, children's programs and games, music videos, concerts and special-interest shows.
Prices for services vary, but most vendors sell, or plan to sell, movies for $2.95 to $3.95. You can order one for a set period, such as 24 hours. During that time, you can play the movies as much as you like, including fast-forwarding, rewinding and pausing - without a VCR.
The idea behind the service is basic: to get your dollars. "To your customers, Intertainer means a wealth of entertainment. To you, Intertainer means a wealth of wealth," says Intertainer's marketing package for cable companies. "Intertainer also provides a 'personal assistant' that learns individual customer's tastes and, in turn, recommends additional 'impulse' purchases - which, of course, equals additional profits."
Some companies, such as Media Station of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Arepa, of Cambridge, Mass., specialize in family-oriented services, such as on-demand computer games, educational software and do-it-yourself software and videos. These work with high-speed cable modems or telephone Internet connections.
Media Station sells CD-ROM and CD-audio-based content focused on family education and entertainment, including educational games, encyclopedias, home-repair CD-ROMS and American Automobile Association maps.
"We try to be a full family resource," said Allan McLennan, Media Station's chief marketing officer. Media Station prices its service at $6.95 a month, with unlimited use during the month. Among the companies testing its products are US West and Comcast.
Another form of interactive television is from ACTV, which has deals with Fox Sports Net and The Box, an MTV music network. In Dallas, ACTV has teamed with Fox and AT&T's (formerly TCI) cable service. Sports Net viewers can use their remote controls to switch camera angles when watching a game, control instant replay and call up player stats and profiles.
With The Box, a viewer uses both a computer and a TV. At The Box's Web site, viewers can download music lyrics, band biographies and features, and can buy compact discs, concert tickets, videos and other merchandise - all tied to the video they are watching on TV. In addition, viewers can program what they watch on The Box. So they can ask for a different music video just for them.
All this allows ACTV and The Box to learn viewers' tastes, and tailor shows and advertising.
TiVo and ReplayTV both sell a new-age VCR. Both allow you to automatically record your favorite shows one time or every time they are on. You can then play them when you want, and pause and rewind them. You can also do the same with live TV.
Say you are watching the Knicks-Spurs game this weekend and you see a foul you want to replay. As you rewind, TiVo or Replay would automatically record the game in progress so you can watch it "live" but with that minute or so delay. When a commercial comes on, you can fast-forward through the commercial to catch up to the game.
Depending on which you buy, you can record from 10 to 30 hours of television.
ReplayTV also can create a customized channel that it will fill with your favorite TV shows, or movies with actresses or directors you choose. TiVo allows you to rate shows and it will then recommend other shows it automatically records for you.
Neither comes cheap. TiVo's 14-hour receiver costs $9.99 a month plus $499. Its 30-hour receiver costs $9.95 per month, plus $999. Or you can pay $199 for lifetime TiVo service. ReplayTV costs from $699 to $1,499 with no monthly fees.
WorldGate and WebTV are pushing the integration of TVs and computers. They turn your TV into a computer with e-mail accounts and hyperlinks between shows and Web sites.
On WorldGate, for example, if you see a bracelet on the QVC shopping network, pushing one key will take you to the Web page selling that bracelet.
How far will all these new TV technologies take us?
As Tom Rogers, the president of NBC Cable Business Development, put it in Chicago, "It's very unclear if we are talking a minor enhancement, more choice or a whole new way to watch TV."
Stay tuned.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inquirer | Search | Classifieds | Yellow Pages | Money| Technology| HOME team | Health | Philly Life | Headbone Zone | Video | Site Index
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
|
