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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skip Jack who wrote (5894)	8/7/1999 1:59:00 AM
From: Skip Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

More detail from AT&T, I love this statement..... The biggest bump on the revenue side likely will come from advertisers newly enabled to measure just how effectively they're reaching consumers. Priddy declined to discuss what the studies show on potential ad revenue, but said that "it's impressive." **************** Date Posted: 8/6/1999 AT&T forms interactive unit Headed by former Cable Labs exec, unit will focus mostly on 'TV-centric' services AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is creating a new division to coordinate the development and deployment of interactive TV content and services. Laurie Priddy, who also heads AT&T's National Digital Television Center, is president of the newly established Interactive Offerings Group. She'll oversee efforts by AT&T BIS' programming and advertising arms in developing interactive applications with outside companies. While the focus will be "TV-centric," it will go well beyond interactive advertising and Internet-over-TV, says Priddy, who headed Cable Television Laboratories' OpenCable efforts until she moved to AT&T earlier this year. "We're trying to bridge the gap between the PC and the TV by slowly introducing the lean-forward experience with the TV," says Priddy. "We think this will cater to a broad range of customers who want to start going interactive but in a safer way." The biggest bump on the revenue side likely will come from advertisers newly enabled to measure just how effectively they're reaching consumers. Priddy declined to discuss what the studies show on potential ad revenue, but said that "it's impressive." Beyond advertising and Internet-like features, other features typically linked to interactive TV include local information delivery, high-tech home shopping, sports stats and isolation cameras and game playing. Priddy declined to specify where the division will focus, but past initiatives and the growing holdings in TCI Music (soon to be Liberty Digital) hint that the list will be large. AT&T sees the two-way Internet protocol-based DOCSIS cable modem platform and advanced digital set-tops as fundamental building blocks, Priddy says. With commercial availability of General Instrument's DCT-5000 set-top to come this fall, early interactive TV tests should come in 2000's first quarter with commercial launches later in the year, Priddy notes. An early iteration of the business model shows the consumer paying for the set-top box and receiving most services without additional service charge. "We'd like to make it as low cost as possible, if not free, to the customer," she says. The group will grow from about 10 staffers--including Priddy--at startup to between 30 and 50 by the end of this year, according to Priddy. AT&T BIS also is setting aside funds for "seed" investments but Interactive Offerings doesn't plan on owning big stakes in content suppliers. It does intend to make the interactive features it develops available on as many AT&T delivery vehicles as possible. AT&T BIS President-CEO "Leo [Hindery] talks about the four legs of the stool--data, telephony, video, and this is the fourth," says Priddy. "We spend a lot of time talking to people in the other three legs. This has to interact in a very elegant way."