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

To: Steve Hausser who wrote (5947)	8/9/1999 10:18:00 PM
From: art slott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

>>Real Networks. The same stock that Soundview said would probably not match the market cap of HyperTV Networks in the near future. That is a market cap of $4.835 billion.<< Music to my ears.

To: Steve Hausser who wrote (5947)	8/10/1999 12:29:00 AM
From: Skip Jack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13157

Found this on the web site that Art and/or Digital Cable posted. future.newsday.com For viewers of Dallas' regional Fox Sports Southwest channel, that kind of interactivity is about to happen. Starting this fall, they'll be able to choose their own camera angles, replays, stats and even specific commercials for three local teams. It's the first full rollout for ACTV Inc., a Manhattan-based company with the idea of giving digital consumers not just more channels or a better picture "but more compelling programing," says ACTV chairman Bill Samuels. He's been working for 11 years on developing "enhanced television" and "individualized television," aimed at giving viewers more information and/or more choice in what they watch. ACTV expects to test with CNN within a year. When a newscast report on, say, Kosovo ends, but you want to learn more, you could choose a CNN alternative that stays with the correspondent for other information she didn't have time to include in the main broadcast. To get the service, your home just needs to have a digital box equipped for ACTV, most likely supplied by your cable company. While news and sports are areas of interest to ACTV, it's possible the system could be used with sitcoms and other plot-driven programs. Viewers, for instance, might be offered a choice of watching their favorite sitcom characters from a variety of camera angles, though ACTV isn't convinced there's a market for that use. Educational programing is also ripe for interactivity, said Samuels, who envisions the possibilities of "TV that talks right back to your child individually." A pre-recorded science show, for instance, could ask the child to push remote control buttons to choose between an experiment involving air or water; if she picks air, it might then ask her whether a container of air will become larger or smaller over heat; if she correctly answers "larger," she'll get a tougher question next. The ACTV chip in the converter box "remembers" her choices -- they're stored as a simple stream of numbers -- and can summarize her actions, congratulating her on her progress or encouraging her to keep trying. "We're interested in online learning -- we are really committed to that," Samuels said. "But the reality is that the money is in entertainment." When entertainment uses push the product into homes, he said, he hopes to prove "a prettier picture and more channels is not all that digital offers."

To: Steve Hausser who wrote (5947)	8/10/1999 11:58:00 AM
From: Charles H. Waldron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

I'm not going anywhere. Just would like to understand the forces driving this stock price. It is the usual discomfort with uncertainty, and distrust of some motivations of the big players. An example of that I have seen in other companies is to take a position for the purpose of burying the product to promote another company. I am not saying this is happening here, but rather this is the type of behavior which scares me and which happens too frequently, and is hard to guard against as a small player in the big picture. I think for peace of mind Art is correct; you have to have faith in the product and management, and trust management to think about the stockholder's worries. Anytime they do something, such as Samuel's sale, it is necessary to work through one's worries and anger and evaluate the situation again. Naturally, I would prefer to not have to do this too often. Chuck