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Microcap & Penny Stocks : IATV - ACTV Interactive Television -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BridgeTech who wrote (4664)	10/14/1999 9:53:00 PM
From: art slott	Respond to of 4748

Trojan Cable Box Although the Libertys are wholly owned subsidiaries of AT&T, master dealmaker John Malone effectively retained control of them. Nonetheless, while AT&T-TCI systems carry services in which Liberty holds stakes, competing services are excluded. And AT&T's interactive TV deal with Liberty is of a type that sends open Internet proponents ballistic. Liberty was given capacity on AT&T's nationwide broadband network that made it "capable of carrying 15-20 video channels under current digital compression technology." The agreement on file with the SEC says the capacity is "to be used for interactive, category-specific channels providing entertainment, information and merchandise programming . . . accessible through advanced set-top devices deployed by AT&T." Liberty also has "preferred vendor status" regarding the "access, timing and placement of new programming services on the AT&T Systems." Moreover, the agreement envisions conditions that would leave Liberty programming "the sole vehicle of AT&T and Liberty for interactive video services in the specified categories of channels to be carried on the AT&T Systems." Much of the Liberty deal terms were set by John Malone in the sale of TCI to AT&T. But AT&T appears to have been of similar mind. The agreement provides for AT&T to enter into joint ventures with Liberty regarding interactive video services with the right to acquire Liberty's share of them after three years. The Liberty arrangements involve the type of content control that gives nightmares to Internet open-access aficionados. But because the control is in the area of interactive television rather than the Internet, the aficionados have missed their import. Just how closely related interactive television is to the Internet becomes clear in a partnership created in May by Liberty and Viacom's MTV to use some of Liberty's AT&T channel capacity for music-related interactive programming. Included are "e-commerce applications" and "services intended principally to be delivered to Internet browser functionality, even if operating through a set-top box or a television set and/or used to deliver video clips or video programs." thestandard.com. View Next 10 Messages \| Respond \| Previous \| Next Remove SubjectMark View SubjectMarks IATV: ACTV INC(NASDAQ) Thursday Oct 14, 1999 9:48PM ET Symbol Last Trade Change High Low Volume IATV 4:00PM 15 15/16 + 1/2 3.24%