Newsbytes Story about Wavetop
Dave
Newsbytes News Network
(c) Copyright 1998 Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Friday, March 27, 1998
WaveTop Delivers Free Internet Content Through TV Signal
Patrick McKenna, Newsbytes
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1998 MAR 27 (NB). "Everyone has taken a
wait-and-see attitude about WaveTop, but now is the time to experience
free Internet content at television speed," said Sandy Goldman, Senior
VP/GM, WaveTop. On April 6, WaveTop will begin transmission of free
Internet content to personal computers that are television-enabled.
"Text, animation, graphics, video, and audio, it is all available
through WaveTop, continued Goldman. "If you don't have a TV card, you
can order one from our Web site (http://www.wavetop.net ). A typical TV
board costs approximately $89.
WaveTop, the consumer service of WavePhore Inc. [NASDAQ:WAVO],
designed the new service to operate within Windows 95 and Windows 98.
Through an agreement with Microsoft, the service will be included with
Windows 98 when the operating system upgrade ships in June.
On April 6, WaveTop will flip the switch and begin content delivery
from a number of top Internet content providers. The company's
technology uses a space within standard television signals called the
vertical blanking interval (VBI). In this case, WaveTop uses a VBI
within the Public Broadcasting Network.
The first transmission will cover the top fifty US television markets.
Within the coming months, Goldman said the service will cover 85 percent
of the US.
How does it work? "Once you have the TV card and our software
installed," continued Goldman, "you connect your cable or TV antenna,
select the content you want from our available providers and you are
ready to get free Internet content."
The software is available free from the Web site. "Everything from
WaveTop is free," added Goldman. "We will even send you the software on
CD and pay for the postage." Users do have to buy their own TV cards,
but WaveTop service and software are free. Similar to many World Wide
Web sites, WaveTop's new service is supported by advertisements.
From a technical perspective, WaveTop's software reads the VBI,
downloads content according to a subscriber's customized request, stores
it on an allotted hard drive space and notifies the user when new
content is available for viewing.
WaveTop says the service is the first to broadly and economically
overcome common bandwidth limitations of the Internet. When fully
launched, WaveTop will reach 99 percent of all U.S. households using the
signals of 264 television stations in the PBS network.
Internet content providers for the new service include Time Inc. New
Media, which includes the online versions of: People, Time,
Entertainment Weekly, Money, Fortune, Sports Illustrated for Kids and
ZDNet which includes ZD Net News, on-line versions of ComputerLife,
Family PC and Yahoo Internet Life. Also providing content are USA Today,
Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, CBS SportsLine, PBS ONLINE,
Quote.com, The Weather Channel, N2Ks Music Boulevard, Barnes and
Noble.com, Universal Press Syndicate -- Comics, Women's Wire and
Prevention's Healthy Ideas, ParentTime, SuperMarkets Online and NECX.
WaveTop's April 6 debut coincides with the company's demonstration at
the National Association Broadcasters in Las Vegas.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com
14:45 CST
|
