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

To: Raybert who wrote (790)	3/24/1999 8:51:00 AM
From: Steve Hausser	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

ACTV, Pioneer sign interactive TV pact From ZDNet By Robert Lemos 03/23/99 07:31:00 PM Deal keeps ACTV toward the front of the pack of interactive TV software providers. Boasting technology that let's viewers "be the director," interactive TV software maker ACTV Inc. revealed on Tuesday a partnership with interactive TV system creator Pioneer Digital Technologies Inc. to put its personalization technology into Pioneer's digital-TV software and set-top boxes. "This is individualized television," said David Alworth, executive vice president of ACTV Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the New York, N.Y.-based company. "It allows for the viewer to sit back and enjoy content that they already like, adding enhanced content." Set-top boxes seeded with ACTV's client software can take advantage of more than 60 viewing options, including watching a show from a different angle, watching an instant replay on demand, displaying statistics and other information, and playing outtakes and interviews. Boost for interactivity? For ACTV (Nasdaq:IATV), the Pioneer deal delivers a third platform on which to run ACTV's interactive, or "individualized," content and keeps ACTV toward the front of the pack of interactive TV software providers. "This does give them an edge," said Joselle Bonte, vice president of entertainment and new media for TV technology watcher Ryan Hankin Kent Inc. "But the reality is whether many of these boxes will be ordered by the cable operators ... It will probably only be a moderate success, but ACTV is a survivor." News of the deal gave the company's stock a modest boost up 1.4 percent to $6.84. Detailing the deal The Pioneer deal is only the latest for the interactive TV software maker. Others include a seven-year commitment with Fox to enhance the network's sports channels with content that can be personalized by the user. "It takes Fox $50,000 to produce a single TV channel from a sports event," said ACTV's Alworth. "It takes us only 10 percent of that to create our content live, in real time." Already, the company has created over 400 events for a pilot project. This summer ACTV expects to kick off its initial content offerings in the Dallas and Houston areas using cable provider Tele-Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:TCOMA). Yet, the race towards the interactive goal line is hyper-competitive. Among ACTV's rivals are some heavy hitters in the computer industry, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), Network Computer Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW), and many others. To ward itself, ACTV is wielding the rights to 18 patents and a small 13K piece of system software that is needed to run its services on a set-top box. Will consumer buy it? Getting that software onto the boxes is what the Pioneer deal is all about. "The big caveat for these guys -- is how fast they can get a million (ACTV-enhanced) set-top boxes out there," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with new media watcher In-Stat Group. "It's at that point that advertising revenues take off." For ACTV, that potentially could be quite fast. A deal with General Instruments means that the 1.5 million digital set boxes that GI has sold have the potential to become ACTV-compliant devices. In a deal with TV Guide Interactive, ACTV will have its tiny 13K software component downloaded to every active box sometime this summer, when TV Guide Interactive upgrades its own in-box software. And, the other major set-top box maker in the U.S. market, Scientific Atlanta (NYSE:SFA), has also agreed to include the software in its new boxes. Still, ACTV's business model asks the consumer to pay for enhanced content on a program-by-program basis -- a model that has proven unpopular in the past. In May 1997, cable operator Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) put the skids on its interactive TV project, dubbed "Pegasus," after a two-and-a-half-year trial involving over 3,000 homes in Orlando, Florida. The trial found the technology to be cool, but guilty of being far too expensive. Alworth thinks that this time, it will be different. "You don't know until you put it out there," he said, "but all of our research certainly is solid -- solid enough for Fox to sign a deal with us; solid enough for us to develop content for the market."