Cablevision Forms Innovation Group, Canoe Staffs Up, Sezmi Raises $33 Million, Zappware Names New CEO

Ensequence and Visible World Team for EBIF Ads, New Zodiac EBIF Players, tru2way Launched in Chicago and Denver

EBIF Wins for BIAP, SlingPlayer Launches on BlackBerry, ActiveVideo Targets CE Devices, New Integra5 Deployments

Showtime Taps Oberon for ITV Promotion, New ITV Ad Deals for etc.tv, BBC Celebrates Red Button, Channel 4 Drops It

New ITV Weather Apps, Bravo Plans Interactive Fashion Series, New ITV Games Deals and Deployments

Program offers an industry-first combination of research services and marketing opportunities, available individually or as an annual subscription, for video and broadband service providers, technology suppliers and investors

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," David Housman, general manager of OCAP/tru2way specialist, Vidiom Systems, discusses the company's new focus, following its amicable split with its founder and former CEO, Tim Wahlers (who has established a new company, enableTV, from parts of Vidiom's professional services business--see [itvt] Issue 8.06 Part 1).

[itvt]’s Tracy Swedlow recently interviewed Bill Sheppard, chief digital media officer of the Client Software Group at Sun Microsystems. Audio of the interview is below, followed by a transcript that has been slightly edited for length.

Sheppard explains why Sun is bullish on tru2way; provides an overview of the new JavaFX language and its significance [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Maha Ibrahim, general partner at venture capital firm, Canaan Partners, discusses her company’s investment strategy. Among other things, she explains why Canaan is interested in early-stage HD broadband video providers; outlines the criteria that guide the company’s [...]

This issue contains back-to-back recorded episodes of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” devoted to the latest crop of interactive media prototypes from the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab, and to the AFI DigiFest 2008 event that the Digital Content Lab organized earlier this month in Los Angeles. [...]

[itvt]’s Tracy Swedlow caught up with David Verklin, CEO of Canoe Ventures–the company that is implementing Project Canoe, the US cable industry’s initiative to create a national unified platform for interactive and addressable advertising–at the NewTeeVee Conference in San Francisco last week. Audio of the interview is below, followed by an unedited transcript of the [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Tom Pratt, VP of programming and product development at The Weather Channel, discusses the channel’s interactive TV offerings and strategy. Topics covered include why The Weather Channel views implementing interactive TV as a high priority; the channel’s [...]

Sefy Ariely, VP of sales and marketing at IPTV middleware and applications provider, Orca Interactive, discusses some of the company’s newest offerings. They include an end-to-end hybrid solution for delivering TV over the open Internet, social TV applications, and a personalization capability that makes use of fingerprint-recognition technology. Ariely also discusses Orca’s new deployment [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Comcast Media Center (CMC) COO, Gary Traver, and Homer Gonzalez III, product manager for CMC’s HITS AxIS offering (note: the latter, whose name stands for “Headend in the Sky Advanced Interactive Services,” is a centralized platform that operates on the National Authorization System and that is billed as being designed to support developers of advanced OCAP/tru2way and ETV/EBIF interactive TV applications and to facilitate the deployment and management of those applications on cable systems serving small- to mid-sized markets), provide an overview of how HITS AxIS works and of the strategy and business model behind the platform. Topics covered include recent updates to the platform; the current state of interactive TV standards; CMC’s strategic relationships with companies such as Ensequence, itaas, Softel and Vidiom and with groups such as OEDN.net; and much more.

Earlier this week, Plano, Texas-based interactive TV technology provider, BIAP, announced that it has signed a five-year license agreement with Time Warner Cable that will see the latter using BIAP’s ETV User Agent in its advanced advertising platform. According to the companies, the BIAP software will enable Time Warner Cable digital set-top boxes to run EBIF applications created by the operator itself, or by third parties such as broadcast networks. In addition, the BIAP ETV User Agent will support a new version of Time Warner Cable’s MDN navigator, the companies say.



In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” BIAP CTO, Aaron Ye, the company’s chief scientist, Louis Slothouber, and its EVP of marketing, Dan Levinson, discuss the new Time Warner Cable deal and its significance. Topics covered include the interactive and targeted advertising capabilities that the BIAP ETV User Agent will provide for Time Warner Cable; how the new deployment relates to Project Canoe, the US cable industry’s initiative to enable a national platform for targeted, interactive advertising (note: BIAP’s offerings include a product dubbed “Canoe in a Box”); BIAP’s plans for the future; and much more.

San Francisco-based start-up, iWidgets, recently unveiled its flagship iWidgets Social Syndication Platform and announced that CBS Interactive had signed up as the platform’s first customer. The platform allows end-users to watch clips of CBS television shows directly within popular social networks and to interact with other viewers through such features as content-sharing, polls, ratings and contests.


In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” iWidgets founder and CEO, Peter Yared, discusses iWidgets’ offerings, its new deal with CBS, and how the company is positioned in the broadband video and social networking spaces in general. Topics covered include how content owners can use the company’s platform to add interactivity to broadband video and then syndicate the resulting assets; the company’s various partnerships; its business model; how it plans to evolve its platform going forward; and much more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Dean Denhart, president and CEO of BlackArrow, a company that specializes in targeted advertising management technologies for on-demand platforms (note: among other things, the company recently announced that it had raised $20 million in new funding and that it had integrated its ad-management system with Akamai’s Media Framework), provides an overview of the company and its positioning in the market. Topics covered include the various components that comprise the emerging market for targeted advertising; the growth in interest in targeted advertising and how that is shaping the current competitive landscape; the significance to the advertising industry of the tru2way/OCAP and ETV/EBIF standards; how BlackArrow believes its strategy differentiates it; how the company plans to use its new funding going forward; and more.

InteractiveTV Today [itvt], the first, best and most widely read news source on interactive and multiplatform television, is pleased to present the third annual TV of Tomorrow Show, March 10th-11th (Tuesday-Wednesday), 2009 in San Francisco, California at the famous Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.





The first two TV of Tomorrow Shows were praised by sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and attendees not only as true experts’ conferences that attracted a veritable “who’s who” of the interactive TV industry, but as offering a thoroughly unique and enjoyable experience. We are working hard to ensure that the TV of Tomorrow Show 2009–which is already attracting an array of high-powered speakers and which will feature a line-up of fascinating entertainments–is even better.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Perry Wu, founder and CEO of BitGravity, and Angelo Fernando, communications and outreach manager at Arizona State University, discuss the new Decision Theater at ASU, which incorporates video, interactivity, graphics, and dynamic data, all enabled by BitGravity's suite of services and products. Topics covered include the concepts behind and the goals of the Decision Theater; projects that have been conducted there; BitGravity's market segment and offerings; how the company's technologies are used to power interactive video experiences; and more.

--Radio Interview: ActiveVideo's Jeff Miller Discusses the Deployment

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," ActiveVideo Networks president and CEO, Jeff Miller, discusses the new Oceanic Time Warner Cable deployment and its significance. Topics covered include the various services that ActiveVideo Networks is powering for Oceanic Time Warner Cable; how end-users are responding to those services; why ActiveVideo Networks is now finally gaining traction in the cable and IPTV markets; how the company plans to develop its technologies and services going forward; how it views the US cable industry's ETV/EBIF and tru2way standardization initiatives; and more.

New Fantasy Sports Apps from Verizon and AT&T, Versus to Offer Two-Screen ITV, Audience Grows for Virgin's VOD

New Ensequence Apps, New Bravo Initiative, Olympics ITV Apps Prove Successful, Current TV Teams with Twitter

Philips Demo's 3D VOD, Microsoft Launches Mediaroom Ad Platform, Osmosys Launches Quick Porting

Macrovision's tru2way Deal, Amino's Plug-In PVR Solution, OpenTV Integrates Flash, Move Partners with Inuk

*Scoop!: New OCAP Company Spun Off from Vidiom, OpenTV Buys Ruzz TV, Canoe Ventures to Launch First Product in 120 Days

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Steve Tranter, VP of broadband and interactive delivery for NDS Americas, discusses the survey (which, among other things, showed that US DVR owners rank the DVR as the third-most indispensable household item, behind only the washing machine and the microwave); outlines NDS's plans for its own XTV DVR platform and discusses the future of the DVR in general; assesses the impact on the DVR industry of the recent court decision in favor of Cablevision's RS-DVR service; describes how NDS is responding to the US cable industry's efforts to deploy the tru2way standard; and much more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Jesse Alexander (bio), co-executive producer and writer of "Heroes"; Joe Tolerico (bio), senior producer at NBC Universal; Mark Ryan (bio), digital media lead producer at the Disney Channel; Marcelino Ford-Livene (bio) and David Jensen (bio), co-governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Interactive Media Peer Group; and Geoff Katz (bio), the Interactive Media Peer Group's Awards Committee chair, discuss this year's winners and why they were chosen.

A roundtable comprised of some of the most high-profile designers and
design experts in the interactive TV industry–Patrick Donoghue, SVP
of strategic product development at Cablevision; John Gilles, VP of
media and entertainment at Method; Terry Green, principal of
twenty2product; Dale Herigstad, chief creative officer at Schematic;
Stephanie Otto, CEO of Brainstorm Communications; David Preisman,
VP of interactive television at Showtime Networks; and Suzanne
Stefanac, director of the American Film Institute Digital Content
Lab–provide our listeners with an overview of the current state of the
interactive TV design space and share their insights on what makes for
good ITV design. Topics discussed include the most important things
to keep in mind when designing ITV interfaces; the potential impact of
gestural interfaces, such as that of the Nintendo Wii, on ITV design;
how TiVo’s and Apple’s “game-changing” interfaces have impacted the
ITV design space; the areas where the most innovation is currently
taking place; the challenges of designing applications for multiple
platforms; and much more.

Ben Bennett was named CEO of OpenTV in March, after serving as the company’s COO and acting CEO since August, 2007 (he has been at OpenTV since March, 2000). He recently spoke to [itvt]’s Tracy Swedlow about the three-phase strategy he is implementing, which, among other things, has seen OpenTV jettisoning a number of peripheral businesses in order to focus on its core middleware and advanced advertising offerings; about the company’s ongoing efforts to penetrate the US cable market; about its view of the OCAP and EBIF standardization
efforts; about Core3, the next generation of its middleware, which will
support multiple, concurrent interactive TV applications; about why he
believes HDTV, PVR and broadband are bringing about a “perfect
storm” for ITV; about the company’s efforts to develop TV experiences
for the next generation of viewers; and much, much more.

John Callahan recently spoke to [itvt]’s Tracy Swedlow about why he decided to
leave Time Warner Cable and join ActiveVideo Networks; about the projects
he plans to work on at ActiveVideo, including developing a new
programming-navigation model which he terms “never-ending navigation”
and which he says will “put content front and center”; about his view of the
current status of the US cable industry’s OCAP/tru2way and ETV/EBIF
standardization initiatives and how they relate to ActiveVideo’s technologies
and services; and much, much more.

In this recorded interview from [itvt]’s radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” the uxTV event chair, Microsoft TV usability engineer Michael J. Darnell, and David Sloo, director of user experience for Microsoft Connected TV, who is part of the team
producing the event, describe how uxTV came into being; provide an overview of the event’s sessions and speakers; share their own thoughts
on the current state and the future of usability design; and more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Patrick Barry, VP of
connected TV at Yahoo!’s Connected Life division, provides an
overview of the Widget Channel and its partnering and monetization
strategy; discusses the technology that underlies it; explains why
Yahoo! is seeking to enter the interactive TV space; outlines future
plans for the Widget Channel initiative; and much more.

To listen to the show,
click here.

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Dalen Harrison, CEO of
Ensequence; Peter Low, president and COO of Ensequence; Bill
Niemeyer, chief of analysis and research at BlackArrow; Gowri
Shankar, SVP of sales and business development at SinglePoint; and
Rachelle Zoffer, director of interactive TV at Verizon, discuss ongoing
interactive coverage of the Beijing Olympics. Topics covered include
an ETV/EBIF application which Ensequence and Verizon have
developed and deployed to all subscribers of Verizon's FiOS TV
service in Oregon, and which marks the first mass, commercial
deployment of an ETV/EBIF app; multiscreen Olympics applications
that Ensequence has developed for DISH Network; a portfolio of
interactive mobile services that SinglePoint has developed for NBC;
how NBC is using advertising to promote interactive services around
the Olympics; and more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Integra5 CEO, Meredith
Flynn-Ripley, provides listeners with an extensive overview of the
Videotron deployment and the new MediaFriends application suite.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Fred Singer, CEO of
Anystream, and Russell Zack, the company’s VP of product
management, discuss its new partnership with NBC that sees it
powering the delivery of the broadcaster’s on-demand coverage of the

Beijing Olympics to VOD, Web, electronic sell-through and mobile
platforms. [...]

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

All the latest news and views on multiplatform interactive television

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Patrick Koppula, founder and
CEO of ffwd–a company that has just beta-launched a service that uses
social networking to facilitate Internet programming discovery and to
enhance the online viewing experience–discusses the service (which is
scheduled to launch commercially in September), the thinking behind
it, [...]

In this recorded interview, members of the Academy of Television Arts
& Sciences Interactive Media Peer Group Primetime Emmy Awards
Committee–Sanjit Das (ABC), Geoff Katz (Code and Theory),
Marcelino Ford-Livene (Intel), Suzanne Stefanac (American Film
Institute), and Marcia Zellers (Vendaloo)–discuss the finalists for the
2008 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement
in Interactive Media and why they were chosen; describe [...]

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Interactive Media Peer
Group has selected the finalists for the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards
for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media.
This year, the awards recognize creative achievement in two areas of
interactive media endeavor: Nonfiction and Fiction.
The finalists for the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding
Creative Achievement in Interactive Media [...]

Bill Bradford’s responsibilities at Fox Broadcasting include leading
the broadcaster’s broadband TV strategy. He recently spoke to [itvt]’s
Tracy Swedlow about the thinking behind that strategy, which sees
Fox distributing its programming through a wide range of online
venues; about the broadcaster’s plans to implement new broadband
TV advertising formats; about the ways in which broadband TV is
changing audience expectations; [...]

In late May, Microsoft TV announced the beta release of its new
Mediaroom Presentation Framework, which it says will allow content
that is already available on the Web to be repurposed quickly and easily
for interactive IPTV applications, including applications that allow for
the "seamless blending" of a television show's broadcast and Web
elements. Shari Barnett, Microsoft TV's director of media services,
recently provided [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow with an overview of the new
release, covering such topics as its relationship to Microsoft
Mediaroom's other application-development environments; how it
works by exposing the markup language that powers Mediaroom's core
user interface; Microsoft's plans to support multiple triggering
standards in the Presentation Framework; the kinds of personal media
and social networking applications that Microsoft expects the
Presentation Framework to enable; and much more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Tom Morgan, chief strategy
officer of Move Networks (clients include ABC, Discovery and Fox),
provides an overview of that company’s technology and strategy;
explains why it sees itself as a company that delivers digital television
rather than broadband TV; discusses its interest in [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Alex Magoun, director of the
David Sarnoff Library, discusses David Sarnoff’s legacy; outlines
parallels between the early development of television and the
development of interactive TV today; describes the David Sarnoff
Library’s work; discusses Sarnoff’s and Philo Farnsworth’s respective
roles in the invention of [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Steven Roberts, SVP of new media and business development at DirecTV, and Tyler Slocum, the company's senior director of ITV and DVR services, provide an update on DirecTV's interactive TV offerings. Topics discussed include usage statistics for DirecTV's various ITV services, the company's ITV strategy, its future ITV and DVR plans, and more.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” Michael Finn, VP of
advertising sales at DISH Network, and Scott Higgins, the company’s
director of interactive programming, discuss DISH’s new interactive
TV advertising deal with NBC Universal, and the company’s plans to
make increasing use of the DVR hard drive for its [...]

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow,” sponsored by TiVo, Jim
Louderback, CEO of Revision3, provides an overview of his
company–which bills itself as “an actual TV network for the Web,”
and which produces its own original, broadcast-quality programming.