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–Launches Suite of Personalizable, Cross-Platform Guidance Tools
–Adds Clickable Broadband Video Listings to TVGuide.com
–Signs Data Distribution Deal with CBS, License Deal with Verizon

EPG developer/interactive TV programmer, Gemstar-TV Guide, has unveiled a new suite of cross-platform, viewer-personalizable guidance tools and services, called My TV Guide, which it says are designed to help consumers navigate the rapidly expanding content choices and new content genres resulting from the emergence of multiplatform video entertainment. It plans to license the tools and services to cable and satellite operators, telcos, consumer electronics companies and wireless operators, including companies that are already employing its i-Guide, Passport and consumer-electronics EPG product lines. According to the company, My TV Guide products and services that are designed to complement its existing EPG’s will begin to roll out later this year, with the first deployments taking place primarily on the Web, and with livingroom-oriented applications expected to reach consumers in 2008. Gemstar says it expects to generate revenues from the My TV Guide offerings via licensing fees, advertising and commerce.

According to Gemstar, the My TV Guide suite of tools and services includes:

• "MetaPlus Enhanced Data," which it says includes new forms of guidance content and data "to move beyond schedules to a more portal-style guide experience" that incorporates program graphics, video previews and extras, celebrity and movie data, editorial recommendations, family ratings and show recaps.
• Personalized guide services, which will be based on the company’s proprietary "Smart Recommendations" technology. According to the company, the latter uses sophisticated algorithms to match viewers with the shows most relevant to their interests. In addition, the company says its editorial staff is creating "dozens" of specialized hot lists, highlighting the best programs for specialized interests.  
• Cross-platform messaging between set-top boxes, PC’s and mobile devices. According to the company, end-users will be able, for example, to use a remote recording service to schedule recordings from their laptop while traveling, or receive alerts on their mobiles when a favorite program is about to air.
• "Advanced Guide Ad Services," which Gemstar says will bring capabilities associated with Internet advertising to EPG’s. According to the company, these services will allow its customers to monetize their EPG’s through targeted, graphically rich ads and will "offer interactive capabilities important to program promotion and conventional advertisers, including the ability to view a full-screen video, order a pay-per-view program, set up a DVR recording, visit an interactive showcase and request additional information."
• Client applications, which Gemstar says will be delivered to service providers as a toolkit and which will be designed to speed up client-side deployment of My TV Guide services. According to Gemstar, companies that deploy My TV Guide will be able to deploy "MyGuide," a personalized guidance home page or TV "dashboard," which will provide a summary of favorite programs and recommendations for each member of a household, on TV, Web and mobile environments. Those companies will also be able to enhance their consumer Web experience, Gemstar says, by embedding "Listings2Go," a co-branded online EPG application.

Gemstar claims to have agreements in place with a number of multichannel video providers to collaborate on My TV Guide services: its TVGuide.com Web site will offer remote recording services for Verizon’s FiOS TV service, EchoStar’s DISH Network, and DirecTV. The remote recording capability will also be offered to the company’s EPG affiliates as part of the A26 i-Guide release, which is scheduled for availability early next year (note: field trials are scheduled to begin in the second half of this year). In addition, the company says it has signed agreements to provide its Listings2Go online guide application to 21 cable companies, including top-10 MSO, Suddenlink.

In other Gemstar-TV Guide news:

• The company has beta-launched an Online Video Guide on its TVGuide.com Web site, which it says is designed to allow users to "channel-surf" Internet video content and provide "one-click access" to online shows and videos. According to the company, the ad-supported Online Video Guide will index videos from over 55 major, entertainment-focused Web sites, including sites affiliated with broadcast networks and cable channels. It allows end-users to search for video in a variety of ways, including by title, description or keyword field. It also allows end-users to browse videos through such categories as top videos, top TV shows, top celebrities, network and genre. The new guide will provide daily picks of videos deemed "new and hot" by TV Guide editors, and will also offer quick links to the videos that are most popular with TVGuide.com visitors. While it will be focused primarily on professionally produced content, it will also highlight popular viral videos. Rather than hosting video clips at TVGuide.com, the new guide will link out to video host sites: according to Gemstar, viewers will be sent directly to the specific clip or program they are interested in viewing, bypassing the host site’s homepage or other landing page. The company says that the Online Video Guard–which was built on the new Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (note: SharePoint is used to index and catalog video metadata)–includes a number of innovative and interactive advertising features. "Our research tells us that a majority of users searching for videos on the Internet are looking for specific, professionally produced content," Paul Greenberg, general manager of TV Guide Online, said in a prepared statement. "Our product will provide these users with a search and browse mechanism that is distinguished from others in the market by its ability to provide meaningful and relevant search results."
• The company has signed a long-term EPG data distribution and advertising agreement with CBS, that will enable data for its consumer electronics-focused EPG, TV Guide On Screen, to be distributed over CBS owned-and-operated stations and participating affiliates (note: data for the guides is currently distributed by PBS-subsidiary, National Datacast, via the vertical-blanking interval). According to the companies, distribution of the guide data will begin as soon as the necessary equipment is deployed, which they say will happen over the next few months. The deal will see CBS-owned and affiliated stations transmitting TV Guide On Screen data with their digital broadcast signals to digital TV and digital recording devices that incorporate the EPG. In exchange, CBS and its affiliates will have access to a portion of the EPG’s advertising inventory to promote their programming nationally and locally. "CBS is available across the country and signing this agreement with them will allow for the TV Guide On Screen IPG data to have the broadest distribution possible, and will bring the ability to quickly and easily find the programming consumers demand to more than 95% of households nationwide," Tom Carson, Gemstar’s president of North American interactive program guides, said in a prepared statement. "This is an important step as we move toward the FCC mandate of 100% digital transmission, which takes effect in 2009."
• The company has signed an agreement with incumbent US telco, Verizon, that will provide the latter with patent license rights for EPG’s and other related technologies it uses on its FiOS TV service. In addition, the deal, which is Gemstar’s first with a telco operating a pay-TV service, will see the companies collaborating on a solution that will enable FiOS TV customers to schedule recordings remotely on their DVR’s, using TV Guide listings. "We are pleased to have this patent license agreement in place with Verizon, our first with a telco video provider," Gemstar CEO, Rich Battista, said in a prepared statement. "Following recent agreements with British Sky Broadcasting in the United Kingdom and with Yahoo!, this new Verizon deal signifies the continued and growing value of our intellectual property in new markets and platforms."
• The company’s TV Guide Channel recently launched an interactive TV application on EchoStar’s DISH Network. For more on the latter, see [itvt]’s exclusive report and interview with TV Guide Channel president, Ryan O’Hara, in Issue 7.28.

Originally Published: May 30, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.32 Part 3

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