DirecTV Expands Interactive TV Coverage of US Open

--Adds New Broadband and Mobile Services to NFL Sunday Ticket
--Launches Broadband Video Service for "Passions"

US satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, recently teamed with NBC Universal-owned cable/satellite channel, USA Network, and with the US Tennis Association (USTA) to once again offer interactive TV coverage of the US Open tennis championship (note: the companies first offered interactive coverage of the championship last year). The free service, entitled somewhat clumsily "US Open Interactive On USA Network Only On DirecTV," provided DirecTV customers with 300 hours of tournament coverage, including coverage of many early-round matches; on-demand statistics and information; and the ability to view up to five matches simultaneously (all with live, onscreen scoring) on a special US Open Mix channel. Viewers could highlight each of the Mix channel's miniscreens to listen to its audio feed, and could also opt to view any of the miniscreens in full-screen mode. "The success of the US Open Interactive on USA on DirecTV last year, showed us that consumers are responding to interactive television," NBC Universal EVP, Henry Ahn, said in a prepared statement. "Through this partnership with DirecTV, we are able to provide consumers with the most robust US Open television experience available anywhere."

This year, the service offered a number of features that weren't available last year. Two new interactive on-screen features provided detailed match coverage information, providing viewers with enhanced navigation through the many matches available on the service: a "Matches On Now" feature provided a list of the matches currently taking place, each match's scores, and the DirecTV channel on which the match was being broadcast (viewers could tune directly to any match); and a "Matches on Later" feature listed full match schedules for each of the five featured courts, including start times and channel numbers (viewers could again use this feature to tune directly to any of the channels). The service also provided coverage of the conclusions of any matches that began prior to, but had not finished by, 5:00PM (note: USA's broadcast of the tournament signed off between 5:00PM and 7:00PM daily); as well as coverage of live interviews and press conferences from the US Open press room, during breaks in the on-court action.

In other DirecTV news:

• The company has enhanced its NFL Sunday Ticket package of football coverage with new broadband and mobile video services. Sunday Ticket customers who subscribe to the package's "SuperFan" option ($99 on top of a basic Sunday Ticket subscription) will have the entire weekly line-up of Sunday Ticket games, as well as the Sunday Ticket Red Zone channel, available on broadband video every Sunday through a new NFL Sunday Ticket Supercast service; and will also be able to access highlights from all games in progress on-demand on their mobiles, together with scores and clock updates, through a new Sunday Ticket Mobile service. As it has the past two seasons, Sunday Ticket will once again offer various interactive TV features, including an NFL Sunday Ticket Game Mix channel that offers a navigable eight-screen display; a real-time scoreboard of al the day's games, with a new "single-game mode" that allows viewers to track the real-time score from one game of their choice in the corner of the screen (note: viewers can use the scoreboard to tune directly to any game); an enhanced version of the PlayerTracker fantasy football app, which now provides statistics for up to two teams of nine players each, and delivers real- time on-screen alerts on any Sunday Ticket channel; and Games Stats and Player Stats features which offer team and individual player statistics, and a Today's Best feature which provides a list of the top statistical performances from across the NFL (note: viewers can now tune directly from the Stats displays to the game of their choice).  
• The company has teamed with NBC to launch a broadband video service for fans of "Passions," the cancelled NBC soap opera that has received a new lease on life on DirecTV's own entertainment channel, The 101. The $19.95-a-month service (located at www.nbc.com/passions) makes each new daily episode of the show available for eight weeks. DirecTV is also now enhancing The 101's broadcasts of "Passions" with interactive TV quizzes that allow viewers to use their remotes to answer questions about the show, and its storyline, characters and cast; in addition the channel is offering an interactive/user-generated-content talkshow, entitled "Passions LIVE!," in which the soap opera's castmembers answer questions phoned or emailed in by viewers, and which invites viewers to post videos on a Web site for broadcast.

Originally Published: October 12, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.39 Part 3A

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