EchoStar Taps BIAP to Build Interactive TV Portal for 2008 Elections

--BIAP Awarded its Second Patent

Plano, Texas-based interactive TV company, BIAP Systems (note: in 2006, the company, whose name is an acronym for "Broadband Interactive Applications," signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Time Warner Cable, which has deployed its applications in a number of markets), has been tapped by US satellite-TV provider, EchoStar (operates the DISH Network service), to build an interactive TV portal for the 2008 national, state and local elections. This represents BIAP's first deal with EchoStar. Dubbed "DISH Decision 2008," the new portal initially features content from Glassbooth, a nonprofit organization that has developed a technology--until now available only online--which enables viewers to rank the importance of key issues related to candidates, and to answer a series of questions based on their personal rankings; the technology then uses the results of these surveys to match each viewer with the candidate whose take on the issues corresponds most closely with his or her own. "DISH Network is the first in the country to provide this unique interactive television application," Michael Kelly, EchoStar's EVP of commercial and business services, said in a prepared statement. "The majority of Americans follow the election on their televisions through news and information networks. Now these same American voters can dig deeper into the election on that very same medium, their television set. Only DISH Network customers will have this ability." Added Glassbooth founder, Alex Jacobs: "DISH Network and BIAP are fantastic partners: they align with our core values of education and interactive access to unbiased information, and are bringing Glassbooth to America in a way never before possible in the television medium."

EchoStar and BIAP are touting the Dish Decision 2008 ITV portal as "revolutionary on several fronts": in addition to helping viewers navigate the "complex election landscape," the companies say, it offers candidates and other advertisers the opportunity to target viewers by placing tailored messages around specific issues, topics and geographies (note: the companies point out that around $3 billion is expected to be spent on political ads in the US this year). The companies say they are planning to roll out "a second-generation application" of the election portal over the coming months, that will include interactive, 30-second ads which link to detailed, targeted content; long-form video; requests for information; and other lead-generating features tailored to the political process.

In other BIAP news: the company has been awarded a patent by the US Patent Office for its agent-based content-retrieval technology and for its transcoding technology, which allows information to be displayed from one format to another (note: in this case, the transcoding occurs between the Web and television). The company received its first patent--for its apparatus and method of information retrieval and display of Internet content--back in September, 2006 (note: while that patent covered use on PC's, mobile phones, PDA's and television, BIAP's primary use of the technology described in the patent has been for interactive television). According to the company, the patents describe a "foundation technology" for all its interactive TV applications that are currently in use, including its eBay on TV app, its fantasy baseball and fantasy football apps, the Winter Olympics app it built for NBC Universal (ran in 2006), and its PITV app (note: the latter, whose name stands for "personalized information television," allows viewers to retrieve personalized local news and other information).

BIAP's now-patented technology uses artificial intelligence agents to retrieve and display data on televisions. The agents are downloaded to the set-top box, whence they retrieve content from various Internet locations at pre-scheduled intervals (the update intervals can be as short as a minute, and updates can also be carried out on-command by viewers). According to the company, the agents can run on all kinds of set-top boxes, including widely deployed Scientific-Atlantic and Motorola boxes, and are downloaded to the customer premises from software previously loaded into the cable headend. "BIAP is powering the interactive television revolution with today's most innovative products," BIAP CEO, Tim Peters, said in a prepared statement. "The award of BIAP's agent retrieval and transcoding patent, along with the first patent, secures BIAP's place as the pre-eminent provider of interactive television features that will engage viewers in ways previously never dreamed of and make their lives more convenient."

Published in Issue 7.58 Part 3  January 14, 2008  Subscribe: http://www.itvt.com