itvt

Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, said last week
that it has successfully delivered a series of interactive services to
Swiss cable operator, ESR Sion. The services–which are running on
Motorola 1920C hybrid DVB-C/IP HD set-top boxes equipped with
KreaTV middleware–will be offered in the city of Sion under the
brand, netcomTV. According to Zappware, the netcomTV offering
includes HDTV, an interactive portal, an EPG, startover TV, catch-up
TV and network PVR. The offering is based on Zappware’s iView for
Operators, a suite of services which the company claims is compatible
with a broad range of set-top and middleware platforms. The
netcomTV service’s VOD component employs VOD management
products from EventIS, VOD servers from Motorola, and conditional
access technology from Latens. “We deliver interactive services which
are TV platform-independent (MHP, OpenTV, IPTV…) and which we
have pre-integrated with a variety of EPG and VOD technology
vendors,” Patrick Vos, Zappware’s director of business development,
said in a prepared statement. “This off-the-shelf, pre-integrated
approach allows small- and mid-size operators to offer a cutting-edge
suite of [interactive TV] applications to their subscribers, independent
of the set-top-box/middleware platform and/or headend technology
selected by these operators.”

In other Zappware news:

• The company says it has developed a walled-garden service for
  Belgian healthcare provider, Socialistische Mutualiteiten (SM). The
  service, which is located in the “Extra/Health & Lifestyle” section of
  cable operator Telenet’s interactive TV portal (note: Telenet uses MHP
  middleware running on ADB set-tops), provides information tailored to
  the viewer’s region, interactive quizzes, and the ability to order
  brochures. Starting this month, the service also allows viewers to watch
  informational videos and to search for local SM offices. Zappware says
  that its iView Portal product allows SM to update the service’s content
  via a user-friendly Web interface. The new walled-garden service is
  being promoted via red-button i-ads running on regional TV stations:
  Telenet digital viewers who press red while watching the spots are
  taken directly to the service. According to Zappware’s commercial
  director, Herman Eerdekens, the service is based on the company’s
  iFormats offering: “The client was not only seeking a better
  performance but also a fast time-to-air,” he explained. “That is why we
  proposed an iFormat-based solution. Zappware’s iFormats are solid
  interactive services which we have deployed before and which we built
  in a modular way for easy rebranding, customization, and deployment
  on various TV platforms.”

  

• The company says that it has completed a major revamp of
  ProsiebenSat1/SBS broadcaster VT4’s Digitext service on the Telenet
  platform, enabling it to support branded direct marketing campaigns,
  and also making it more easy to access. According to Zappware, the
  revamp allows VT4 to offer advertisers such services as branded
  request forms, and brand-sponsored quizzes in its digital teletext
  service. In addition, the service can now be accessed in two ways: as
  before, via the remote control’s digital teletext button (pressing the
  button takes the viewer to an index page, where the TV show s/he was
  watching appears in scaled-down mode), and now also via the red
  button (pressing red brings up a “Direct Access” menu, overlaid over
  the program the viewer was watching: the pop-up menu allows the
  viewer to click directly to the specific areas of the Digitext service s/he
  is interested in, and also allows VT4 to promote other interactive TV
  services, including games, walled gardens and its clients’ branded direct
  marketing campaigns).

  

• Earlier this year, the company created a VOD-enabled interactive TV
  application to enhance a commercial for Danone’s Danette candy
  products. The commercial, which ran from mid January through mid
  February, invited viewers to decide which new flavor of Danette candy
  Danone should launch (note: the launch was scheduled to take place in
  March): viewers who pressed the red button during the commercial
  could access videoclips of a “Miss Danette Caramel,” a “Miss Danette
  Pure Chocolate,” and a “Miss Danette Nougat,” each of whom
  introduced themselves to the viewers and tried to win their votes. Once
  viewers cast their votes, they were able to take part in a quiz, for a
  chance to win one of three 4,000-Euro trips or 250 MP3 players.