Backchannelmedia Teams with Hearst-Argyle on Boston ITV Trial

Backchannelmedia--a Boston-based company which late last year
announced that it had received an investment of $3 million, bringing
the total raised by its initial funding round (which has been underway
for the past two years) to $9.5 million--is teaming with WCVB-TV/DT
Channel 5, Hearst-Argyle's digital ABC affiliate in Boston, on a trial of
its TV-to-Internet click-through system. The trial will last 12 months
and will involve up to 1,000 viewers equipped with TV sets or set-top
boxes loaded with Backchannelmedia software, the company says. The
software allows a viewer watching a live or DVR-recorded show to use
their remote control to "bookmark" or transfer information in ads or
programming to a personal and customizable Internet
homepage--without interrupting their viewing experience--and then
order products featured in those ads or programming using their
favorite ecommerce sites. The company describes the solution as using
the Internet as a backend. In materials on its Web site,
Backchannelmedia describes how its solution might be used: "a viewer
could see a popular recording artist perform on television and then
through one click of their remote control could either bookmark the CD
in Amazon or immediately download the song from a digital music site,
thus capturing the value of the transaction for all parties to enjoy."
Backchannelmedia says that the solution--which it has been developing
for the past 10 years--will also allow advertisers to "know who is
responding to their advertising dollars and broadcasts, precisely who is
shopping from their Web sites, based on television exposure, and
immediately improve upon campaigns, and link advertisers' traditional
and digital advertising budgets forever." The first advertiser to use
Backchannelmedia's solution under the auspices of the Boston trial is
MGM Grand at Foxwoods (represented by Horizon Media).