Zappware Creates Interactive Digital Teletext Service for Vitaya

Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, has been
tapped by Flemish-language commercial broadcaster, Vitaya, to
develop an interactive digital teletext service (note: Vitaya targets what
it describes as "young active women situated in the higher social
classes" with a range of lifestyle programming on such topics as health,
food, family, home, garden, fashion, leisure and travel). The new
service, dubbed "Vitaya Digitext" and based on Zappware's Digital
Teletext iFormat, is available on the digital TV platform of cable
operator, Telenet. It features news and other information (including
program, health, lifestyle and travel info), recipes (of the week, month
and season), and contests; and its content (including text and images,
interactive quizzes and direct marketing campaigns) is managed by
Vitaya's staff, using Zappware's iView portal.

According to Zappware, its iFormat product for digital teletext offers
such features as full-color pages, easy-to-read fonts, simple navigation,
and the ability to view TV programs in a scaled-down window while
accessing teletext services. The company says that it can integrate with
VOD platforms and interface "seamlessly" with third-party content
providers, so that existing information can be repurposed for teletext
with "a minimum of human intervention." Zappware also used its
proprietary iView Platform--which it bills as a platform-independent
production environment for the creation and modification of interactive
TV services--to develop the new teletext service. "Zappware iFormats
allow a high level of application customization, based on standard
adjustable templates and hence avoid the need for a new development
for each application," Tom Van Driessche, interactive application
manager at Telenet, said in a prepared statement. "This greatly reduces
application testing time while ensuring high quality and improving time
to market."