Ashley Highfield Named CEO of Kangaroo

–Company is a VOD Joint Venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4

Ashley Highfield has quit his post as the BBC’s director of future media and technology to become the CEO of Kangaroo, a VOD service that is a commercial joint venture between the BBC, ITV (i.e. the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network) [...]

Cellcast’s SUMO.tv Gets a Less Prominent Sky EPG Slot

–Deal Nets Company £1.4 Million
–Company in Deal with Gaming Ventures

UK-based interactive and participation TV specialist, Cellcast, says that
it has agreed to an exchange of its two channels on the Sky satellite
platform (one of which it says is “surplus to its requirements,” the other
of which serves as an outlet for user-generated programming from its
UGC/video-sharing service, SUMO.tv) [...]

Digeo Restructures, Focuses Development Efforts on Fewer Products

Shortly after unveiling a new “featured services” strategy at CES 2008,
and announcing alliances with four companies–Flickr, Finetune,
Accedo Broadband and CloverLeaf Digital–that it said would be
providing content services for its flagship Moxi platform, Paul Allen-
owned Digeo announced a major restructuring that saw CEO, Mike
Fiedler, leave the company, along with half of its staff, and president
and COO, [...]

Founder, Jasper Smith, Reacquires Static 2358 (PlayJam) from OpenTV

–OpenTV to Retain 19% Stake in the Company
–Static 2358 Unveils Plans for PlayJam-Branded Freeview Set-Top Boxes

Founder, Jasper Smith, has reacquired Static 2358, the company which
operates the PlayJam interactive TV games service and which was
acquired by OpenTV in 2001. Static 2358 is now 81% owned by
Smith’s newly established holding company, General Entertainment &
Technology Corporation (GET Corp.), [...]

France Telecom-Subsidiary, Viaccess, to Acquire Orca Interactive

Israeli IPTV middleware and applications provider, Orca Interactive, is
to be acquired by France Telecom-subsidiary, Viaccess, in a deal that
values it at approximately $21.4 million (note: for more info on recent
product announcements by Orca). The deal is subject to various
conditions, including approval by an extraordinary general meeting of
Orca Interactive. Viaccess is a provider of content-protection
technology, [...]

Two-Screen ITV Company, Desktopbox, Acquired by Harris Corp.

Toronto-based two-screen interactive TV technology provider,
Desktopbox, has been acquired by international communications and
information technology company, Harris Corporation. Harris says it
will integrate Desktopbox’s technology into its H-Class software
product line and market it worldwide. The Desktopbox platform
enables a two-screen enhanced TV and radio model in which content
providers can send URL’s synchronized with a live or pre-recorded
program to [...]

AFDESI Expands its Scope to the UK, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany

AFDESI, which was launched in 2000 as a professional body for the
French interactive TV industry, is expanding its scope to additionally
represent the ITV industries of the UK, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and
Germany. While the organization will continue to be called AFDESI
(which originally stood for the Association of French Developers and
Editors of Interactive Services), that acronym will [...]

Nielsen: DVR’s Increase amount of Time People Spend Watching TV

–Company Launches VOD Measurement Service
Audience measurement company, Nielsen, recently announced that its
research shows that DVR playback is actually increasing the amount of
time people spend watching TV: by comparing total TV usage (live
viewing plus DVR playback) for 18 to 49-year-olds in November, 2007
to total TV usage in November, 2005 (before Nielsen measured DVR
households and when, the [...]

CTAM Survey Casts Light on Teens’ Cross-Platform Viewing Habits

CTAM, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing,
earlier this month released the results of a survey of the video viewing
habits of teenagers across traditional television and other platforms.
Survey participants were asked what types of video content they view
on any device: user-generated video clips ranked highest at 76%,
followed by comedy clips (69%), music videos (65%), [...]

[itvt] Radio: The Interactive TV Month in Review

In this recorded episode of [itvt]’s talk radio show, “The TV of Tomorrow
Show with Tracy Swedlow,” a panel of high-profile interactive TV
experts–Patrick Donoghue, VP of interactive TV product management at
Time Warner Cable; industry analyst, Leslie Ellis (author of the column,

“Translation Please“); Bill Niemeyer, chief of analysis and research at
BlackArrow; David Preisman, VP of [...]