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[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week, Tyler Slocum, senior director of advanced services at DirecTV, discusses the satellite TV operator's app store and its line-up of widgets.

DirecTV said Tuesday that its DirecTV DVR Scheduler app for iPhone/iPod touch has been downloaded by over a million users since launching last March. In 2009, the app, which is now also available on Android devices and on the Palm Pre and Pixi, was selected as one of forbes.com's Best Branded Mobile Apps, named Best Mobile Application by the Mobile Excellence Awards, and highlighted as one of Apple's Favorite Staff Picks, the satellite TV provider says.

Fabless semiconductor company, Entropic Communications, announced Monday that its silicon has been selected by DirecTV for integration into a new line of set-top boxes that will offer new coax-based networking capabilities, including multi-room viewing. The new, HD "H-24 DVR" boxes (of which client and server versions will be offered) are currently in production, the company says, and will be in DirecTV customer homes starting later this quarter.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

AT&T has launched an interactive application, called Film Awards Interactive, for the iPhone/iPod touch and for its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV. According to AT&T, among other things, the free app lets consumers use their remote control or their iPhone/iPod touch screen to:

Here is a brief round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Satellite TV provider, DirecTV, said Tuesday that it is launching The Weather Channel's interactive TV applications--which launched on its platform on the broadcaster's standard-definition channel around a year ago--on the broadcaster's HDTV channel, The Weather Channel HD. According to the company, since their launch last year, the apps have generated nearly a billion total household impressions.

The interactive TV weather apps include:

US satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, has announced plans to offer extensive interactive TV coverage of the upcoming US Open tennis championship (August 31st-September 7th). The coverage will include five extra live court channels, in addition to the main feeds from ESPN2 and CBS, on DirecTV's multiscreen Mix Channel.

During a conference call with financial analysts last week, following the company's release of its second-quarter earnings, DirecTV's interim CEO, Larry D. Hunter, confirmed that the satellite-TV provider will later this month launch a new, App Store-type service, called "TV Apps," that will allow subscribers to download interactive TV widget applications, and apparently also upload their own apps (presumably after some kind of review process): "Later this month, we'll launch a new service called TV Apps, which is analogous to Yahoo! Widgets or Google Gadgets," Hunter stated.

US satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, plans to offer interactive TV coverage of the British Open golf championship's first two rounds this Thursday and Friday (July 16th and 17th). The company intends to offer interactive TV coverage of all the four "major" golf championships this year--the others being the US Open, the Masters and the PGA Championship.

GroupM-backed advanced advertising technology provider, Invidi Technologies, said Wednesday that satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, will use its software to offer advertisers "relevant" local advertising (note: last November, Invidi announced a similar deal with rival satellite-TV provider, DISH Network). According to Invidi, its Advatar software, in combination with DirecTV's DVR-equipped set-top boxes, will allow local television advertising availability based on geographic location, and will position TV ads according to any marketer's specifications.

US satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, says that it will provide expanded and exclusive interactive TV coverage of golf's US Open Championship this week and this weekend, via a four-screen "HD Mix" mosaic channel and a red-button service.

Satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, launched an interactive TV application called ScoreGuide, Monday, that extends its program guide with information targeted at sports fans. Viewers are alerted to the new application--which is being offered at no additional charge--by a small on-screen icon that is being displayed on all of DirecTV's approximately 200 sports channels (which include regional sports networks, subscription channels, and national cable channels devoted to sports).

Satellite TV provider, DirecTV, has teamed with The Weather Channel (TWC) to launch a package of interactive TV services providing information on local weather conditions. The new services include:

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