itv

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week, Sangita Verma, founder and CEO of TAG Networks, explains how that company's interactive TV games channel on Oceanic Time Warner Cable is beating major linear programming networks in terms of average daily viewing minutes. (Note: [itvt] would like to thank Rick for moderating the highly praised panel, "The iTV Doctor Is In!: The Operating Room," at the TV of Tomorrow Show last week.)

[itvt] is pleased to announce the schedule of sessions for EBIF Intensive (takes place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Friday, March 5th--i.e. the day after The TV of Tomorrow Show 2010). The schedule is included in full below, and a PDF version can be downloaded here.

DISH Network announced Wednesday that it has launched Tetris TV, a subscription-based interactive TV games service from cross-platform casual games company, Oberon Media, which licenses the rights to the Tetris format from The Tetris Company. Oberon, which plans to roll out Tetris TV with additional partners worldwide, says that DISH Network is the first company to launch the service in North America. DISH Network customers can subscribe to the new service, which is priced at $2.99 per month, via the satellite TV service's interactive TV portal, DISH Home, and via interactive banner ads.

Clearleap, an Atlanta-based company which offers a technology platform for bringing Internet-sourced video content to television sets, and FourthWall Media, the interactive TV technology company formerly known as BIAP (note: for more on the company's rebranding, see the article published on itvt.com, October 26th), will today announce that they have partnered to create a video-centric, unbound EBIF interactive weather application featuring content from The Weather Channel.

The BBC has announced the line-up of content that will be available through its red-button interactive TV service for the next two weeks:

The BBC has unveiled its multiplatform/interactive TV coverage plans for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. According to the corporation:

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

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus (note: the company's offerings include a range of authoring and delivery solutions for MHP, OCAP/tru2way, MHEG and other platforms, as well as an extensive catalog of off-the-shelf interactive TV games and other applications), contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that it has delivered a range of interactive TV solutions to Bruneian national broadcaster, Radio Television Brunei (RTB). The broadcaster--which operates five digital TV channels, RTB 1 and RTB 2 (simulcast), RTB 3 (HD), RTB 4 (international) and RTB 5, as well as five radio networks--is using the solutions to power MHP-based interactive TV services.

Interactive TV software developer, Zodiac Interactive (note: the company's EBIF user agent is being deployed by MSO Cablevision--see the article published on itvt.com, November 5th), on Monday unveiled the latest version (2.5) of its PowerUp ITV framework, a cross-platform software that the company bills as unifying and enabling advanced interactive TV applications across multiple set-tops, including legacy boxes.

The BBC has announced the line-up of content that will be available through its red-button interactive TV service for the next two weeks

Oxygen Media, the company behind Oxygen, a US cable channel that targets a female demographic, will tonight (10:00PM Pacific, Tuesday) launch the West Coast version of OxygenLive--an online destination that is designed to add a two-screen social/interactive TV component to its programming--in association with the latest episode of the reality series, "Bad Girls Club." The service allows viewers to chat live, post comments to Facebook and Twitter, and read other fans' posts and tweets (#badgirlsclub) during the show, with the live chats being hosted by Oxygen editors, guest bloggers and the show's stars.

Portland, Oregon-based interactive TV authoring solutions provider, Ensequence, has conducted another round of layoffs in an effort to refocus its efforts on its core business, hometown newspaper The Oregonian reported last week.

Canoe Ventures, the company tasked with implementing the US cable industry's plans for interactive and addressable advertising (note: its backers are Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House), plans to commercially launch an EBIF-based Request for Information (RFI) interactive TV advertising product in the spring, and began a trial of RFI interactive TV advertising with a network partner in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company's senior director of marketing communications, Dana Runnells, told Multichannel News's Todd Spangler last week.

IBM announced Tuesday that it has secured a 10-year, $83 million strategic outsourcing deal with Indian cable operator, Digicable. According to IBM, the deal will see it supporting the integration of Digicable's digital media content delivery and value-added services applications with its core business technologies and processes, thus enabling the operator to provide "superior and personalized service" to its subscribers.