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- Ruel's Spotlight Website: Liberate Technologies & Wigwams (12OCT99)
GREAT PICTURE of American Indian Wigwams with a sign that says, "Sleep in a Wigwam, Free Internet TV." This is similar to what I've told people in the hospitality business: Like you have signs at hotels and motels that say "Free Cable," "Free HBO," and "Free ESPN" to bring in customers and guests, you have to watch out for new hotel and motel signs that say "Free Internet TV," "Free WebTV," "Free Interactive TV," etc. Check out the picture before Liberate changes it from the Liberate website front page. - Warner Bros. and Brillant Digital Entertainment making interactive multi-path Superman streaming video, also to be on CD (12OCT99) (WIRED)
About three to five years ago, a bunch of movie and television people thought "interactive television" would be about watching movies or television shows where you can change the outcome of the show. You already have this with computer games. Wired reports that Warner Bros. and Brillant Digital Entertainment are now applying this multi-path concept to a computer-generated Superman movie that will be available as a streaming video over the net. Wired also reports "Brilliant Digital technology ... can stream high-quality, 3-D animation to viewers using 56K modems." - Looming demise of the PC as we know it (11OCT99) (ZDNet-PCWEEK)
This link deals with the demand for online computer-like applications. For set-tops, that means you don't need computer applications to actually be built into the box. The TV watcher can simply go online for computer-like applications. In this commentary, PC Week's Brett Arquette does not specifically say set-top boxes, but that is what he is talking about. Arquette says, "The advent of virtual computing will shift the entire PC infrastructure with such momentum that the PC as we know it today will be used only by a group of oddballs: 'computer' people." - MediaOne set-top box test reflects future retail competition (11OCT99) (CNET)
- Nokia and Intel to develop set-top boxes for European television (11OCT99) (CNET)
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Western Digital announces StreamWeaver for delivering simultaneous multiple data streams to digital video recorders, set-top boxes, juke boxes, televisions and other consumer products (11OCT99) (PRN)
- Broadcast groups representing 300 U.S. television stations ask FCC for changes in digital television standards (11OCT99) (WIRED)
- Ravisent signs agreement to acquire Teknema (11OCT99) (Teknema)
- Pace announces DSL4000 set-top box at Telecom '99 in Geneva (11OCT99) (PRN)
- Pace delivering DSL3875 set-tops for launch of Kingston Interactive Television for Europe's first DSL interactive digital television service (11OCT99) (PRN)
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Pace showing off 134 DSL set-top boxes for eight-meter high SGI booth video wall at Telecom '99 in Geneva (11OCT99) (PRN)
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Shanghai Online II to use video serving and multimedia access technologies from SGI, Oracle, and ViaGate (10OCT99) (PRN)
- Couch potato becomes e-Potato as Sky Digital to offer Domino's Pizza via interactive television in UK (8OCT99) (Register)
- Geocast to help local TV broadcasters figure out what to transmit for digital TV (8OCT99) (CNET)
- Hearst-Argyle Television takes equity stake in Geocast Network Systems for transmitting digital TV video content to PCs (8OCT99) (MSNBC)
- Geocast provides video-on-demand for local television stations (8OCT99) (PCWORLD)
- Warner Bros. intros exclusive straight-to-the-web mini-movies (8OCT99) (InternetNews)
- ViewCast computer product gives you 15 minutes of online video fame for $99 (8OCT99) (PCWORLD)
- AdForum's Agency Preview establishes website database of advertising agencies and online archive of television commercials (8OCT99) (InternetNews)
- Ruel's Spotlight Website: AdForum's Online Agency Preview (8OCT99)
- Miracle MonitorTV is $350 PC Monitor with built-in TV tuner and speakers (7OCT99) (ZDNet-PCMag)
- Sony Playstation2 to be in middle of new home system (6OCT99) (CNET)
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HILCO Electric Cooperative selects Uniview for broadband interactive connectivity (5OCT99) (PRN)
- General Instrument to offer $99 SURFview set-top box to cable operators (5OCT99) (PRN)
- Cablevision S.A. de C.V. selects General Instrument for launch of interactive digital cable television in Mexico (5OCT99) (PRN)
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General Instrument, interim arbitration decision, and Gemstar's Starsight Telecast EPG trade secrets (6OCT99) (PRN)
- Gemstar to acquire TV Guide for $9.2B in fast-forward play to seize growing EPG market (4OCT99) (Industry Standard)
- Gemstar and TV Guide announce merger agreement (4OCT99) (PRN)
- Gemstar will buy TV Guide for $9.2B (4OCT99) (CNET-Bloomberg)
- Television via Cable Internet versus Good Old Network TV (4OCT99) (NY Observer)
The New York Observer reports, "If the Internet is like the TV business, then we are now in 1945 or so.... [M]ost people working in radio did not believe [television] would ever become dominant...." The Observer goes on to report that various TV people are now moving over to Internet jobs.
The Observer quotes ABC 20/20's Hugh Downs as stating, "When I started broadcasting, it was 60 years ago and television was a word, and some futuristic movies showed people watching television, staring at a little box. It was all like pie in the sky. It was this nonexistent thing ... nobody would have believed it would blossom the way it has. When the ad revenue began being siphoned off from radio to television, I resented it. God, I wanted it to go away. Finally, I figured, if I can’t lick it, I better join it. And now I see the same thing happening [with the internet]." Hugh Downs is leaving the ABC 20/20 television news magazine show to join an Internet news site. - Not TV, but Internet-related: allNetDevices wireless handheld timetable for post-PC era (4OCT99) (allNetDevices)
Many of the people who do not believe in interactive television are focused on accessing the internet over handheld wireless phones. Yes, you'll have that, but you will definitely have interactive television also. You may build an internet connection into a handheld wireless phone (and why don't they put an AM/FM radio into the phone too?). But are you going to watch television video-on-demand over a handheld wireless phone? Probably not now. (But look out for Nintendo Gameboy-like features for handheld wireless phones....) People will want the good old television set for the internet, video-on-demand, and other interactive functions. - Interactive television has new approach (1OCT99) (Industry Standard)
Includes chart describing a few of the major players: AOL, B3TV, Liberate, Microsoft-WebTV, Mixed Signals, OpenTV, PowerTV, Replay, Sony/Columbia Tristar, TiVo, and Wink. - Digital Hollywood convention news about how Old TV Media goes after largest audience, New TV Media goes after specific smaller demographics; and Digital Television Summit news that HDTV sales said to be back-ordered (1OCT99) (WIRED)
- Ruel's Spotlight Website: DigitalHollywood.com (30SEP99)
- Interactive TV goes prime time with WebTV lineup of enhanced TV shows (30SEP99) (WIRED)
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WebTV announces new lineup of enhanced television series and specials for Fall '99 season as Interactive TV becomes reality (29SEP99) (PRN) (alternate link)
Networks and production companies on board with enhanced shows for WebTV include NBC, HBO, Columbia TriStar Television, Big Ticket Television, Discovery Channel, Home & Garden Television, MSNBC, E! Entertainment Television, The Learning Channel, and The Weather Channel. MacNeil/Lehrer and Judge Judy will be enhanced. And don't forget the upcoming enhanced television broadcasts of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
We are still in the ramping-up process for getting the technology and set-tops in place, but get the content out there for people to watch so people will want to buy and use the new interactive television technology and services. Some observers would say WebTV has a head start in the content game. -ruel -
MSNBC.com to launch NBC news interactive programming for WebTV Plus (29SEP99) (PRN)
- Carmel Group says satellite TV to beat cable in offering interactive television (30SEP99) (CNET)
- Interactive TV rolled out on Pace's DOCSIS Box for Cable & Wireless subscribers in U.K. (30SEP99) (PRN)
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Pace survey says television is to be preferred method of interactive home shopping (30SEP99) (PRN)
- TiVo IPO goes 162% above offered price (30SEP99) (WIRED)
- Buying TVs online not a pretty picture (30SEP99) (LATIMES)
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China's Guandong Cable selects SeaChange for video-on-demand service (30SEP99) (PRN)
- WebTV Classic earns Senior Friendly rating (29SEP99) (PRN)
- Dreamcast can trade on the stock market in Japan (29SEP99) (Standard Industry)
- Destiny intros MC2 set-top box for cable TV high-speed internet for the Philippines (29SEP99) (asia.internet)
- ABI report: "Digital Broadcast 99: Worldwide Market for Digital Broadcast Systems and Equipment" (28SEP99) (Global Info)
"Global digital TV and set-top box sales will start to take off in 2003 igniting a digital terrestrial annual growth rate of 121% and a penetration of 5.2% of all TV households over the next 5 years." - AT&T said to announce plans to buy 2M additional digital cable set-top boxes from General Instrument and 1M cable modems from Motorola (28SEP99) (CNET)
AT&T already has 6.5M cable set-tops on order.
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