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The folks at ICE Interactive Limited sent in this news announcement:
WIN TELEVISION PARTNERS WITH ICE TO MAKE TELEVISION HISTORY
SYDNEY, 5 September 2000 - ICE Interactive Limited (ICE), the leading choice for interactive television software and services today announced that WIN Television will be the first free to air (FTA) broadcaster in Australia to provide two way, "connected' interactive television.
WIN Television will use interactive television (iTV) to bridge the digital divide by being the lead partner in ICE's iTV pilot in Orange in Central Western New South Wales.
"WIN is the most progressive and proactive FTA broadcaster in Australia and ICE is very excited to partner with WIN in this historic pilot of iTV, " said Carl Braden, Managing Director of ICE Interactive.
"WIN is the best possible partner for a pilot of interactive television that reaches the heart of Australia," said Mr Braden.
WIN is Australia's largest regional television broadcaster and as such, is the logical partner for a pilot of this type. In planning to deliver future services to its 5 million viewers, WIN sees the pilot as an opportunity to explore the interactive future, today.
"WIN is the model for new media convergence. The partnership between WIN and ICE brings together broadcasting, interactive programming, interactive advertising and WIN's web portal, " added Mr Braden.
"We are creating Australian television history together," said Bruce Gordon, WIN's Chairman and Owner. "Through this pilot we will realise our vision of convergence."
Under the agreement, ICE will work with WIN Television to: produce enhanced TV content and interactive television applications, services and programming; test t-commerce (retailing conducted over the television), interactive advertising and other retail services such as banking.
WIN will leverage its advertising customer base to test interactive advertising to its core markets. This will provide valuable information which will allow WIN’s advertisers to offer highly targeted advertisements.
"WIN has seized the opportunity to be the leader in interactive advertising in Australia. WIN will be the first broadcaster in Australia to own the relationship with the end consumer, " said Mr Gordon.
WIN will have a dedicated interactive channel on the ICE service which will provide compelling content for viewers. This channel will provide local Orange news, sport and weather on-demand.
Market research will be conducted during the pilot to test market, customer and operational metrics. The research is being conducted by NFO CM Research.
"This research will arm us with valuable knowledge to support our recent investments in regional telecommunications," said Gordon. "The research will identify the channels consumers watch; the interactive applications such as the program guide they use; and consumer reaction to interactive advertising and t-commerce. "
"Through our partnership with ICE, WIN is taking a step closer to the future," added Gordon.
About ICE Interactive:
ICE Interactive Limited (www.iceinteractive.com.au) was founded by Oracle Corporation in February 2000. ICE has a blue chip share register including Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Liberate Technologies (Nasdaq: LBRT). Burdekin Pacific Limited (ASX: BKS) has provided local venture capital funding.
ICE is an iTV application and content solutions company which provides end-to-end, integrated, wholesale access to iTV infrastructure for both analogue and digital services.
ICE provides professional services and development tools to enable organisations to access, understand and exploit the emerging iTV electronic channel to the home. ICE’s technology platform allows customers to leverage existing internet investments into a TV based service environment.
About WIN:
MEDIA BACKGROUNDER
Pilot Background
The pilot commenced on August 28, 2000 and will continue for 3 months.
A random sample of 150 Orange households are participating in the pilot. A range of ICE’s iTV services will be deployed, including two-way interactivity, an interactive program guide, ISP services, online polling, interactive advertising, chat and t-commerce.
Pilot participants will also have access to real-time information channels (news, weather, sport); show surf; picture and video-email and the World Wide Web, all at the cost of a local call.
The pilot will involve a phased approach to enable the testing of market, customer and operational metrics. The first phase will explore market dynamics for PSTN narrowband access. Later phases will trial additional applications such as interactive learning, and will look to exploit ICE’s multi-network capability in a broadband deployment.
What is Interactive Television?
Interactive television (iTV) is a revolutionary consumer service which converges television, internet and online services to deliver a compelling bundle of information, communication and entertainment products to the home. The essential element of an iTV service is a personalized suite of compelling applications delivering functional lifestyle benefits and entertainment services to the viewer.
Connected vs. Unconnected iTV
Connected iTV requires bi-directional communication between the user and the service provider, via PSTN, DSL, or cable modem from the set top box. The iTV service provider has to have a sophisticated back-end platform to manage interactive services, data sources and subscriber preference and billing records.
In comparison, Unconnected iTV (also called localised iTV or interactivity in the box) is where interactive content is delivered to the set top box to be held in memory or on a storage device for review.
For interviews with ICE Interactive contact:
Marie Kelly
GM Marketing and Corporate Communications
ICE Interactive
02 9925 5415
0404 846 380
mkelly@iceinteractive.com.au
Monica Vardabasso
Primary Communication
02 9212 3888
mvardabasso@primary-pr.com
For interviews with WIN Television contact:
Vicki Tiegs
WIN Television Publicity
02 - 4223 4107
0419 - 294 494
tiegsv@winnsw.com.au
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