February 2006

News Corp.-controlled satellite TV provider, DirecTV, plans to offer an array of interactive TV services as part of its Mega March Madness package of coverage of the 2006 NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship (begins March 16th). The interactive services are similar to those that DirecTV offered as part of its NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan package last year.

News programmer, CNN, has launched an interactive TV news application on US satellite TV provider EchoStar's DISH Network. Dubbed "CNN Enhanced TV" and accessed via the DISH Network's interactive TV portal, DishHOME (channel 100), or by pressing "select" during a commercial for the application (note: EchoStar says that viewers will eventually be able to access the app from CNN's linear channel), the app was built by OpenTV, whose middleware powers interactivity on the DISH service (note: currently around 11 mill

Dallas, Texas-based Bluestreak Network (note: the latter was founded in spring 2002, when John Reed, who currently serves as its chairman and CEO, and his partner, Tom Peters, who serves as its president and COO, used their own financial resources to purchase the interactive TV assets of Montreal-based software company, ZAQ, and the streaming-media assets of networking company, Source Media: Bluestreak's current product portfolio is based on patented technologies from both of those forbears) says that it has integrated t

--Hosts Include Actor, John Lithgow

--Funding Round Led by Liberty Media, EchoStar

A recent report in the UK newspaper, The Express on Sunday, claims that Video Networks, the company behind the pioneering IPTV-enabled triple-play service, HomeChoice, has put itself up for sale, with an asking price of approximately £200 million The newspaper said that potential buyers include BSkyB, which has long been rumored to be eyeing the company (note: in conversations with analysts that followed BSkyB's announcement last year of a £211 million deal to acquire broadband ISP, Easynet, BSkyB CEO, James Murdoch, conceded that his company might make additional purchases in the broadband space: "In a marketplace changing as rapidly as this, we are keeping all our options open," he said).

Four prominent wireless technology companies--Intel, Modeo (which is owned by Crown Castle), Nokia and Texas Instruments--have formed an organization, called the Mobile DTV Alliance, to promote the growth of Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), an open procedure standard for broadcast digital TV reception on mobile devices (note: a fifth major wireless technology provider, Qualcomm, has committed to a proprietary technology called MediaFLO). The companies say that the organization will focus on promoting best practices and open standards that will help deliver premium-quality broadcast television to mobile devices in the North American market.