BIAP Changes Name to FourthWall Media, Secures Patent for Interactive TV App Personalization

Plano, Texas-based interactive TV software provider, BIAP (note: last year, the company--whose name is an acronym for Broadband Interactive Applications--secured a five-year license agreement for its ETV User Agent with Time Warner Cable--see [itvt] Issue 8.23 Part 2B), announced last week that it is launching a new brand identity that sees it changing its name to FourthWall Media.

The company says that the new name is designed to express its "focus on breaking through the 'fourth wall'--the invisible barrier that stands between a TV audience, and programmers and advertisers." However, it is stressing that the name change does not reflect any change in its business focus, operations or ownership. "Our company has played a pivotal role in the growth and development of interactive television, advanced advertising and the advancement of critical industry specifications with the first deployed EBIF platform," BIAP/FourthWall CEO, Tim Peters, said in a prepared statement. "Now, as the market moves from theory to scale, it is important that our brand accurately captures what we do: break through barriers that stand between television audiences and the advertisers and programmers who need to reach them." Added chief product officer, Ellen Dudar: "The era of talking at viewers is rapidly evolving into the era of talking with viewers. Programmers and advertisers must break through the 'fourth wall' and strike up conversations with their audiences. FourthWall Media provides the advertising, programming and technology engine of this rapidly evolving ecosystem to deliver creative solutions for audience engagement and measurement."

BIAP/FourthWall--which promises that it will be making a number of significant announcements before the end of the year that "demonstrate its progress and impact on interactive TV and advanced advertising"--claims to deliver interactive services to nearly 25 million set-top boxes, across multiple platforms, operators (including Time Warner Cable, DISH and several smaller companies), products and geographies. It also stresses that its strengths are not purely technological, and points out that it has worked on developing interactive program content with such consumer brands as eBay and NBC Olympics: it bills itself as leveraging its technology to "unleash a creative revolution" in interactive TV. "While we have robust, comprehensive EBIF technology and applications, it is our creativity and vision that are most important to driving an explosion of new advertising and programming concepts," CEO Peters continued. "It's our goal to be seen as the leader of the interactive television industry by delivering on-screen content that delights the consumer, generates revenue for operators and programmers and delivers valuable audiences to advertisers."

BIAP/FourthWall also announced last week that it has been awarded a new US patent (7,613,790: "Apparatus for and method of executing customized interactive computer services in a broadband network environment") for a method of customizing interactive TV services: according to the company, its newly patented technology enables consumers to set personal preferences for the information an application displays on the TV screen, and has been used in a range of its interactive TV applications since 2003.