--Apps Designed to Provide Easy Navigation to Children's, Sports and News Channels
New York-area MSO, Cablevision, on Monday announced the launch of iO TV Quick View, an interactive TV service consisting of three channels--devoted to children's, news and sports content respectively--each of which features a nine-channel multiscreen mosaic. Cablevision bills the new service--which is powered by technology from ActiveVideo Networks (see the article published on itvt.com, June 24th) and which is available to all set-top-equipped customers of the MSO's iO TV digital cable service--as providing comprehensive one-stop access to whole genres of popular programming. "Our focus in the development of iO TV Quick View has been on discoverability and helping our customers find the perfect program to watch," Cablevision's SVP of strategic product development, Patrick Donoghue, said in a prepared statement. "With so many channels to choose from, this new enhancement allows us to present current options in a number of popular programming categories, literally at a glance. And the end result is a visually beautiful presentation with easy navigation both within the mosaic and to the specific channels being spotlighted."
The Kids Quick View channel, which is located on channel 670, features navigable thumbnail screens of Disney Channel, the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Boomerang, Discovery Kids, Disney XD, Nicktoons, Nick Jr. and Kids Thirteen; the News Quick View channel, which is located on channel 671, features News 12, News 12 Traffic & Weather, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, CNN Headline News, Bloomberg TV and BBC World News; and the Sports Quick View channel, which is located on channel 672, features MSG, MSG+, YES Network, ESPN, ESPN2, Speed Channel, Golf Channel, SportsNet NY and Versus. Viewers can listen to a specific channel's audio by using their remote to highlight its thumbnail screen, and can tune to it by pressing the "Select" button; they can then navigate back to the Quick View multiscreen display by pressing the "Last" or "B" buttons.
