DISH Network Launches Oberon Media's "Tetris TV" Interactive TV Games Service

DISH Network announced Wednesday that it has launched Tetris TV, a subscription-based interactive TV games service from cross-platform casual games company, Oberon Media, which licenses the rights to the Tetris format from The Tetris Company. Oberon, which plans to roll out Tetris TV with additional partners worldwide, says that DISH Network is the first company to launch the service in North America. DISH Network customers can subscribe to the new service, which is priced at $2.99 per month, via the satellite TV service's interactive TV portal, DISH Home, and via interactive banner ads.

The implementation of Tetris TV on DISH Network offers two Tetris games: "Marathon" and "40-Lines." According to Oberon, "Marathon" has 15 levels of game play and "40-Lines" is a race to clear 40 lines in as fast a time as possible. The company says that future releases of Tetris TV will enable players to compete with other DISH Network subscribers by posting their names and scores to national leaderboards managed by Oberon's interactive TV community and service management technology, JIVE. In addition, Oberon promises, JIVE will allow for the management of Tetris tournaments in future releases, and Tetris TV will take advantage of this feature to begin offering prizes to top players later this year. "Oberon Media is excited to be in license with The Tetris Company, and, together, we're looking forward to offering the iconic game in a new, creative way to players," Jonathan Boltax, Oberon Media's senior director of ITV programming and service management, said in a prepared statement. "The Tetris game is the perfect example of satiating the public's ravenous appetite to play casual games on all platforms, and it's a perfect fit for the ITV platform." Added Henk Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software, the company that manages licensing rights to Tetris for The Tetris Company: "Working with Oberon Media to release Tetris TV allows us to reach millions of our fans in yet another way. Interactive TV is an exciting venture for us, as we're always hoping to give Tetris players a unique way to enjoy the game on their own and while interacting with each other. What's better, a study published this year by BMC Research Notes showed how playing Tetris can create positive changes in our brains--so we're happy to say that now, with the release of the Tetris TV service, TV could be good for you!"