News Round-Up (II)

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

• BSkyB and Virgin Media have announced that BSkyB will acquire Virgin Media Television for up to £160 million in cash. As part of the deal, the companies say, "Virgin Media will make available through its on-demand TV service a range of content from Sky's basic and premium channels, including the newly acquired VMtv channels," and "Virgin Media will also have access to red button interactive sports coverage and the opportunity to deliver selected standard-definition programming over the Internet."
• UK-based interactive TV company, Cellcast, has released financial results for 2009. According to the company, revenues rose 5.1% to £16.8 million. However, losses totaled £1.6 million, compared to a 2008 profit of £0.3 million.
• Coincident TV (CTV)--the San Francisco-based start-up that earlier this year launched its flagship "hypervideo" software suite, which it says combines online video, social media, Web links and commerce into a single immersive experience (see the article published on itvt.com, April 13th)--has announced what it bills as the "world's first interactive video Experience Builder for HTML5 and the iPad." "The CTV Experience Builder software offering HTML5 video updates to CTV authoring tools will be available to participants in the company's private beta program, which is now expanding beyond tier 1 broadcasters," Coincident states in its press materials. "Content creators and advertisers can visit www.coincidenttv.com/beta_site/invite to request access."
• Comcast has announced its World Cup programming plans, which include among other things, live game broadcasts in 3D, next-day availability of all 64 games on its VOD platform, and an extensive online offering.