Advertising

AT&T on Tuesday announced the launch of two free interactive TV applications on its Microsoft Mediaroom powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV: Offers On Demand, an app that allows customers to redeem a coupon code on-screen for discounts on movie rentals; and Caller ID on TV. The launch of the new apps brings the number of free apps that have been rolled out on U-verse TV, since its initial launch, to 20--with 12 of those apps having been launched this year alone. "These apps make U-verse services even more useful and interactive for our customers, and that's exactly what every app should do," Jeff Weber, VP of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a prepared statement.

VOD and advanced advertising technology provider, Concurrent, and FourthWall Media, the interactive TV technology company formerly known as BIAP (note: for more on the company's rebranding, see the article published on itvt.com, October 26th), announced Tuesday that they have formed a partnership to deliver what they are billing as "the industry's first comprehensive, end-to-end advanced advertising solution for broadband operators."

Digital TV media planning and implementation services company, Leap Media Group, has named Tim Hanlon and Barry S. Fischer as the first members of its Board of Advisors. According to the company, the board will be comprised of "leaders from the sales and agency sides of television and interactive media," and will provide strategic advice and guidance on market opportunities.

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, and YuMe, which bills itself as "the first advertising technology company built from the ground up for broadband video," announced Monday that they are partnering in order to "help publishers monetize live online video streams" (note: the announcement follows Ooyala's announcement last week of advanced ad network integration, as well as adaptive bitrate delivery). According to the companies, Ooyala's Backlot dashboard now includes a simple process for publishers to specify ad insertion points for YuMe overlays when publishing a live video stream.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Interactive TV and advanced advertising technology provider, OpenTV, has released its third-quarter financial results:

Comcast Media Center (CMC) said Tuesday that its HITS AxIS service is now ready to support the commercial deployment of interactive TV services by cable operators. HITS AxIS--whose name stands for "Headend In The Sky Advanced Interactive Services," and which was developed in collaboration with Vidiom and TVWorks--is a centralized platform that operates on the NAS and DAC headend-management platforms and that is designed to facilitate the deployment and management of ETV/EBIF and OCAP/tru2way applications on cable systems serving small- to mid-sized markets.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, said Tuesday that its new interactive TV advertising service, Optimum Select (see the article published on itvt.com, September 16th), is proving popular with advertisers--attracting such brands as Unilever, Gillette, Century 21 (the retailer, not the real estate company) and Benjamin Moore, which are using it to provide samples, coupons and gift cards to viewers who interact with their ads.

At the VideoSchmooze event in New York City Tuesday evening, Comcast's SVP of new media, Matt Strauss, said that the MSO will leave decisions about commercial placement in programming offered via On Demand Online, its implementation of the TV Everywhere distribution model, in the hands of programmers, according to a report by Todd Spangler in Multichannel News (note: the "TV Everywhere" model, which has long been championed by Time Warner and its chairman and CEO, Jeff Bewkes, seeks to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on mu

Multiscreen media analysis, operations and publishing technology provider, Digitalsmiths, on Wednesday launched a new version of its flagship VideoSense product that has been designed expressly to support the "TV Everywhere" content distribution model (note: the "TV Everywhere" model, which has long been championed by Time Warner and its chairman and CEO, Jeff Bewkes, seeks to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on multiple platforms, and thus aims to head off the threat posed to pay-TV services by the increasing availability of over-the-top programming--for more background, see the articles published on itvt.com, April 30th, May 14th, June 25th an

Advanced advertising technology provider, BlackArrow, announced Tuesday that its VOD ad insertion platform has gone live with Comcast in Jacksonville, Florida.

Interactive online video advertising technology provider, Mixpo, will today announce a deal with TV broadcast company, Gray Television (operates 36 TV stations, 17 of which are CBS affiliates, 10 of which are NBC affiliates, eight of which are ABC affiliates, and one of which is a Fox affiliate), which it says will bring interactive online video advertising capabilities to local TV advertisers in 30 markets across the US.

France Telecom's Orange brand announced Wednesday that it has launched an interactive TV advertising service on its ADSL-based IPTV platform, following a successful trial with automaker, Citroen, last November that encompassed 100,000 French households.

SinglePoint, a company which specializes in mobile-based interactive and participation TV, and which last year was chosen by NBC Universal to provide mobile interactive TV services across a broad range of its programming and channels, said Wednesday that its SingleBrand Ad Marketplace, which launched less than a year ago, is gaining significant momentum. According to the company, the total number of unique users for the service has reached 11 million, and SMS advertising has doubled each month since its launch.