broadband

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of regulatory/government news for the past few days:

Broadcast network, NBC, has launched a Web site with a range of broadband video, UGC and social enhancements to build interest in its new comedy/talk show, "The Jay Leno Show," which is set to debut September 14th. The new site and its various multimedia and social features are representative of a long-established NBC strategy called TV 360 that has seen the broadcaster supplementing many of its programs with interactive and multiplatform elements (note: for more on the strategy, see [itvt]'s interview with NBC Universal's Jonathan Dakss, in Issue 6.71). 

Kansas City band, Queens Club, has tapped Propaganda 3, an interactive production studio also based in Kansas City, to create an interactive video for its single, "Haunted House." Among other things, the video allows viewers to change the stage sets behind the band, change its color scheme and brightness level, and change its viewing angle as if they were moving the camera that shot it

Santa Monica, Calif.-based two-screen interactive TV specialist,
Jacked, Inc. (note: the company's flagship product, Jacked SportsTop,
is a browser-based virtual desktop that features a dashboard of widgets
and that is designed to provide synchronized two-screen ITV
experiences specifically for sports broadcasts), recently signed a deal
with Los Angeles TV station, KCAL 9, that sees it providing the latter
with a two-screen ITV service to accompany all its live broadcasts of
LA Lakers basketball games throughout the rest of the current season,
as well as next season.

--Teams with NBC on Two-Screen App for 2008 Figure Skating Championships

LiveHive Systems, an Ontario-based company that specializes in
two-screen interactive TV solutions, said last week that it has signed an
agreement with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to provide a
synchronized interactive experience on www.raptors.com to
accompany broadcasts of the Toronto Raptors' NBA playoff games.
Dubbed "Raptors Shot Caller presented by Ford," the new service
debuted last Sunday in conjunction with the start of the Raptors'
first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. Fans access the
service by going to the Raptors' Web site and clicking on a "Shot
Caller" game banner, or by simply going directly to

Sports programmer, ESPN, is syndicating its video content through a
third-party Internet portal for the first time, thanks to a new deal with
AOL that sees it offering short-form video on AOL's AOL Video and
AOL Sports services (note: ESPN.com's own video portal has proven
fairly popular: according to ESPN, consumers viewed its videos over
1.2 billion times last year, representing a 54% increase over 2006). The
video content includes highlights from games and major sporting
events and clips from ESPN's original programs, and is presented in an
embedded ESPN player on a dedicated ESPN channel page.
"ESPN.com video is second to none, and we are excited by the
expanded reach afforded us through this syndication agreement," Matt

Multiplatform children's programmer, PBS KIDS Sprout (offers
programs on linear TV, VOD and online), has announced plans to
launch an original afternoon programming block that "makes viewers
the stars." Entitled "The Sprout Sharing Show" and scheduled to debut
May 5th in the 3:00PM-6:00PM Eastern timeslot, the block will be
hosted by a group of hand puppets, who will introduce
viewer-submitted videos in which preschoolers will show off their
talents and what Sprout describes as their "'Look what I can do!'
moments." The videos will air in the new block interstitially between
existing Sprout programs, such as "Fifi and the Flowertots," "Jay Jay

--Also Launches Premium Broadband Programming Service

Premium programmer, HBO, recently launched a branded promotional
channel on YouTube. The channel features promotional clips from
HBO's own feature and documentary films, and from such HBO series
as "Flight of the Conchords," "The Wire," "Def Comedy Jam," "Real
Time with Bill Maher," "Real Sports" and "Entourage." It also features
full-length episodes from the programmer's original series, "In
Treatment," and is slated to offer "special YouTube-only features" in
the near future. "We are delighted to bring HBO content to the
YouTube community and fans of our shows," Joseph Giraldi, HBO's
director of digital distribution and partnerships, said in a prepared

--Company Commissions its First Film

Babelgum--a company that operates a service it describes as an
"interactive Web TV portal" featuring " only professionally produced
content spanning film, news, sports, documentaries, music videos,
concerts, lifestyle and trends, animation and scripted programs"--last
month launched a new version of its platform that includes a
completely redesigned interface and various Web 2.0 features and
social-networking tools. The new version is also now compatible with
the Mac OS, as well as with the Windows XP and Vista OS's.

San Francisco-based video search company, blinkx, has launched a
broadband TV service, dubbed blinkx BBTV, which it says leverages
the company's patented speech and visual recognition technology to
link programming to relevant information on the Web. The service,
which launched April 2nd and which is available free of charge (it
requires end-users to download a 1.8MB file), currently offers a library
of independent movies and programming from blinkx's video-search
partners. It employs hybrid peer-to-peer streaming, Microsoft DRM
technology, and a point-and-click channel interface, and presents
content in full-screen mode. "Broadband Internet connections are fast
enough today that with the right technology, it's possible to deliver an

Shortly after unveiling a new "featured services" strategy at CES 2008,
and announcing alliances with four companies--Flickr, Finetune,
Accedo Broadband and CloverLeaf Digital--that it said would be
providing content services for its flagship Moxi platform, Paul Allen-
owned Digeo announced a major restructuring that saw CEO, Mike
Fiedler, leave the company, along with half of its staff, and president
and COO, Greg Gudorf take over his role. (Note: the Moxi platform
allows end-users to store, access and manage a variety of entertainment
content through a single, unified menu. The platform is notable for its
interface, which won Emmy awards in 2004 and 2005, and which
replaces the standard "spreadsheet" EPG interface with a so-called

NBC Universal last week relaunched its Digital Studio, which is now
tasked with developing and producing "brand-centric" digital content
(including both episodic programming and what NBCU describes as
"deep interactive experiences"), distributing them across the company's
various digital properties, and also finding and developing quality
digital programming into which advertiser brands can be "organically
integrated."

--Player Version 2.7 Integrates Microsoft Silverlight, Atlas Ad Server

--Appoints New President and COO

--New Deals with tvtv, CAN Communicate and FIFA, Fox Intl's BabyTV

Broadband TV infrastructure company, Narrowstep (note: the
company's telvOS technology has been used to power a number of
high-profile broadband TV services, including the ITV Local service of
UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster, the Independent Television
Network; it recently announced that it was shifting the focus of its sales
and marketing efforts away from smaller niche content
providers--which it says "traditionally had lower margins and less