cablevision

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, is trumpeting the results of the first set of campaigns powered by its new proprietary (i.e. not EBIF-based) interactive TV advertising service, Optimum Select. The service presents viewers with a "select button overlay" which appears at the bottom of the TV screen during a commercial and which invites them to press the "SEL" button on the remote control for more information on an advertised product. Once the viewer presses "SEL," the current program is shifted to the top-right corner of the screen to allow continued viewing, and the viewer is then presented with several possible options, including receiving a free sample of, a coupon for, or additional information on the advertised product.

Canoe Ventures, the company tasked with implementing the US cable industry's plans for interactive and addressable advertising (note: its backers are Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House), plans to commercially launch an EBIF-based Request for Information (RFI) interactive TV advertising product in the spring, and began a trial of RFI interactive TV advertising with a network partner in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company's senior director of marketing communications, Dana Runnells, told Multichannel News's Todd Spangler last week.

Cloud-based interactive TV specialist, ActiveVideo Networks, announced Wednesday that it has appointed consumer electronics industry veteran, Henry Choy, as VP of business development, tasking him with leading a new strategic initiative to bring its CloudTV platform to consumer electronics devices (note: ActiveVideo's efforts to penetrate the cable industry appear to be enjoying some success--for more on the company's work with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, see the interview wit

In an interview with Steve Donohue of Cable Digital News, David Kline, president and COO of MSO Cablevision's Rainbow Advertising Sales unit, has stressed the importance of tcommerce to the MSO, confirming that it plans to roll out tcommerce capabilities next year. "We're going to pursue it vigorously," Kline said. "Being able to buy things off the TV is as much a consumer product as it is an advertising product. You're going to see a lot more of it." Kline did not, however, elaborate on how Cablevision plans to fulfill orders generated by its planned tcommerce service.

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.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, on Wednesday announced the launch of a new interactive TV advertising service called Optimum Select.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, announced Thursday the launch of iO Shortcuts, an application that it bills as providing subscribers to its iO TV digital cable platform (note: the latter enjoys 94% penetration with the MSO's customer base) with "one-click access" to various services and content offered by the platform, including interactive and on-demand local news, traffic and weather updates from News 12, information on new service enhancements, and new on-demand movies.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, has this week launched an interactive TV channel and two free VOD services on its iO digital cable platform.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, announced Tuesday that its Advanced Platform Sales arm has signed a deal with Bermuda Tourism that will see the latter using its iO digital cable platform's VOD and interactive TV capabilities to promote Bermuda as a vacation destination. According to Cablevision, content promoting tourism in Bermuda will be featured on the Voyage.tv and Cablevision Market Showcase VOD services, and the MSO's "Power: 30" interactive TV-enabled spots will also allow Cablevision subscribers to telescope to Bermuda Tourism content.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, announced Tuesday that it has added programming from eight prominent cable channels to the free VOD line-up of its digital service, iO TV. The channels are SyFy (the newly rebranded former Sci Fi Channel), A&E, History, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, CNN and TruTV. "Cablevision is pleased to increase the entertainment options available to our customers through the addition of quality on-demand programming from these leading cable networks," Gary Schanman, Cablevision's SVP of video product management, said in a prepared statement. "Customers continue to embrace iO TV's revolutionary timeshifting capabilities which offer greater control and more choice over their home entertainment experience."

Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have conceded that they will not--as they had promised in a supposedly binding MOU with various consumer electronics/hardware manufacturers that was announced last spring--have tru2way technology deployed across their entire service footprints by July 1st, according to a report Tuesday by Todd Spangler in the US cable-industry trade publication, Multichannel News.

The US Supreme Court said Monday that it would not revisit a US appeals court's decision last August to overturn a March, 2007 lower court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the Cablevision Remote Storage (RS)-DVR case. The decision is in accordance with a recent recommendation (see article published on itvt.com, May 31st) by US solicitor general, Elena Kagan, that the court not hear the case: Kagan was asked by the court to submit an advisory brief on the case back in January.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, said Wednesday that it will begin offering same-day video-on-demand ad insertion across its entire service area later this summer, allowing advertisers to initiate a campaign or swap out existing commercials within a 24-hour period of notification. The company--which also announced that it will provide telescoping (i.e. the ability to click from a commercial to additional advertiser information) across its entire service area later this summer--claims that its new ad insertion offering represents the largest deployment of VOD advertising in a single market.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, announced Monday that it has added a new video-on-demand category, International Movies On Demand, to its iO TV digital cable platform. The new category allows viewers to rent Spanish/Latin American, European and Bollywood films, complete with English subtitles, for $4.95 each. According to Cablevision, its offerings include new releases, festival winners and classic titles, and will be refreshed on a monthly basis.

US Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, has recommended that the US Supreme Court not revisit a US appeals court's decision last August to overturn a March, 2007 lower court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the Cablevision Remote Storage (RS)-DVR case.