dish

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week, NBC Universal's VP of digital distribution, Michael Aaronson, provides a detailed overview of how the broadcaster brought interactive TV coverage of the Winter Olympics to AT&T U-verse TV, Cablevision, Comcast, DirecTV, DISH Network, Oceanic Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV.

In addition:

VOD and advanced advertising technology provider, SeaChange International, announced Tuesday that satellite TV provider, DISH Network, is upgrading its entire platform of SeaChange Spot advertising insertion systems to meet what it claims is a growing demand for HD ad placements across its North American footprint. SeaChange is DISH Network's exclusive ad insertion technology provider, having delivered ads for the satellite TV provider since it launched its DBS service back in 1996.

Due to the volume of news generated by last week's Consumer Electronics Show, and because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

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

Video content security and optimization specialist, Widevine, said Monday that it has secured $15 million in new funding from Liberty Global, Samsung Ventures (the venture capital arm of Samsung Group) and an unnamed "third corporation" described in a Widevine press release as "the world's...second largest satellite provider." The company, which has raised close to $52 million to date, says that its technologies are playing a "central role" in the delivery of video over-the-top to Internet-connected retail consumer electronics devices and in the "TV Everywhere" strategies of cable, satellite and telephone companies (note: the "TV Everywhere" distribution model seeks, via authentication technology, to ma

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

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has provisionally rejected two of the claims in TiVo's so-called "Time Warp" patent (US #6,233,389), which is at the center of a long-running lawsuit that the company has brought against DISH Network and the latter's spin-off company, EchoStar. (Note: the judge in the case, David Folsom, recently found DISH Network and EchoStar to be in contempt of court for having continued to infringe upon the TiVo patent via a supposed "workaround," and ordered DISH Network to disable nearly 4 million of its DVR's--a ruling that was subsequently stayed--and to pay TiVo an additional $103 million, plus interest, in damages.

TiVo is seeking nearly $1 billion in damages from DISH Network and EchoStar in the so-called "Time Warp" DVR technology patent case between the companies. The figure was revealed in a July 13th filing by DISH Network and EchoStar (first brought to light by blogger, Dave Zatz) in response to a June 26th sealed motion by TiVo, in which the latter laid out its case for the sanctions that should be imposed on DISH Network and EchoStar for having been ruled in contempt of court last month for continuing to infringe upon TiVo's Time Warp patent via a supposed "workaround." The DISH/EchoStar filing attempted to postpone a hearing on sanctions, pending the companies' appeal of the contempt ruling.

TiVo has launched a promotion designed to encourage users of its DVR service to upgrade to its HD DVR. "Beginning today, July 1st, TiVo will begin providing unique offers to dedicated customers that have owned a TiVo DVR for at least one year and are ready to upgrade to an HD DVR," the company said in a statement. "TiVo encourages customers to log onto their account through tivo.com as eligible customers can save $50 or more off of a new TiVo HD DVR.

In a one-sentence filing with a US federal court earlier this week, US satellite-TV provider, DISH Network, said that it is attempting to find another workaround that would enable it to avoid infringing on TiVo's so-called Time Warp Patent. The company "is investigating other potential design-around options, but at this stage, does not know whether a further design-around is even possible," the filing stated, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

A US appeals court has temporarily stayed part of the ruling issued by Judge David Folsom Tuesday in the so-called "Time Warp" patent case between TiVo and DISH Network (note: for a detailed overview of the ruling and of the history of the Time Warp patent case, see the article posted on itvt.com June 3rd).

US District Judge David Folsom ruled Tuesday that DISH Network (formerly EchoStar Communications) owes TiVo $103 million (plus interest) in additional damages in the so-called "Time Warp" patent case between the companies, that it must disable certain features on DVR's that it offers its subscribers (according to news agency, Reuters, all but 193,000 of DISH's approximately 4 million deployed DVR's will be affected), and that its efforts to find a workaround for technologies that were previously determined to be T

Last week, [itvt] reported that US satellite-TV provider, DISH Network, had recently teamed with Ensequence and History on an interactive TV application to enhance History's channel presence on the DISH Network platform. Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related news stories from DISH Network:

--Signs VOD Deals with Gravitas Ventures, Eurocinema
--Offers Multiscreen ITV App for US Elections
--Launches New DVR Products
--Signs Audience Measurement Deal with Rentrak

Satellite TV provider, DISH Network, has generated a fair amount of interactive TV-related news over the past few weeks:

--Signs VOD Deals with Gravitas Ventures, Eurocinema
--Offers Multiscreen ITV App for US Elections
--Launches New DVR Products
--Signs Audience Measurement Deal with Rentrak