playjam

Rovi (formerly Macrovision--for more on the company's name change and the repositioning it heralds, see the interview with Rovi chief evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle, that was published on itvt.com, July 16th) announced last week that it plans to add OTT content from Showtime Networks and ZillionTV to its new TotalGuide consumer electronics EPG (formerly code-named "Liquid"), and also said that it is collaborating with 15 European content providers to bring content to the guide.

A number of companies last week announced plans to offer interactive TV applications on supported Samsung HDTV's, Blu-ray players and Home Theater Systems through Samsung's recently updated Internet@TV over-the-top (OTT) platform, and its newly announced Samsung Apps app store service (note: for more on the latter, see the article published on itvt.com, January 7th). They include:

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:

Five companies in the interactive TV and online games/gaming space--Accedo Broadband, Betfair, PlayJam, RallyPoint and Two Way Media--announced Tuesday that they are establishing a new forum for the development of games on connected TV. The companies say that online games are a major driver in the multiplatform digital entertainment arena, attracting 38% of Internet users and generating billions of downloads via mobile and digital TV platforms, and that they believe such games will act as a "prime motivator for consumers to connect their TV's to the Internet."

PlayJam, the pioneering interactive TV games service provider that was acquired by OpenTV in 2001 (through the acquisition of its parent company, Static 2358), and that was re-purchased in early 2008 by its founder, Jasper Smith (see [itvt] Issue 7.77 Part 1), said last week that it has selected MPP's iPay Developer platform to provide it with payments technology to support the evolution of its current consumer offering and the introduction of a range of new business models (note: the iPay Developer platform was also recently selected by another UK-based interactive TV company, Miniweb--see the article published on itvt.com, May 6th).

PlayJam, the pioneering interactive TV games service provider that was acquired by OpenTV in 2001 (through the acquisition of its parent company, Static 2358), and that was re-purchased in early 2008 by its founder, Jasper Smith (see [itvt] Issue 7.77 Part 1), announced Tuesday that it is developing a Yahoo!

--Announces Plans to Relaunch Interactive Game Show, "QuizNation"

--Site will Let Users Upload Personal Videos for TV and Web Distribution

PlayJam, the pioneering interactive TV games service that was
acquired by OpenTV in 2001 (through the acquisition of its parent
company, Static 2358), and that was re-purchased earlier this year by
its founder, Jasper Smith (see [itvt] Issue 7.77 Part 1), has launched a
Web site which it says it designed to bring together its end-users
around the world (note: PlayJam's customers include Sky in the UK
and DISH in the US; the service is claimed to be available in over 55
million households around the world), and to provide an enhanced user
experience with social-networking capabilities. Among other things,
the site will allow end-users to upload personal videos for distribution

--OpenTV to Retain 19% Stake in the Company

--Static 2358 Unveils Plans for PlayJam-Branded Freeview Set-Top Boxes

Founder, Jasper Smith, has reacquired Static 2358, the company which
operates the PlayJam interactive TV games service and which was
acquired by OpenTV in 2001. Static 2358 is now 81% owned by
Smith's newly established holding company, General Entertainment &
Technology Corporation (GET Corp.), and 19% owned by OpenTV:
according to the companies, this shared ownership structure will
cement a "global alliance" between them. (Note: Smith is also the
founding director of Electra Entertainment, a company that has
developed a new interactive TV middleware--see article in this issue;