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Monday December 4, 6:13 pm Eastern Time CORRECTED-Rivals vie for control of cable TV set-tops In the LOS ANGELES story on Dec. 1 headlined ``Rivals vie for control of cable TV set-tops`` please change next-to-last paragraph to read: ``Gemstar-TV Guide Co-President Joe Kiener says his Interactive Program Guide systems, combined, are expected to grow from about 9 million viewers to 20 million in 2001. Viewers are clicking on ads about four times an hour and go about three clicks deep for price and order information on average, he said. Gemstar-TV Guide`s GUIDE +Plus Gold now comes pre-installed, for free, on some TVs, and next year services such as two-way paging will be added.`` instead of: ``Gemstar-TV Guide President Joe Kiener says his system is expected to grow from 5 million viewers to 20 million in 2001. Viewers are clicking on ads about four times an hour and go about three clicks deep for price and order information on average, he said. TV Guide Interactive now comes pre-installed, for free, on some TVs, and next year services such as two-way paging will be added.`` (Corrects Kiener`s title, program guide names and viewer figure.) A corrected version follows. By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES, Dec 1 - (Reuters) - The gloves are coming off in the arena for interactive television among rivals offering software for a new generation of digital cable set-top boxes rolling out across the world. At stake is a share of a market projected to grow to $25 billion in the next five years, with revenues generated through home shopping, providing advertisers with customer information, and offering other interactive services that so-called iTV aims to bring into homes. Getting to the viewer first is key for all these players because they agree that the first companies to get inside the home will stay there because of the reluctance of consumers to switch services. So the competition has begun, and for these players, the heat is on -- because only one or two winners will be left standing when the battle ends. Operating system providers like Liberate Technologies Inc. (NasdaqNM:LBRT - news) and OpenTV Corp. (NasdaqNM:OPTV - news) are already deploying systems while talking down competition from their Goliath-sized rival Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), whose roll-out has been slower. At the same time, Scientific-Atlanta Inc.`s (NYSE:SFA - news) 80-percent-owned PowerTV boasts that its software resides in set-top boxes of more U.S. homes than all the others combined. In a different league for makers of program-guide and other consumer-oriented applications, Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.`s (NasdaqNM:GMST - news) TV Guide Interactive touts its strong brand recognition as a way to attract consumer eyeballs. AOLTV, a unit of America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), wants to leverage its 25 million online users to build a presence on the airwaves. It all adds up to enough high-sticking and hard-checking among the players that even the toughest pro hockey star might want to watch this one from the bench. ``Well, it`s definitely heated,`` said Ed Graczyk, marketing director at Microsoft TV, the unit responsible for putting a Microsoft operating system inside cable set-top boxes. After beginning to roll-out digital set-top boxes in the latter half of 2000, cable operators have now installed several million into U.S. homes -- Forrester Research forecasts 65 million U.S. homes with interactive video in 2005. A SLOW ROLL-OUT OF SET-TOP BOXES Graczyk admits at this time last year, Microsoft expected to be farther ahead than it is now, but he added that this month satellite TV provider DirecTV will start deploying iTV services called ``Ultimate TV`` using Microsoft software. He also said several overseas partners, including Portuguese operator TV Cabo and Canada`s Rogers Communications, are just now announcing definitive launch schedules. ``We`re actually right at the very beginning,`` he said. Liberate Chief Executive Mitch Kertzman considers Microsoft a top competitor. In September, Liberate said its software was in about 300,000 U.S. homes, and Kertzman told Reuters that when the company announces quarterly earnings in December, it expects to add ``hundreds of thousands`` of homes to that total. OpenTV, has enjoyed early success in the United Kingdom, where it launched systems in October 1999, and it now boasts a global deployment into 11 million homes. This week, it unveiled its first U.S. deal with cable operator USA Media Group. PowerTV says its systems are in 5 million U.S. homes right now, but a large percentage of those come from its affiliation with set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta. Still, CEO Steve Necessary rightly says PowerTV ``is the most broadly deployed solution for two-way, interactive cable`` in the United States. While the battle rages on, operating system providers seem to agree on one point: cable operators will be deploying more than one system until they determine exactly what consumers want. Most cable operators, too, will likely tailor systems to match viewer habits and use their own brand names. So, viewers may never see the names of the software makers on TV screens. MEET iTV When viewers switch on a TV, they will get a main menu of services including video-on-demand (the ability to watch a movie at any given time), home shopping (labeled t-commerce as opposed to e-commerce), or just plain old TV. Using a remote control, viewers will scroll through the menu. Clicking on ``TV`` might give a viewer a simple broadcast program, but viewers with digital cable could watch the show from different perspectives. A hockey game, for instance, could be watched from the stands, rinkside or behind the net. In another example, viewers might flip to TV Guide`s program schedule where they would see shows and times on one portion of the screen, video ads for anything from movies to cars in another section, and banner ads in a third grouping. By using a remote control to click on an ad, viewers could see more information, and eventually ``click through`` a series of screens to order a product. TV Guide will share in sales generated for each ad clicked or product sold. Gemstar-TV Guide Co-President Joe Kiener says his Interactive Program Guide systems, combined, are expected to grow from about 9 million viewers to 20 million in 2001. Viewers are clicking on ads about four times an hour and go about three clicks deep for price and order information on average, he said. Gemstar-TV Guide`s GUIDE +Plus Gold now comes pre-installed, for free, on some TVs, and next year services such as two-way paging will be added. AOLTV offers instant messaging, e-mail and a TV program guide. Consumers can buy hardware for $249 in stores and subscribe for a monthly fee. Down the road, too, AOLTV will offer iTV services directly on set-top boxes in an effort to become the first stop on TV sets for channel surfers. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Interactive TV - Markt und Wettbewerb |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | geldtip (06.12.00 10:53:34) |
| Beitrag: | 120 von 232 (ID:2480863) |
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