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TIM CLARK
DirecTV, Wink Communications and Thomson Multimedia announced the culmination of DirecTV Interactive last week. Powered by Wink, the new service delivers interactive enhancement from top broadcast networks and exclusive ITV channels from DirecTV, Barnes&Noble.com, ESPN, NBC and The Weather Channel. DirecTV Interactive will be available to 1 million households by the end of this month. Future penetration could reach 5 million households by the end of 2001.
"For us, this is just the beginning," says Larry Chapman, president, DirecTV Global Digital Media. Chapman anticipates PVR maven TiVo will join the DirecTV Interactive fold in the near future, allowing programmers and advertisers to sample ITV on a larger scale. For now, DirecTV Interactive will be released incrementally, "by the tens of thousands," in Chapman's estimation.
"This is a huge milestone for Wink Commun-ications," says Maggie Wilderotter, CEO, Wink. With more than 100 television partners involved in the new service, Wilderotter says Wink's alliance with DirecTV has created the largest ITV service in the United States.
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