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Alan Breznick
Acting like the comeback kid of 1999, the resurgent interactive TV industry will be peddling lots of new equipment, software and services on and off the convention center floor during the Western Show next week.
Wink Communications Inc., WorldGate Communications Inc., ACTV Inc., ICTV, Source Media Inc., Liberate Technologies, OpenTV Inc., WebTV Networks, PowerTV Inc., Excite Corp., TiVo Inc. and Replay Networks Inc. will all be displaying their latest digital set-top boxes and/or enhanced TV features for cable operators and programmers in Los Angeles. The 12 companies hope to ride the expected tidal wave of interactive TV, which market analysts such as Forrester Research Inc. predict will generate nearly $20 billion in annual revenue by 2004.
Several interactive TV players also intend to unveil fresh licensing deals with content providers during the three-day convention, if they don't already do so in the days leading up to the show. TiVo, Wink and WorldGate, for instance, are all preparing announcements of such agreements with TV programmers and other content providers.
"We'll be signing more (networks) this year," said Melinda White, VP-cable sales for Wink. The company already has 26 cable and broadcast networks enlisted as content partners for its enhanced TV service, which provides text and graphics screen overlays for conventional video channels and also creates new virtual channels of text.
Going into the show, the biggest interactive TV buzz revolves around the two hot personal video recording (PVR) firms, TiVo and Replay. Both rival Silicon Valley startups plan to demonstrate their new, hard drive-based digital video recorders, which have far greater recording and time-shifting capabilities than traditional VCRs. And both plan to recruit cable operators and programmers to their cause.
On the convention floor, TiVo will show off the two models of its PVR, produced by Royal Philips Electronics. Introduced in retail stores in September and now available online as well, the $499 and $999 Personal TV receivers have been bought by more than 4,300 consumers so far, according to TiVo's third-quarter earnings report.
"We'll talk about how TiVo benefits cable networks, reducing churn and increasing sampling," said a TiVo spokeswoman. The company will also highlight a new feature that lets subscribers click their remotes to record shows directly from program promotions.
For its part, Replay will not have a booth on the convention floor. But the company will take out two suites at the nearby Biltmore Hotel, where it will demonstrate its new 2020 receiver, a $699 device with twice as much storage (20 hours) as its same-priced predecessor.
Replay, which claims to have sold "thousands" of PVR devices so far, also plans to unveil a new version of its software at the show. And it will reintroduce its new chairman/CEO, former CBS Entertainment president Kim LeMasters, to the cable industry.
Besides the dueling PVR players, the show focus will be on new interactive TV software and applications for the growing number of digital cable set-tops. For example, WorldGate will be playing up what its service can do on General Instrument Corp.'s new $99 Surfview box while Wink will be promoting its latest digital enhancements of wrestling programs, college football telecasts and entertainment news shows.
"We're focusing on digital strategy and being an open platform," said a Wink spokeswoman. "We're going to be talking about digital a lot."
At least one interactive TV vendor aims to make a splash at the show by repositioning itself as a "new digital platform" for high-speed Internet access over the TV set. ICTV, which previously focused on providing a premium service of computer games and educational titles to cable operators, is now promoting its headend-based equipment for enabling fast Web-over-TV service on low-end digital set-tops.
"There are 50 guys fighting for space in the set-top box," observed former Comcast Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. executive Robert Clasen, the new chairman of ICTV. "We're not one of them."
Finally, Excite plans to unveil its long-awaited Web-over-TV service at the show, putting it head-to-head with Microsoft Corp.'s WebTV Networks, America Online Inc.'s planned AOL TV service and WorldGate, among others.
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