Toronto start-up promises workable interactive television technology

A Toronto-based start-up has invented a new interactive technology that imbeds advertising directly into a broadcast signal, giving networks a new weapon in their war to keep commercials in front of web surfers and television viewers. The technology is aimed at content producers, broadcasters and advertisers who are anxious to reach the growing number of people who watch television and surf the web at the same time. The head of i Love TV Inc says his company is able to insert markers, called "tokens" into live or taped television broadcasts that are streamed on a broadcaster’s web site. "We’re talking to everybody. We want the advertisers to embrace it," says Ian Park. "We’re telling the networks we’d like them to use it and the rights-holders should embrace this, too, because it’s adding value to their product." What is i Love TV ultimately offering? According to Park, "the solution to your convergence problem." The company’s patent-pending technology inserts tokens into the vertical blanking interval signal in television broadcasts. When a token reaches the head end, it’s tagged and routed to a broadcaster’s streaming web site. For example, a trigger in the broadcast might pop a car ad onto a user’s browser screen at the same time as it is shown on the television. Or, an interactive game or ecom site could also be shown as new links in a separate window, or driven automatically to the browser. Tokens can either be inserted into canned content, or on-the-fly by technicians during a live broadcast. The markers change selected web content according to a broadcaster or advertiser’s needs, and can be inserted into streaming media to allow point-and-click interactivity with TV content. Park says the technology works best in a two-screen environment, when someone is watching TV and also using their PC. Live sports and entertainment shows are obvious targets. He points out that about 50,000 people use an interactive game that’s offered online during broadcasts of Monday Night Football. "Dick Ebersol (Chairman of NBC Sports) was (in Toronto), and he said, frankly, they’re afraid of the Internet because they don’t know how it works," says Park. He says he tries to explain to people like Ebersol that the revenue opportunities come with providing value-added content. "You can now dynamically generate anything thematically related to your broadcast. Advertisers are going to pay you money, so why wouldn’t you adopt it? You’re in control of everything that goes out on the Internet, ultimately even the stream, so embrace it rather than be afraid somebody’s going to steal your signal." As for how many people actually watch television while surfing the ‘Net, Park says the number is growing. About 30 per cent of Internet users currently have a PC and television in the same room. "I think the consumer’s ready and I think the fact that he doesn’t need to buy a set-top box – he can just look on his computer screen – should make it an easy adoption of the technology." Park describes the technology as an alternative – and even a competitor – to digital set-top boxes now being deployed by the cable TV industry. He quotes Marshall MacLuhan who believed that the content for a new medium would always be an old medium. "If you look at that statement," he says, "and you look at what the set-top boxes are doing, they’re going about it the wrong way. They’re trying to stick the Internet on the television where, in fact, you should stick the television on the Internet." If and when the web fully arrives on the television, Park says his company’s technology is easily adaptable. One advantage to having the advertising imbedded directly into the broadcast signal, he adds, is that it isn’t zapped out by personal video recorders like Tivo. Low profile for new technology i Love TV isn’t the only company selling a technology into this market. ABC.com has already enjoyed significant early success with its interactive services, but Park says i Love TV is the only one to be able to dynamically update pages in synchronicity with television content. To date, the company has kept a low profile. Park says plans to begin knocking on doors within the next month, targeting the largest networks in the United States. He also expects there will be a large market for the technology among the dozens of new digital speciality channels being launched in Canada later this year. A key selling point, he says, is that the product is ready to roll out today, that users don’t necessarily need broadband access to experience what the technology offers. The company has been privately financed, though in early September Park hopes to engineer a reverse takeover with Independence Resources Inc, a CDNX-traded company. Independence, formerly a junior mining company with South American interests, announced plans to take over i Love TV in early May. Once completed, Independence will change its name to I Love TV Inc. Last October, Independence agreed to loan i Love TV $50,000 per month to a maximum of $150,000 to complete beta-testing of the product. I Love TV shareholders include the technology’s developers, William Wine and Manfred Humphries, both of Toronto.

Toronto start-up promises workable interactive television technology

News | 06/14/2001 4:00 am EDT

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