Keeping Up: 2 Interactive Television Companies

Now I'm not one to assume that because a company announces they have "joint agreements" or "letters of intent" to mean that any of that will come to fruition. Still, this blog is my personal online stream of consciousness thinking that I also hope will help my students as they enter an entirely different media landscape as will this year's Class of 2011.

So here is public information available from biz.yahoo.com and I take no responsibility for the accuracy of their statements. You should check them out for yourself. Here are two players: PTV and Interactive Television Networks, Inc.

First, from http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/17/17004.html accessed 30 July 2006, is PTV:

If you think soccer-related Web content is premium, check out PTV. The company owns Premium TV, which operates Web sites and provides other new media services for British soccer teams. The company was created in 2003 under the name NTL Europe to hold the non-UK assets of UK-based cable television company NTL. NTL Europe changed its name to PTV in 2004 after shedding most of its cable holdings and shifting focus to its Premium TV subsidiary, which manages about 85 team Web sites. PTV also owns the UK interactive-television company Two Way TV, a provider of entertainment content through television, broadband Internet, and mobile phones.

And in no particular order, here is Interactive Television Networks, Inc. taken from http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/119/119411.html accessed 30 July 2006:

Leave it to the Internet to make TV less passive. Interactive Television Networks (ITVN), formerly Radium Ventures, provides direct-to-consumer broadcasts and services through the Internet to subscribers who own one of the company's television set-top boxes. ITVN's Silver Screen Network is the result of a licensing agreement with Academy Entertainment for the rights to some 1,500 classic movies, including some starring John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. In 2006 the company launched ITVN Radio, which provides subscription access to more than 1,800 radio stations from 80-plus countries. President Michael Martinez owns about 26% of ITVN.

Ownership rights to material including John Wayne and Charlie Chapman? Don't be fooled. RCA's videodisc player opened with old NBC shows and even some "free" governent films (just like MTV used when it "launched" its service showing a public domain video of an Apollo rocket taking off.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos! Don't smite me, let me know!