Starz, Showtime Get Interactive TV Bugs

Premium Programmers to Demo EBIF Applications at Cable Show

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/18/2009 2:09:30 PM

Complete Cable Show 2009 coverage from Multichannel News

Starz Entertainment and Showtime Networks are set to show off interactive TV applications for cable operators at next month's Cable Show '09.

Both premium programmers will demo applications based on CableLabs' Enhanced Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), a lightweight specification for ITV designed to run on virtually any digital cable set-top currently in use.

Cable operators have coalesced around EBIF as the foundation for mass deployment of standard interactive features, driven in large part by Canoe Ventures, the advanced-ad company formed by six MSOs.

Now more programmers are stepping up to take advantage of the momentum behind EBIF.

Starz's EBIF application will feature a "mini-guide" that links its linear channel to the Starz on-demand section on a cable system. The demo will be part of the 17th annual CableNET showcase, sponsored by CableLabs and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

The concept with the Starz mini-guide is to deliver an experience similar to Time Warner Cable's Start Over service: If viewers tune to a Starz channel in the middle of a movie and that movie is on VOD, they would receive a prompt giving them the option of watching the program from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Showtime has created an EBIF version of an interactive marketing app, developed by interactive-services firm Itaas, to let cable customers sample free episodes -- such as from original series of Weeds or The Tudors -- and to get more information on shows. Subscribers can then instantly order the premium channel with a few clicks of the remote.

Showtime has offered a version of the subscriber-acquisition ITV application on Dish Network but has done only limited cable rollouts, such as with Time Warner Cable's Oceanic division (developed with ActiveVideo Networks).

With EBIF becoming widely deployed, Showtime expects to achieve much broader distribution. The programmer plans to roll out the EBIF application across the entire footprint of one major operator in the third quarter of 2009.

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