Clicking on T-Commerce

Ensequence Developing Shopping Channel QVC’s New EBIF App

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 7/26/2010 12:01:00 AM

Impulse shoppers, rejoice.

QVC is developing an interactive-TV application that will let cable customers buy stuff — including the product currently being featured on the channel — with just a few clicks of their remote controls.

While QVC has launched T-commerce in the United Kingdom, the project represents its first major ITV initiative in the United States.

According to QVC and Ensequence representatives, the initial deployment is slated to be with Comcast in early 2011. However, James Mumma, Comcast's executive director of interactive TV product development, said, "While QVC is one of many companies with whom we're talking, we don't have specific plans or an agreement to deploy their planned T-commerce app at this time."

In the States, QVC has trailed rival HSN by more than three years on the interactive TV front. HSN’s Shop by Remote app, launched in 2006, is available in more than 27 million homes through Dish Network, Comcast, Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV and Time Warner Cable Oceanic in Hawaii.

The QVC app will be developed by New York-based interactive-TV development firm Ensequence. The companies expect QVC’s shopping application to be ready to test by the fall, with a commercial launch targeted for early 2011.

The application will be based on CableLabs’ Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format, and will be designed to run on Cisco Systems and Motorola digital set-tops.

To shop by remote, QVC viewers must first establish an account online and provide credit-card information. When accessing the T-commerce app on TV, they will enter their username and passcode to make a purchase, which then will be billed to their credit card.

The QVC app will offer click-to-buy capability for the currently featured product and recent products, as well as best-selling items. It also will provide “upsell” opportunities by suggesting another product paired with the selected item, Ensequence vice president of sales Jeff Siegel said.

Before it’s deployed, Comcast or any other MSO would have to certify the application, Siegel said. “They have to make sure the application doesn’t melt their boxes down.”

Initially the app will be available with the standard-definition feed of QVC, with the possibility of being adapted for HD in the future.

Using the Ensequence ITV Manager Dynamic Data module, QVC will have the ability to change its “shop window” to suit the products available along with multiproduct display capabilities. The programmer will be able to update product details and synchronize them with video content on an hourly basis.

QVC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media attributed to the Liberty Interactive Group, is distributed to more than 98 million U.S. homes.