Alaskan Op Checks In with SeaChange

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -General Communications Inc. said it would use SeaChange International Inc.'s "GuestServe Network System" to provide video-on-demand, interactive gaming and Internet services to about 1,000 hotel rooms here.

GCI said it was important to offer hotels a service bundle that goes beyond traditional pay-per-view, allowing those partners to generate additional revenue.

The city is home roughly more than 6,350 rooms, with 2,235 within GCI's immediate reach, the company said. It is in service negotiations with additional hotels.

The company has already launched on-demand services at Hotel Captain Cook, the second-largest hotel in the city.

Several other operators have also tapped SeaChange to carve out a place in the hotel-VOD marketplace. AT&T Broadband offers it in Chicago; Time Warner Cable in Myrtle Beach, Calif., New York and Honolulu; and Cox Communications Inc. in San Diego.