Content area
Full text
ACTV, Sportvision provide graphics, data to drive PPV service
Companies involved with interactive television have always pointed to sports applications as a natural fit. The capabilities of choosing camera angles or following a specific athlete (such as a racecar driver or golfer) are the typical won't-it-be-cool-someday applications.
The pay-per-view "NASCAR In Car On inDemand" service that will debut June 16 is a fairly close facsimile of that concept, and without the layers of interactive middleware and software (and expensive settop boxes). Instead, the service will use seven PPV channels to allow viewers to choose from the live network feed, five channels dedicated to in-car cameras, and an interactive data channel that will provide comprehensive race information. The 22-race package will cost $99 and be offered on AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and other MSOs.
"It's really the first element of interactive television because viewers will have a choice of what they're doing," says Steve Roberts, Sportvision executive vice president, product development. "It's very simple, and it uses ACTV technology for the seamless channel changing....