Post by dkennedy on Mar 4, 2005 5:56:51 GMT -5
Time Warner offers interactive product
Web Posted: 03/04/2005 12:00 AM CST
Sanford Nowlin
Express-News Business Writer
Time Warner Cable has launched a new interactive information service that allows users to scroll personally selected information — from weather reports in their home ZIP code to the week's school lunch menus — across the screen while they watch TV.
San Antonio's primary cable provider began testing the service here late last year in about 10,000 homes and this week launched it marketwide. It's free to any subscriber to the company's digital cable packages.
The service, called Interactive Television, allows customers to select their favorite local and national content — including stock prices, sports scores and news from WOAI-TV — via their remote control and track it onscreen.
Users can either scroll information at the bottom of their screen like a weather alert or spread it out while they watch TV from a box in the upper right corner.
"There are any number of ideas that can grow out of the first step we're starting here," said Jeff Henry, Time Warner's marketing vice president. "Potentially, you'll have as many kinds of information to add to this service as you will cable channels."
Future additions to the interactive menu could include a service that allows subscribers to monitor auctions on eBay, request player stats on sports programs or play interactive games.
So far, Henry said, San Antonio customers have been receptive to the service.
About 35 percent of those in Time Warner's test market here used the service, and 25 percent customized the information that appears on their screens. Both of those are ahead of adoption rates in the company's other cities.
Analysts said launching such services is essential for Time Warner, which faces tough competition from satellite providers DISH Network and DirecTV.
The cable carrier — which launched phone service here last year in competition with San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc. — faces additional heat in coming months as SBC introduces its own pay television service.
SBC has touted the interactive capabilities of Project Lightspeed, a $4 billion project to bring video to consumers over broadband lines.
"People have gotten used to going onto the Internet and getting exactly what they want," said Denise Koenig, an SBC spokeswoman. "We're going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of convergence."
Web Posted: 03/04/2005 12:00 AM CST
Sanford Nowlin
Express-News Business Writer
Time Warner Cable has launched a new interactive information service that allows users to scroll personally selected information — from weather reports in their home ZIP code to the week's school lunch menus — across the screen while they watch TV.
San Antonio's primary cable provider began testing the service here late last year in about 10,000 homes and this week launched it marketwide. It's free to any subscriber to the company's digital cable packages.
The service, called Interactive Television, allows customers to select their favorite local and national content — including stock prices, sports scores and news from WOAI-TV — via their remote control and track it onscreen.
Users can either scroll information at the bottom of their screen like a weather alert or spread it out while they watch TV from a box in the upper right corner.
"There are any number of ideas that can grow out of the first step we're starting here," said Jeff Henry, Time Warner's marketing vice president. "Potentially, you'll have as many kinds of information to add to this service as you will cable channels."
Future additions to the interactive menu could include a service that allows subscribers to monitor auctions on eBay, request player stats on sports programs or play interactive games.
So far, Henry said, San Antonio customers have been receptive to the service.
About 35 percent of those in Time Warner's test market here used the service, and 25 percent customized the information that appears on their screens. Both of those are ahead of adoption rates in the company's other cities.
Analysts said launching such services is essential for Time Warner, which faces tough competition from satellite providers DISH Network and DirecTV.
The cable carrier — which launched phone service here last year in competition with San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc. — faces additional heat in coming months as SBC introduces its own pay television service.
SBC has touted the interactive capabilities of Project Lightspeed, a $4 billion project to bring video to consumers over broadband lines.
"People have gotten used to going onto the Internet and getting exactly what they want," said Denise Koenig, an SBC spokeswoman. "We're going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of convergence."