Hoping to edge interactive TV forward, Comcast Media Center today announced a joint marketing agreement to advance application development and time to market for cable’s enhanced and tru2way services.
The cable unit’s parent last week outlined plans for two-way TV services in two markets using the industry’s tru2way specs for application development and select Panasonic Corp. TVs to support them, without needing set-top boxes.
CMC and itaas are teaming to provide expanded enhanced television (ETV) and EBIF-compliant application development and testing support for the HITS AxIS platform, a central meeting place for companies that want to advance interactive television.
The deal taps itaas’ experience in interactive TV application development, testing, integration and post-deployment support said Gary Traver, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the CMC, in prepared comments. “Together, CMC and itaas will help expand the pool of application developers using the ETV and tru2way platforms and offer expanded toolsets that translate into quick and efficient rollouts of compelling enhanced television services available on today’s set-top boxes.”
CMC and itaas will jointly offer application development, quality assurance, testing and integration support from itaas for the Comcast Media Center HITS AxIS platform. Service providers and application developers will gain access to state-of-the-art lab facilities and equipment available through the HITS AxIS platform and a large selection of tru2way and legacy set-top boxes.
Launched in May of this year, HITS AxIS serves as a centralized resource to support the development, delivery and management of advanced interactive applications using the ETV Enhanced Television-Binary Interchange Format platform as well as the emerging tru2way platform.
It’s designed to operate on the NAS and DAC headend management systems, which will provide cable system operators serving smaller markets with additional revenue opportunities and a more competitive profile without incurring the significant capital outlays required to upgrade their cable system architectures in order to support advanced interactive applications.
