Telco TV: ICTV brings interactive play to telco video

ORLANDO--ICTV, which has been providing the cable market with interactive content for several years, today announced that it has integrated its HeadendWare application platform with Myrio’s IP Video Platform and become a member of the Myrio Video Partner program.

  Additionally, at Telco TV here ICTV is demonstrating that integration using i3’s Media-Options-On-Demand (Mood) set-top box and Amino’s AmiNET series IPTV set-top boxes. As part of the demo, ICTV is showing a variety of applications including branded games, children’s programming, local content, a couple of varieties of Video on Demand menus and merchandising. 

  With the integration, users would simply tune to a pre-assigned channel on their video service and be presented with a menu of options. Like it’s approach to traditional cable operators, ICTV will continue running the applications from its location. However, the use of IP makes the business model for adding new applications much more attractive, said Jonathan Symonds, vice president of marketing and business development at ICTV. 

  “The cost of developing applications is so low that anyone can build one with a lot of sizzle,” he said.

  HeadendWare in fact allows application developers to use HTML, JavaScript, Java, Windows Media Player, Flash, RealPlayer and QuickTime in their content creation. And while ICTV could function as the video-on-demand platform for telcos entering the video business, it’s gaming that has picked up the most traction with its cable customers, Symonds said.

  “Games are by far the most popular application. About 70% of the traffic right now is for games. And it cuts through all demographics.”