WINfirst launches first U.S. consumer interactive TV service

WINfirst is launching what it calls the first consumer interactive television system in the U.S. over its fiber-to-the-home, full-service networks in Sacramento, Calif.

WINfirst, which has franchises in nine U.S. cities, chose Sacramento because its network was ready and because of “the competitive state of the market there,” said Arthur Orduna, vice president of marketing for Canal+ Technologies, the U.S. arm of Vivendi-Universal’s Canal+.

“This is a rollout. They’re bringing on subscribers, and they’re building out the city,” said Orduna.

Canal+, which previously aborted an interactive TV trial with MediaOne Group, will provide middleware, a smart card-based conditional access system for encrypted pay-per-view channels, and will serve as the prime integrator for all of WINfirst’s franchise areas passing 3.7 million homes, Orduna said.

WINfirst provides programming it has acquired through deals the with aggregators and programmers, Orduna said. Video-on-demand programming comes from Intertainer, which separately announced a partnership with Microsoft to deliver its video-on-demand content--including movies and other entertainment--via desktop PCs.

The Intertainer-Microsoft collaboration makes Intertainer’s subscription service available in the nation’s top 35 broadband markets via broadband-connected PCs. Intertainer content is encoded in Windows Media Video 8 at 500 K/bps for better-than-VHS quality and a full PC screen viewing experience.

The MSN network will begin promoting the Intertainer service through co-branded Web pages later this month.