Comcast prepares interactive TV launch

Comcast hopes to launch interactive TV applications for up to 50 networks within its Motorola footprint during the second half of 2010. The launch, which will focus on cable programmers, could reach more than 12 million households.

Not surprisingly, the first network to climb on board is the Home Shopping Network (HSN) with a Shop by Remote application. HSN says interactive shopping works; it's signed up 1,200 new subscribers who never bought anything before thanks to one-push shopping.

To make the interactivity work, Comcast is pushing CableLabs' Enhanced TV Binary Exchange (EBIF) user agents to Moto set-tops with a goal of equipping every box by the middle of the year. The MSO is also working with Itaas, an ITV development company, to port EBIF user agents to Cisco (formerly Scientific-Atlanta) boxes by late 2010 or early 2011.

For more:
- see this story from MCN

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