Cable company Telewest Communications has this morning announced partnership with a raft of High Street and online businesses to drive the ecommerce facilities of its interactive television service. Thirteen companies, including Abbey National, lastminute.com, Hertz and Thomas Cook, are already on board for the roll-out of the service in the first quarter of next year.
Available to customers of the Telewest Active Digital service (see Telewest Launches Digital Service), the interactive services platform is set to rival Open, a similar service launched on Sky Digital earlier in the autumn (see Interactive TV Launches In The UK).
Telewest is boasting the higher speed and greater capacity that its service will offer over Open. Whereas Open currently connects its services to viewers homes via a telephone line-based system, Telewest’s Active Digital interactive services use the company’s fibre-optic cable network. This means that companies will be able to include full motion video, stereo sound and animation alongside the standard text and graphic information found on current services.
Telewest is hoping to add a further 25 partners to the service within the next three months. Commenting on today’s announcement, Telewest chief executive, Tony Illsley, says: “We fully intend to be a market leader in the provision of online interactive services and these leading brand names are a very important endorsement of our recently launched digital service. Our Active Digital customers can look forward to an interactive TV experience superior to anything currently in the marketplace.
“For viewers and retailers, the key benefits lie in our broadband network. For customers, it will enable them to receive interactive applications faster than from any other delivery system. For reatilers, our high bandwidth will deliver the maximum amount of digital ‘floorspace’ for their interactive services.”
The company is also hoping to develop the local and regional content of the service by signing up regional companies. Newcastle Building Society, for example, is already on-board for the launch.
Rival cable company NTL has developed its own interactive service, but this is currently only available through the company’s TV Internet package. NTL plans to offer an interactive service on its digital platform, the launch date for which has been repeatedly postponed. Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) has yet to develop a package of interactive services, although its digital TV offering is being gradually rolled out across the country.
Telewest Communications: 01483 750 900
