ActiveVideo Networks: Unified Content Access, Web-Style Navigation Can Drive Next Generation of Cable On-Demand Services

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- ActiveVideo Networks™, the global leader in cloud-based interactive television solutions, today announced that it will outline support for a new strategic approach for providing the cable industry with a next-generation experience that unifies content across multiple platforms and brings new levels of personalization, recommendation and social networking to traditional on-demand television.

At the Cable Show this week, ActiveVideo will show how its CloudTV™ platform, personalized navigation interface and intelligent navigation functionality can enable viewers to browse, search and recommend content from any source in an iVOD environment that encompasses linear television, VOD, interactive TV, Web video and user-generated content.  Designed to eliminate walls between content silos, iVOD enables operators to reduce subscriber confusion, increase viewing and create new opportunities for targeted, interactive advertising.

"The cable content universe is unparalleled in terms of richness, quality and diversity, but removing barriers between content sources, introducing social networks and creating intuitive browsing experiences would increase the industry's ability to maximize the value of its video platforms," said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks.   "iVOD is all about the migration to a landscape in which viewers can seamlessly access all of their video content without launching interactive or on-demand 'sessions' and without leaving the TV."

"In the end, all video is 'on demand,'" said Edgar Villalpando, SVP Marketing for ActiveVideo (or a partner). "In the new era of nearly infinite content choices, the next generation video experience is as defined by content discovery and browsing as it is consumption.  In an iVOD environment, recommendations from a viewer's own social networks and communities create a search experience that is nearly as enjoyable as the content itself."   

iVOD combines two familiar concepts -- Web functionality and on-demand video -- into an intelligent, immersive, individual experience that would enable cable system operators to consolidate their product messages to subscribers.  Operators and programmers also would be able to adopt unified programs for the selling, insertion and reporting of targeted advertising across all video platforms.

In an iVOD world, operators would be able to offer and monetize a wide variety of Web-like features, including enhanced search and discovery; the ability of subscribers to exchange, and act on, recommendations with friends; and the ability of programming to "find" the viewers, based on demographics and individual viewing habits.  

"iVOD essentially is television without borders," said Villalpando.  "As a seamless viewing experience, it can move Web 2.0 content to the big screen, change the way Hollywood monetizes content, and drive increased on-demand use.  We believe that it is a simple, effective approach than can quickly change the way all video is consumed."

About ActiveVideo Networks

ActiveVideo Networks is the world leader in cloud-based interactive services that are redefining television (iTV 2.0). The company's network-centric approach simply and inexpensively enables expanded programming, navigation and advertising possibilities, allowing viewers to define and share their TV experiences. ActiveVideo combines Web-based media and targeted, clickable advertisements with the high-quality video, immediate responsiveness and remote control navigation of television for uniform interactivity across all digital and IPTV set-tops, CI+ enabled televisions, and broadband-connected CE devices. ActiveVideo Networks is based in the heart of Silicon Valley, with offices in Los Angeles, Baltimore and Hilversum, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.activevideo.com.

SOURCE ActiveVideo Networks