Venice Firm Building Links That Wed TV and Gaming
Technology – Christopher Keough
Venice interactive software company Spiderdance Inc. has been recognized as a powerful link between television and the Internet.
The firm landed a Bandies Award for its core technology, which permits Internet users to synch in real time with television programs. The award acknowledged its work with the site for NBC’s “The Weakest Link.”
In the case of “Weakest Link,” Spiderdance’s TruSync technology permits viewers to play along with the television game show.
“It brings home the ability to get sassed by (host) Anne Robinson,” said Spiderdance President Tracy Fullerton. “You, too, can bear the brunt of her insults.”
The technology syncs a home computer with the show so questions are asked online at the same time as on TV.. Web users can compete against in-studio contestants on the tube.
The rest of the experience is very similar. There’s even a virtual “Walk of Shame.”. The software tells those playing who among them is the weakest link and other Web players taunt the loser. Further, Spiderdance has a stockpile of insults “in Anne’s tone” that criticize players along the way according to their performance.
The online experience has transcended the television program, Fullerton said, with other games under way at weakestlink.com in Web time all day, every day.
Spiderdance has licensed its interactive technology to programs airing on MTV, A & E; Television Network’s The History Channel, the WB and others.
The Bandies are sponsored by a private firm aiming to advance the broadband industry by acknowledging efforts to extend TV and home entertainment with new technologies. Its steering committee is made up of folks from the broadcast, cable, ad and Internet worlds.
TEAC Sells Direct
Montebello-based TEAC America Inc., one of the world’s leading suppliers of components to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), is taking its case straight to consumers.
The company has launched an Internet store at shopteac.com in an effort to bypass the middleman in the sale of its line of digital storage products, including CD-ROM and DVD drives and its new mini-CD/MP3 player.
The move, said spokeswoman Rita Tennyson, is not meant to supplant traditional product outlets, but rather to offer an alternative that may maximize sales.
Sites Seek Subscribers
Local Internet operations IFilm Corp., FoxSports.com and E! Online have joined the mix at Real Networks’ RealOne player subscription service.
Considered by many to be the broadest test of whether consumers are willing to pay for online entertainment, RealOne offers subscribers exclusive content from 16 partner providers in exchange for $20 per month.
IFilm co-founder Luke McDonough said the RealOne channel will compile the best of the company’s free content.
The deal, which operates under a revenue-sharing model, is a continuation of the company’s strategy to attach its brand name anywhere there is opportunity, McDonough said. IFilm already has licensing deals with Tivo, the Independent Film Channel and AMC Theatres.
Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president and general manager of FoxSports.com, likened RealOne to a cable system that offers subscribers access to multiple program styles. FoxSports.com will receive a monthly licensing fee from Real Networks based on the number of overall subscribers.
For Levinsohn, the development of subscription services such as RealOne are the natural direction of the Internet, where Web companies for the most part have been struggling to create revenue in a faltering advertising market.
Staff reporter Christopher Keough can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 235 or by e-mail at
[email protected].
