Atlanta -- Scientific-Atlanta Inc. and Wink Communications
Inc. agreed to collaborate last week, with S-A saying that it will add Wink's
enhanced-broadcasting and electronic-commerce platforms to its Explorer 2000 digital
set-tops.
Wink's technology is already slated to run on
S-A's analog set-top line, as well as on set-top boxes made by General Instrument
Corp. and Pioneer New Media Technologies.
Michael Harney, vice president and general manager of
S-A's digital-subscriber-networks group, said in a prepared statement that
Wink's suite of applications "is an excellent example of the new services that
take advantage of [S-A's] two-way, interactive digital network."
Maggie Wilderotter, president and CEO of Wink, said in the
statement that S-A and Wink "share a common desire to expand viewer and operator
choice, to embrace open standards and to push the boundaries of television into the
future."
That future will include both interactive-TV applications
-- Wink already holds development agreements with Cable News Network, Courtroom Television
Network, ESPN, Nickelodeon, Showtime, The Weather Channel and many other programmers -- as
well as interactive advertising.
Earlier this month, Wink signed AT&T Corp., Levi
Strauss & Co. and General Electric Co., among others, to develop TV-based methods for
consumers to order product literature or merchandise.
In that arrangement, Wink aggregates those consumer clicks
and forwards the information to advertisers, programmers and fulfillment houses, "per
Cable Television Laboratories Inc.'s OpenCable specifications," officials said.
As a part of the Wink/S-A deal, Wink joined S-A's
"CreativEdge" content-development program. S-A executives described CreativEdge
as a means to accelerate the deployment of interactive-TV technologies and applications;
developers who join receive technical-support services, software discounts and
certification services.
