BRIEFS

By Broadband Week Staff
From The July 8, 2002 Edition Of Broadband Week

Seattle — RealNetworks Inc. is putting more into play with a new subscription gaming service.

The Seattle-based streaming media technology and service provider has added a new monthly discount service dubbed GamePass to its RealOne Arcade content lineup. The new subscription service offers users a catalog of 90 popular games, most of which are familiar card and board games. Prices for the games will range from $9.99 to $19.99 — a 30 percent and 75 percent discount of market price.

Monthly cost for the service is $6.95 for those using RealOne Player and a discount $4.95 for premium Real SuperPass members. That price includes one monthly credit toward a free game download and a $5 discount for any additional games purchased during the month.

Once they buy the game, subscribers can keep it permanently even if they decide to cancel service. Members must sign up for an initial three-month commitment, but that is waived if they buy a game upon signup.

“GamePass changes the rules for digitally distributed games,” said Andrew Wright, general manager of RealNetworks’ games division.

“But utilizing a media club subscription model, we deliver an unparalleled combination of value, selection and convenience.”

RealArcade has so far delivered more than 20 million individual game downloads with 700,000 game purchase transactions.

Las Vegas — Entertainment Direct.TV Inc. announced it has ponied up a 30 percent equity stake in Merit Studios Inc. and its “wormhole” file compression software. The software compresses and encrypts audio-visual files such as movies, and is aimed at markets ranging from entertainment to medical fields.

EDTV — unrelated to satellite provider DirecTV — is positioning itself as a new media direct marketing company. It’s in the process of a reverse merger with bankrupt Broadband Wireless International Corp. that will eventually give it majority interest in the company. It has offered Merit stockholders shares in its own company as part of the equity investment, which closed June 24.

San Carlos, Calif. — Liberate Technologies Inc. scored a coup over rival Microsoft Corp. by appointing one of the software giant’s executives to lead Liberate’s new PopTV development program.

Colin Dixon, former general manager of cable services for Microsoft’s Web TV division, was named vice president of applications and content at Liberate. He will oversee the Liberate PopTV Program, an incubator aimed at encouraging applications for the company’s interactive TV middleware platform. It has more than 2,900 registered members world wide.

Liberate also named Jennifer Graham vice president of marketing communications. Graham, who comes to Liberate from public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, will be responsible for all of Liberate’s outbound communications.

Los Angeles — Two Way TV Inc. has a new CEO following its recently completed merger with Interactive Network.

Piers Wilson, who has been the chief financial officer for Two Way TV Ltd., the company’s British parent, was named to the top executive spot. He will continue his CFO duties for the parent company as he takes over the American subsidiary. He replaces Bruce Bauer, who is stepping up to chairman of the board for the company. Robert Regan will continue his role as chief operating officer and president of the new merged operation.

Two Way also announced the North American launch of its Ark technology lineup, which provides a cross-platform software package for authoring and broadcasting enhanced TV applications. The technology has already launched in the United Kingdom on BBC, Channel 4, Sky Sports and Challenge TV.

The company also has licensed elements of its Ark technology to Liberate Technologies Inc.

“Interactive television in the UK is currently about 18 months head of the U.S., and Piers has played a pivotal role in putting Two Way TV at the center of the industry here, said Matthew Tims, CEO of the parent company, in a statement. “He will ensure that Two Way TV US is able to maximize the patented technology and huge expertise that we have built up in this area and help U.S. networks deploy the best enhanced interactivity available as the industry grows there.”

San Francisco — Listen.com’s Rhapsody music subscription service has inked Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Group to a non-exclusive deal to distribute music from its artists catalog. The deal makes Rhapsody the first online music service to gain distribution agreements with all five major record labels. The other labels are BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.

“Universal Music Group is committed to making our music available to a variety of legitimate online services, giving consumers broad access to our roster of talented artists,” said Larry Kenswil, president of Universal Music Group eLabs. “Rhapsody is a great outlet for our music as the service balances consumers’ passion for digital music while respecting the rights of artists.”

The Rhapsody service now offers 13,000 albums totaling 175,000 tracks of music. It also provides Internet radio service and music information.

Sunnyvale, Calif. — Juniper Networks Inc. completed the acquisition of Siemens AG’s Unisphere Networks subsidiary, which gives the company greater ability to offer Internet protocol products and services worldwide.

The deal is valued at $585 million, with Juniper putting up $375 million in cash and 36.5 million shares. Juniper said the deal is expected to be slightly dilutive in the second half of 2002 and accretive in early 2003, excluding one-time structuring charges.

Juniper and Siemens also entered into a reseller agreement, enabling Siemens to resell Juniper products as well as providing customer service and support.

New York — Verizon Communications is jumping into the packet-switched voice pool, deploying Nortel Networks gear in its New Jersey and Florida switching centers.

This is the first step for the Baby Bell in deploying packet-switching in its voice network. The deployment is the largest application of the new technology by an exchange carrier in North America, according to Verizon. So far, the New Jersey packet-switching deployment has successfully completed over 1.8 million voice phone calls.

The packet network routes voice traffic using asynchronous transfer mode switches.

“It is very important to us that this network transition be absolutely seamless to our customers, and that it enable the delivery of mission-critical services with very high reliability,” said Phil Harrington, Verizon’s VToA program manager. “We’re also planning to deploy this technology at a number of new locations over the next 18 months.”