iTV Startup Tunes in $40M
After years of failed pilots, is interactive TV finally ready to break into the prime time?
An anonymous private equity firm on Tuesday sank $40 million into Ensequence, a seven-year-old interactive video software company that is one of a small group of startups still standing in an industry that has delivered little in two decades. The Portland, Oregon-based startup, which has now taken $87 million in three funding rounds, may have finally found the formula that opens the floodgates in the interactive TV, or iTV, market, according to one analyst.
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“Ensequence came up with a just-add-water recipe for interactive TV,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey says. “Unlike previous attempts, Ensequence’s product scales to millions of people instantly.” Past attempts at iTV proved too costly. They required the expensive step of producing, selling, and distributing special iTV set-top boxes, or customizing iTV for each cable operator, Mr. McQuivey said.
This technology allows carriers, content providers, and advertisers to set up interactive video and advertising on TV, the web, and on mobile phones, without significant network adjustment.
Ensequence has put together a fairly long list of pilots and releases with companies such as MTV, Nickelodeon, and TV Guide, but its showcase is a deal with Major League Baseball. The company’s technology is adding interactivity to over 2,500 baseball games on baseball’s MLB.tv
Sports fans who get the premium package can juggle among six live games, get stats, and set alerts for when their favorite players come up to bat in any of the six games.
I bat out...that's more than enough for me!
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