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DirecTV Goes Interactive

Techstination feature for Tuesday, October 24, 2000

Satellite TV goes interactive. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bloomberg Bootcamp. If that pizza commercial on TV makes you hungry... don't get up from the couch... just click on the eye in the corner of the screen. A company called Wink Communications is spreading its interactive technology through cable systems and now nationally, via DirecTV. DirecTV President Larry Chapman... .

"This is a technology that has been put into certain of our set tops since the beginning of this year. In fact close to a million of our subscribers have the set tops that are ready to receive this download over the next few weeks."

If you have an older DirecTV receiver, a new Wink enabled box will sell for about 149 dollars. What are the advantages. Wink CEO Maggie Wilderotter...

"A consumer will see a little eye in the left hand corner of their screen and by clicking once on the remote control they can pull up more information about the show. For example, if they're watching ESPN they can pull up sports scores and statistics or the Weather Channel instant weather forecasts for where they live or maybe where they're traveling to. And on a commercial, they can buy a product or request a sample, a coupon and a brochure with one simple click on the remote control.

There's more information at Wink.com. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg News.