Instead of *talking* about what is going to happen in the great “Broadband PC/Interactive TV” debate, Oracle seems to be one of the only companies actually *doing* anything worthwhile about it. Two announcements this week show off their DTV and ITV capabilities for this “new dawn” of digital technobabble.

Oracle and Lysis S.A. have announced that Compaq Computer Corp. will provide the first pre-packaged Digital Television (DTV) solution for cable, satellite, terrestrial and telecommunications broadcast service operators, or you could say, “Broadcaster-In-A-Box”.

This little beauty combines hardware and software products to “deliver seamless, cost-effective digital broadcast scheduled play-out and management of content, minimise operational costs, and provide the framework to add interactive services for increased revenue    opportunities.”

Without getting too tech on you, it manages the entire process of acquiring, scheduling, storing and delivering content, and administration of digital broadcast services over multiple channels and distribution networks. Yup, we’ll have one of those please.

The second “Oracle powered” newsbyte is aimed more at the Interactive end of the broadcast market for those media moguls wanting to offer Video-on-Demand and e-commerce services. The Oracle iTV platform is a solution that enables, “broadcast, cable and telecommunications providers to quickly deliver interactive services such as email, Internet access, and Video-on-Demand to millions of viewers, helping them maintain viewership and increase revenues in the new Internet economy.”

Based on their Oracle8i software , the Oracle iTV platform offers “data warehousing capabilities that allow broadcasters to study viewer demographics and viewing habits in order to better tailor and target advertising and programming efforts.”

Other standard features of the platform include Viewer and Subscription Management, Billing and Account Management, Content Management, Event/Usage Management, Service Management, and the Interactive Repository.

It goes on to say that: “As broadcasters transition from an analogue to a digital environment, Oracle’s iTV platform provides an opportunity to generate new revenue by offering consumers value-added services such as Web surfing, buying advertised products online and chatting with other viewers through their television sets.” Whether to believe them or not is up to you, but this really where all it is all going to end up,

so even if you don’t go with the Oracle option, we highly recommend you at least get yourself ready for it when it all blows up.

http://www.oracle.com/itv/