New DVR Competitor Plans 2009 Launch

Originally published on September 20, 2007

Boston-based Backchannelmedia, which has been developing its interactive television ad-serving solution for the past 10 years, is expected to announce that within the next 60 to 90 days they intend to build an over-the-air digital tuner box to be retailed sometime around February 17, 2009, when all TV stations are mandated to convert to digital.

The tuner box, equipped with a DVR, program guide, and a back channel response to a "Yahoo!"-like consumer Web portal, will collect the consumer's product and TV choices from the broadcast stream through one click of the TV remote control. Unlike TiVo there will be no monthly service fees and hardware costs might even be less than the current TiVo retail price. The Backchannelmedia service is platform agnostic. Backchannelmedia represents that its interactive solution will be click fraud free and will finally bring accountability to television. Thus, the company claims its method may fuel the potential growth of TV advertising, while challenging the growth of Internet text-link and banner advertisements and calling into question the long-term viability for most consumer generated content and video sharing websites. Backchannelmedia has received initial venture funding from a group of corporate executives and is in the process of raising more than $50 million to back its digital rollout plan.