Cable giants buy software assets to boost interactive TV offerings

Two of the nation's cable giants yesterday paid $82 million for software technology that should boost their interactive TV offerings, allowing customers to theoretically use their remotes to check sports scores, vote on a town meeting initiative, or analyze their stock portfolios.

Double C Technologies, a joint venture of Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications, agreed to purchase the North American assets of Liberate Technologies, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of software that makes interactive TV applications possible.

Steve Silva, Comcast's executive vice president of new business development, said some interactive TV applications should be ready for deployment later this year. He declined to say which ones but said initial interactive services will probably be offered at no extra charge. He said premium-priced services would probably emerge over the next few years.

Silva said the practical effect of the Liberate purchase would be to make the TVs of Comcast customers act more like their personal computers.

"What you do on your PC you can now do on your TV," he said.

The pronouncement by Comcast and Cox is another sign that interactive TV may finally be coming into its own after years of false starts in the United States.

DirecTV, following the lead of its corporate cousin British Sky Broadcasting, said late last year that it planned to offer some interactive services with its NFL Sunday Ticket package next season, including the ability to check scores, statistics, and fantasy team developments with a click of the remote.

Industry officials saw the Comcast-Cox plan as a direct response to the DirecTV initiative, but Silva said it had been in the works prior to that. He also said the type of interactions that will be rolled out by cable companies will be far superior to those offered by direct broadcast satellite, or DBS, operators because the cable operators have a single pipeline coming into homes carrying voice, data, and video.

"This is real-time, two-way interaction, which only our networks can do. The DBS guys can't do that," he said.

Comcast customers currently interact with their cable company when they make On Demand selections or purchase pay-per-view movies. Silva said the Liberate software will allow far more complex interactions.

"It really is an enabling platform," he said.

Hypothetically, Silva said, customers could use their remote to see who's calling on the telephone, check e-mail and voice mails, look up sports scores and statistics, vote on a town meeting intiative, purchase a product, or view the status of their stock portfolio.

Some of the applications would require cable TV customers to be also phone or Internet subscribers, but others wouldn't, Comcast officials said.

Comcast and Cox are the nation's number one and number three cable operators. Comcast is the dominant cable operator in New England.

Silva said the two companies have formed joint ventures in the past and decided to do so again on the Liberate deal, with Comcast serving as the majority investor. In addition to sharing the same vision, Silva said, the joint venture will guarantee that two of the nation's largest cable operators will be aligned on the same software platform, which should make it easier for third parties to introduce new interactive products.

Officials at Liberate could not be reached for comment yesterday. The company has been struggling financially and at one point requested bankrupcty court protection, a request that was turned down by the courts. Liberate appealed that decision, and as part of yesterday's agreement with Comcast and Cox agreed to seek a dismissal of that appeal.

Yesterday, Liberate reported a net loss of $8.1 million for the three-month period ending Nov. 30, compared to a loss of $8.5 million for the same period a year ago. Revenue during the three-month period was $632,000. Over the last six months, Liberate racked up a a net loss of $20.4 million on revenue of $1.8 million.

In a statement, David Lockwood, chairman and chief executive of Liberate, said the company had worked hard over the last two years to restructure the company and resolve outstanding liabilities.

He said the Comcast-Cox purchase demonstrated "the strategic importance of the technology we have built."

Mitchell E. Kertzman, a West Coast venture capitalist and former chairman and chief executive of Liberate, said the cable companies decided to buy Liberate's assets in part because of the competitive threat posed by DirecTV.

"Cable is looking at the competition coming from DirecTV," said Kertzman, who used to work in Boston at PowerSoft Inc.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.