coupons

Verizon has launched a Spend Smart interactive TV coupon widget in its FiOS TV Widget Bazaar Applications Marketplace as part of a cross-platform initiative with electronic and mobile couponing specialist, Cellfire, that also sees it offering free Spend Smart coupons on its Wireless and Internet services. According to the company, Cellfire's Spend Smart coupons cover a wide range of products and can be redeemed at over 4,000 locations of more than 20 national grocery chains, including ShopRite, Safeway and Kroger. Coupon brands and products rotate every two weeks, the company says, with more than $25 in monthly grocery discounts available at any given time.

AT&T on Tuesday announced the launch of two free interactive TV applications on its Microsoft Mediaroom powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV: Offers On Demand, an app that allows customers to redeem a coupon code on-screen for discounts on movie rentals; and Caller ID on TV. The launch of the new apps brings the number of free apps that have been rolled out on U-verse TV, since its initial launch, to 20--with 12 of those apps having been launched this year alone. "These apps make U-verse services even more useful and interactive for our customers, and that's exactly what every app should do," Jeff Weber, VP of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a prepared statement.

An Irvine, Calif.-based interactive TV start-up called Intertainment Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) announced its existence via a press release, Wednesday, in which it stated that it plans to "deliver live and interactive programming via TV and Internet, nationwide, through [a] partnership with a leading cable and satellite company in the US, beginning September, 2009." The company says it has filed two preliminary patents, "including...technology to allow viewers to immediately purchase gift cards in real time. The industries of the gift card companies are woven into the topics of conversation shows," it adds.