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Due to the large volume of interactive TV-related news generated over the past few days, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

BackChannelMedia--a company that offers a technology called Clickable TV, which allows viewers to forward or "bookmark" information from their TV to a personal Web portal or to their email account (note: the company says that the technology will be deployed by Knology Communications next month, and that it has reached deployment agreements with around 80 local TV stations--for more on Clickable TV, see the article published on itvt.com, December 9th)--said Tuesday that it has partnered with TelVue, the company behind the HyperCaster multichannel IP line of digital broadcast servers, on an end-to-end "Interactive Multichannel Infomercial" system.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

SureWest Communications, an integrated communications provider which serves markets in Northern California and the Kansas City region, and which has a history of deploying advanced technologies, has announced the departure of its SVP and CTO, Bill DeMuth. DeMuth, who will leave SureWest June 30th, joined the company in 1976.

[itvt] has just published interviews with Mark Garner, SVP of distribution, marketing and business development at A&E Television Networks (AETN), and with Mike Pohl, CEO of "mood-based" search-and-recommendation company, Jinni.

In a posting on its corporate blog, Monday, by Ted Hodgins, its senior director of video product development/navigation, Comcast revealed that it is set to roll out the i-Guide--the advanced EPG that was developed by GuideWorks, its joint venture with Rovi (note: earlier this year--see the article published on itvt.com, March 19th--Rovi announced that it was exiting the joint venture)--in its Cisco (Scientific-Atlanta) markets, replacing the existing SARA guide.

itaas--an Atlanta-based company which provides a range of software development, integration and testing services for interactive TV (including ETV/EBIF, tru2way and IPTV solutions), and which earlier this week (see the article published on itvt.com, May 11th) announced that it had ported the EBIF user agent of Comcast-subsidiary, TVWorks, to Cisco set-top boxes--today (Wednesday) announced that it has signed an agreement with Charter Communications that includes licensing, installation and support for the TVWorks ETV platform. According to the company, the agreement includes the EBIF user agent, the Pathway Communications Suite and the OCAP Services Library (OSL) components of the interactive platform.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, so we are covering today's stories in round-up/summary form. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, so we are covering today's stories in round-up/summary form. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Since February 3rd, [itvt] Daily News has been on hiatus, while the [itvt] editorial team produced the TV of Tomorrow Show 2010--and then took a few days off to recover. This is the second of eight round-up articles, in which we are covering some of the more significant developments in the multiplatform/interactive TV space that took place during our hiatus:

itaas, an Atlanta-based company that provides a range of software development, integration and testing services for interactive TV (including ETV/EBIF, tru2way and IPTV solutions), announced Wednesday that it has secured an agreement with Cisco that designates it as the source for ongoing enhancements to and support for the existing Scientific-Atlanta Resident Application (SARA) viewing guide for Cisco's Explorer set-top box platform.

Telecommunications equipment giant, Cisco, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content aggregation services, announced a joint, end-to-end solution, Tuesday, that they say will enable service providers to offer IPTV services to their subscribers quickly, easily and cost-effectively. The solution consists of Cisco's IP Next Generation Network (NGN) and IPTV platforms and Avail Media's content service, together with systems integration from both companies and their respective partners.