Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010 - 17

SPECIAL TECHNOLOGY
VENDOR AWARD
itaas
A sure sign that a technology is prepping for primetime
is the re-brand. Thus OCAP became tru2way; DOSCIS
3.0, " wideband; " and Enhanced Binary Interface Format,
aka EBIF, is SelecTV.
SelecTV made its debut as the industry's consumerfacing
ITV brand in a Canoe Ventures-led announcement
on May 10. The next day, interactive software company
itaas-yes, another acronym: interactive television and
application services-announced it had completed
integration and development work with Comcast on an
EBIF-based user agent for Cisco set-tops.
The significance? Not that EBIF is only now arriving.
The Motorola EBIF user agent has existed for two
years, thanks to Comcast subsidiary TVWorks. Last
summer Comcast used EBIF to launch Caller ID on TV.
That's going well-626 million banner pops in a single
month earlier this year, according to Comcast SVP
Mark Hess.
No, it's the extension of the platform. itaas leveraged
that work for the remaining 25 percent of Comcast's
set-tops. " What we're trying to do is take that same
agent and port it to Cisco, so we have the common
agent across the entire platform, " Hess says.
Why itaas? Hess says it was a simple division of
labor. As big as Comcast is, it too must choose its battles.
" We do what we're good at, and let other people
do what they're good at, " he says. And the itaas team
is good, having acquired its expertise over many years.
" They've been right in the middle of this EBIF work,
right from the start, " he adds.
With rights to the TVWorks technology, itaas has become
a kind of interactive vector. During Cable Show
week came the news that itaas would license the Motorola
EBIF user agent and related software to Charter
Communications.
Fast Facts
\ Founded in 1999, itaas is privately held and Atlanta
based.
\ The company also supports software for Time Warner
Cable's Mystro Application Server and application
development on the MSO's MDN and ODN platforms.
CableFAX: The Magazine
July 2010
FRIEND IN PHILLY: itass chief Rustagi gets high marks from Comcast.
The company is focused, but agile. President/CEO
Vibha Rustagi says itaas works with Fourth Wall Media's
EBIF user agent and others, and " is involved with the
development of many different types of applications on
several platforms, including native, EBIF, tru2way and IP. "
Modesty becomes anyone who lived through ITV's
nuclear winter. But it's springtime for this binary object
code. Considering Comcast's Caller ID stats, the
dozen networks showing EBIF-based apps in L.A. and
the forthcoming Canoe-led RFI campaign, the code
slingers already have accomplished a lot.
" [itaas] has certainly been...very key, particularly to
us and others, to make EBIF ubiquitous, " Hess says.
So far, Caller ID leads among applications that use
an EBIF agent. " Our customers just love it, " Hess
confirms. But with the EBIF platform now extensive,
thanks in part to itaas, there's more to come.
" It's still early in the launch process, " Rustagi admits.
" The good news is that most of these flavors of
applications (whether aimed at revenue generation,
stickiness or competitive response) are available. "
Hess notes that he was focused on the platform
itself, but adds that the business will evolve in a big
way: " It's going to be huge for advertising models. "
itaas and EBIF-the little acronyms that could.
cablefaxmag.com
17
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Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010

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