InformationWeek

August 6, 1999

This Is Only A Test

Interactive TV-it�s baaaaaack! But unlike the expensive flop of the mid-1990s, this time it�s based on Internet technology.

Next week, Domino's Pizza will conduct the first public test of B3TV, an "E-commerce for television" technology from a startup of the same name, during a Star Trek marathon on San Francisco's local UPN affiliate. Participants can order pizzas over the Net from a remote-control device linked to WebTV and TV-based Net access services.

While E-commerce Web sites clamor for eyeballs, B3TV CEO David Kaiser claims that TV--with audiences as high as 25 million for hit shows like NBC's ER--can be the biggest demand-aggregator of all. Says Kaiser: "The network guys have E-commerce envy."

-- Clinton Wilder