INTERACTIVE TV FIRM RAISES GBP 1.14 MILLION

11 January 2008

Expansion planned for live roulette and bingo operations


UK interactive television firm NetplayTV has raised GBP 1.14 million after a placing of nearly seven million shares at 16.5 pence each. The capital will be used to fund the expansion of Netplay's 'Live Roulette' show into a SuperCasino format and the further development of bingo operations.

A company spokesman revealed that there are plans to build custom-tailored studios to broadcast the offerings.

Netplay TV provides three interactive television services. LiveRoulette allows users to place chips, either online or via a telephone, and then watch, live on TV, a presenter spin a genuine roulette wheel. PlayMonday, is a weekly charity draw for a GBP 10 million jackpot. Tickets are bought via the Internet, and the draw is watched either live on TV, or can be streamed live to www.playmonday.com.

The third service, Big Box Bingo, allows customers to play bingo live on TV from the comfort of their own home, with a full house jackpot of GBP100 000.

NetPlay TV was formerly known as Stream Group plc.

Still with the interactive TV sector, BT has launched BT Vision Sport on its IPTV service and is placing soccer at the core of the channel’s offering.

BT’s IPTV offering, BT Vision, provides digital TV, pay-as-you-go content and a free personal video recorder (PVR) for its broadband customers.

The new BT Vision Sport channel will provide 46 live Barclays Premier League football games and over 200 delayed transmission games.

It will be presented by James Richardson, the former host of Channel 4’s Gazzetta Football Italia.

BT Vision Sport will cost GBP4 per month to watch 242 Premier League matches on demand from 10pm local time the same day as the match.

The channel will also provide headline content from Irish broadcaster Setanta sports. Customers will be able to pay GBP9 per month for live Premier League games from the Setanta Sports service. Setanta offers live Scottish matches and German, French, Dutch, Portuguese football, together with live rugby union, boxing and PGA golf.

BSkyB dominates English Premier League broadcasting. It owns the rights to broadcasting two-thirds of 138 live top matches from the league. Setanta Sports owns the remaining third.

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