NTL BROADCAST ADD TO E-COMMERCE OPERATIONS

NTL Broadcast have announced a further addition to their existing contracts with QVCUK to incorporate a unique new e-commerce operation.
The new service, called QVCActive, will enable shoppers to buy in real time at the touch of a button.
QVCActive is one of the first TV commerce applications to be fully integrated in real time with the live TV shopping show back-office operations. Customers order by simply pressing buttons on their Sky Digital remote control. QVCActive ensures complete synchronisation between the live broadcast, the customer and QVC’s customer service and fulfilment facility in Merseyside, adding an enhanced form of trading to this already trusted and proven TV shopping business. The system also provides a secure framework to ensure safe online transactions.
The interactive data will travel over fibre from QVC’s headquarters in South London to NTL’s multiplex node at Newman Street in central London, which has been reconfigured to accommodate the QVCActive function. Here the data is fed into the programme stream, which is then backhauled over NTL fibre to the company’s main teleport near Winchester for uplinking as part of the existing Astra 2A service.
NTL Broadcast announced an addition to their contract with QVC in April this year to provide QVC with digital feeds to the Sirius GE1E in order to feed cable head-ends following the closure of the analogue DTH service. They have provided distribution of the channel’s programming, including uplinking to Astra 2A, since 1999. (CD)