DBSTalk News Exclusive - WINK Coming to Dish Network

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dish Network customers, your Interactive Television may soon become even more interactive. DBSTalk.COM has learned that Dish Network is laying the groundwork to upgrade their OpenTV receivers to support WINK Technology!

However this news should come as no surprise as this news was announced in June of 2000 that “OpenTV, Wink Partner to Offer Wink Services on the OpenTV Platform Which Could Reach Up To 4 Million DISH Network Subscriber Homes by Summer 2003”

"Echostar is pleased to offer Wink's entertaining, revenue-generating, interactive services to our digital satellite TV customers," said Charlie Ergen, CEO and chairman of Echostar." This agreement enables us to offer Wink's enhanced TV content and e-commerce from America's leading networks and advertisers and to add interactive enhancements to our local advertising. By combining Wink's response services with the interactive platform from OpenTV, we can deliver the most robust array of television commerce services available today."

Wink technology is not new for satellite television, Wink has been in use for the past few years by Dish Network competitor DirecTV which currently offers many Wink Enhanced Television channels, including CNN, The Weather Channel, ESPN and special Wink Only Channels such as Barnes and Nobles Book Store, NFL Schedules, and Wink Enhanced Music Choice Services.

The addition of Wink Technology to Dish Networks OpenTV receivers opens up an exciting world of new features for Dish Network customers, soon users will be able to order CD’s or something from their favorite home shopping channels without leaving their seat. With Wink the possibilities are endless. And because Wink and OpenTV work together Dish Network customers will be able to experience the best of both worlds with OpenTV and Wink.

DBSTalk.COM has learned that Dish Network has been testing Wink technologies for the past few months on a special hidden channel only available to Echostar employees. (According to http://www.dishchannelchart.com those channels are Channels 9581 and 9582) Dish Network has recently sent new software to some of their OpenTV units in order to prepare for future Interactive technologies. It appears that the ground work to Wink is now being laid.

DBSTalk.COM has asked Echostar for a comment regarding the Wink upgrade, Echostar has declined to comment at this time.

It is safe to say that say that in the near future the way you watch TV will change again for the better, as not only will you be a watcher but you will also be able to participate. The world of Interactive Television is about to get a major boost from Dish Network with Wink.

You can see some screen shots of a few of the Wink Enhanced service at http://www.wink.com/contents/examples.shtml

Copyright 2003 DBSTalk.COM – All Rights Reserved

[tampa8]

Assuming it can be added to our existing receivers that can get open tv - this sounds great.

[Scott Greczkowski]

What do you think the updates for the 501 and 3900 have been for lately. :)

Its going to be nice to see some real interactive TV on Dish. Wink is one of the things I miss from DirecTV.

[James_F]

I thought OpenTV is going out of business, or at least is getting delisted from NASDAQ. Hopefully this will help with revenue....

[Scott Greczkowski]

I don't think OpenTV is going anywhere. (They purchased WINK in October of last year) although I do indeed see press releases on their website about possibly being delisted http://www.opentv.com/company/news/press-releases/2003/press2003.html

[dishrich]

Oh geeze, some MORE (NOT thoroughly tested) beta software downloads to deal with from E* again... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :eek: :eek:

[James_F]

Well we'll see.... Restatement of earnings never helps your stock. Interactive TV companies just have not been able to figure out how to make money. Hopefully this will turn them around because I don't want to lose my WINK.

[Scott Greczkowski]

James, tell us what you like about Wink, what do you use it for? Many people on Dish Network might not know too much about WINK or what it does.

[James_F]

Well I'll tell you. ;)

There are a couple of "Interactive Channels" such as Barnes & Noble, ESPN Today, Instant Weather, Music Choice and NBCi that are totally WINK only. This means that unless you have a wink receiver you can't see them. You get local weather, shop barnes and noble, shop NBCi as well as see sports scores... See Features HERE (http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/imagine/DTVInteractiveFeatures.jsp).

It also brings selective features to existing channels such as Bloomberg and E! that depend on what is on the TV. The is a http://www.directv.com/images/logo_i.gif that appears on the screen to tell you that you can see "enhanced" features. Some commercials also have this logo appear.

Its ok because its free, but I wouldn't pay for it.

Not all DirecTV receivers have them, but most do that have been made in the last year. The DirecTV FAQ on this "DirecTV Interactive" features can be found HERE (http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/imagine/DTVInteractiveQA.jsp). It will be interesting to see how Dish uses it.

I mostly use it because of the Weather Channel and ESPN stuff....

From what I've seen WINK is better than the OpenTV stuff that Dish currently has. But I'm sure its a personal preference since there are no games on WINK which people who use OpenTV seem to like.

[DCSholtis]

I agree with James as I have a Wink enabled receiver also...I use it mostly for ESPN and the Weather Channel too though I have made purchases thru the Barnes & Noble channel. Also the TBS College Football Game of The Week is interactive with up to date stats on whatever game they happen to be showing as far as other scores from around the NCAA.

[Karl Foster]

I only have one receiver with Wink on it, and it is in my daughter's room. She checks the Weather Channel (channel 492) every day to determine what to wear. Another thing is that some MusicChoice channels have the ability for you to order CD's and such directly off the receiver. I don't use this feature, as Best Buy is right down the street, but for someone in a remote area, it would give them the ability to order music pretty easily.

Like James says, it is good for free, but not worth and additional charge.

[Kevin]

My 3900 reciever downloaded a software upgrade sometime yesterday and now I have a feature called TV Enhancements. I'm assuming that TV Enhancements is Wink??? I haven't seen the icon appear on any channels yet.

[BobMurdoch]

With 2 Dishplayers and a 721 installed now and a 921 set to replace the 721 whenever it is available this means........ nothing to me I'm guessing as none of these receivers have OpenTV.

[djlong]

Oh god no.. Does this mean another case like when the Dishplayers CONSTANTLY had a banner coming up on the screen asking if we wanted to connect to 'enhanced features' via the net...

...hope to heaven you can turn that stuff OFF!

[James_F]

You can... Its not that big though... Its a small logo...

[TerryC]

Why aren't DirecTivos WINK enabled?

[James_F]

Most likely because they have TiVo software.....

[Scott Greczkowski]

Kevin from what I hear the upgrade that the 3900 is getting is step one of getting WINK added. You won't see any Wink yet though.

[TerryC]

Originally posted by James_F
Most likely because they have TiVo software.....
Obviously, I'm not technically savvy, so please bear with me.

Dish will run WINK on OpenTV software. Why can't DirecTV run WINK on Tivo software?

[James_F]

Maybe the agreement with TiVo doesn't allow that? :shrug: You are correct, it wouldn't be too hard, but I doubt they will do it.

[Darkman]

ahaha - looks like we ll be having fun soon :)

[Jacob S]

Just sounds like more advertisement to me, not different than adding a shopping channel that Dish usually adds. What is so good about that? Hopefully they will have enough things other than advertisement available to make it worth while. Also I hope they dont have that i icon like the dishplayers had in which you could not get rid of, and I think this bar came along the bottom of the screen with it and you had to deal with it with no way of getting rid of it, the weather channel is one example of this.

[James_F]

Well for sports its great because it gives you detailed stats.

[Nick]

MORE crap on my screen? I don't think
so. My notebook is for ordering stuff,
checking weather, and surfing the
forums. My TV is for entertainment
and news. Period.

Now that I have that Panny DVD player,
I'll be taking the shrink-wrap off a lot of
virgin DVDs in the next few months. :)

[Jacob S]

I wonder if they will allow you to turn Wink off of the receiver. Do they allow you to turn it off on the DirecTv receivers?

[James_F]

Yes, its actually not as bad as you think. You don't even notice it... Its not like a bug....

[Cheyenne]

OH No!
This is nothing more than Home Shopping links embedded within
program content.
Yes, you too can buy that ball cap for ONLY $84.95 + S&H !!!!!

I've seen it...... Bad News.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Actually if you ever saw it or used it I think you would be very happy with the news.

Jacob, I thought you were a dealer, how come you never know how any of this stuff works? :)

I use to use it all the time on Bloomberg when I had DirecTV, instead of the Bloomberg Ticker at the bottom of the screen it as MY ticker for the stocks I picked at the bottom of the screen.

This interactive BLOWS the OpenTV stuff away that Dish currently has. I think most will enjoy it much more too!

[Cheyenne]

Yeah, I've seen too much of it !
I believe they are marketing one thing, then delivering another.
Ready for POP-UP billboards on your TV ?

What makes you think Echostar will implement Wink any better than OpenTV? Where are the business models and "revenues" ?

Damn shame, good technology...greedy usage intents.
I do plan on visiting the WINK booth at NAB this week, but usually get nothing but promises,promises,promises...


Just my 2-cents... fire away...

[Scott Greczkowski]

You must have seen some other Wink that I did when I had my DirecTV, I also LOVE what they did to the music channels using Wink, its fun seeing the album cover on the screen along with random trivia. Makes the music channels fun and more dimentional. :)

[Jacob S]

I am a dealer, for Dish Network, not DirecTv. The only thing I have seen with the i popups was on the dishplayer 7100 receiver I had a couple three years back when they first came out.

[Marcus S]

And I though *D was moving away from Wink.

[kstevens]

Originally posted by dishrich
Oh geeze, some MORE (NOT thoroughly tested) beta software downloads to deal with from E* again... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :eek: :eek:



Don't you ever get tired of trolling?


Ken

[Marcus S]

E* has a proven history of unreliable upgrades that break more than is fixed. Beta = No QA. Fixes to fixes can take up to 6 mo's and a CS department that will tell you nothing is wrong. Well... Until we hear the admission on Charlie Chat.

[alfbinet]

Scott, if I remember correctly the Dish 6000 with both modules with not be able to take advantage of this? Am I correct or not? As I recall the 6000 is not "Open".

[BobaBird]

Contrary to early announcements, and maybe even a label on the back, the 6000 will not be getting OpenTV and therefore presumably not getting WINK. Upgrades to HDTV capability used up at least part of the memory that would have been used by OpenTV. Doesn't matter if you have 0, 1 or 2 modules installed.

[Jacob S]

Wink and OpenTv has nothing to do with modules, it has to do with how much memory is available for those applications, and if the 6000 does not have the memory capability for OpenTv then I am sure it will not have it for Wink either. They may have it within the OpenTv application to where only those receivers with OpenTv will receive Wink.

[dishrich]

Originally posted by kstevens
Don't you ever get tired of trolling?

Not really - sorry dude, didn't mean to shred up your E* pom-poms... :lol: :rolleyes: :p


Originally posted by Marcus S
Well... Until we hear the admission on Charlie Chat.

And sometimes we do NOT even hear about it then... :lol: :lol: :lol: ;)

[Jacob S]

Sometimes you just never hear about it ---period---.

[BobFly]

it will be years before the 721 will see WINK...dish is terrible when it comes to software updates...very disappointing!

[Cheyenne]

BobFly, Perhaps Dish has not delivered what you wanted, when you wanted it, but I do not understand what you referencing the above stated comment to?
Do other providers release software updates in a more timely manner? If so, which ones and when?