TELE-TV

TELE-TV was a media and technology company formed by Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, and Creative Artists Agency in February 1995. The company, based in Reston, Virginia, USA, set out to design a pioneering Interactive TV service with a Set-top box that would allow customers to view video on demand over copper phone wires. Thomson Consumer Electronics was to build the set-top boxes. Ex`CBS Chief Howard Stringer was hired as CEO, with ex Fox Executive Sandy Grushow as President. Michael Ovitz, then head of CAA, was to play a role as deal-maker between Hollywood and the company. The company reportedly spent $500 million dollars before halting operations in early 1997, although some subscribers had services through the end of 2001.

Stargazer was the initial project, started in 1994 by Bell Atlantic's CEO Ray Smith, a VOD (video on demand) market trial which successfully launched in 1995 with a 1,000 Virginia households. This pioneering interactive research, data and design became the foundation for the Tele-TV commercial interactive TV service.

Tele-TV was originally intended to feed programming content to the video systems the Baby Bells were planning in the early 1990s. But the venture lost much of its Bell company support when the 1996 Telecommunications Act distracted them with the possibility of a much more lucrative revenue stream - long-distance service.

The design of the Tele-TV service was completed by 1997, winning several major interactive awards. Creative director Morgan Almeida and Executive Producer Peter Stonier led global teams to brand the service and design GUI's for interactive program guides. Michael Bavaro was the senior designer and developed the promotional Galaxy Channel. However the project was impacted by the technical challenges, increasing costs, and unanticipated market changes - primarily that the Internet took off faster than fiber-optic TV systems -- and so the 3 Baby Bells shut the venture down. They found entering the long distance market much more appealing than promoting interactive TV.

At the time CEO Ray Smith stated "Before the communications industry is through, your computer will speak, your TV will listen and your telephone will show you pictures.""

Perhaps in the final analysis Tele TV was a little too far ahead of its time.