Time Warner Cable has struck a deal with privately owned BIAP that will allow cable customers to make Internet auction bids through eBay on their television. Time Warner Cable digital subscribers in the Austin, Texas, area will take part in a one-year test of software designed by Plano, Texas-based BIAP to make cable TV more Internet-like.
"We think it's the next step for our customers to have an enhanced television experience with digital service," said Tom Kinney, the Austin division president of Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner Inc. The test is part of a wider cable industry initiative to retain customers as cable faces competition from satellite TV operators. In the coming months, cable will also face heat from telephone companies as they begin to deploy digital television service.
News source: Reuters
