Liberate Technologies Inc has licensed its TV Navigator set-top box software to Hong-Kong based Star TV, a subsidiary of News Corp Ltd, for use in technical trials of an interactive television service. Hong Kong’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities have approved the trials, which are slated to run from November 1999 to February 2000. Star TV has applied for a pay TV license for its planned new portal, designed to offer multi-channel TV, digital radio, email, web browsing and e- commerce, all accessible via a remote control and a keyboard. If all goes well, the DTV portal will be launched in early 2000. Liberate has come a long way since it was Oracle spin-off Network Computer Inc, struggling with an unpopular name and image. The company now has a new CEO, Mitch Kurtzmann, formerly of Sybase, and a $100m IPO under its belt. Better still, it saw a similar deal with Cable & Wireless go live only last week.
