Daniels Cablevision, GTE Combine to Offer Services

Daniels Cablevision and GTE announced an agreement by which Daniels will become the first commercial cable service offering a broad range of interactive services through a television set.

The interactive cable service called Main Street was developed by GTE and tested on cable subscribers in Cerritos and Newton, Mass. for four years before being rolled out commercially this week.

For a flat supplemental fee of $9.95 per month, about 50,000 Daniels subscribers in Carlsabd will be able to gain access to 50 entertainment, educational and shopping services. The services will be available through a “decision tree” operated by viewers on their remote control buttons.

Among the educational services being offered are Grolier’s Encyclopedia, a Barron’s preparatory course for the Scholastic Aptitude Test for high school seniors, Monarch notes for students and the American Heritage Dictionary.

Services include airline travel guides with ticket-purchasing capacity. Video games will also be offered. Daniels said the cable operators are negotiating with the Carlsbad Public Library to give subscribers access to its digital library in 1993.

Although pay per view cable television is commonly regarded in the industry as an interactive cable service, the Main Street program developed by GTE is the first to offer a broad scope of entertainment, educational and shopping service options, Daniels spokesman Phil Urbina said.

GTE spokesman Tony Hamilton said the trial run of Main Street in Cerritos demonstrated that educational services such as the Monarch notes and encyclopedia are popular with viewers. With $20 billion in 1991 revenue, GTE is the nation’s largest local telephone company and second largest cellular telephone provider.

Urbina said GTE chose his company for introduction of the service because of the high demographics of its subscriber base and because Daniels has 81% penetration of eligible households in its market area, far above the industry rate.

Daniels Cablevision owner Bill Daniels is also majority owner of Prime Ticket, a regional sports cable network.