Thursday, October 22nd, 1998
Media powerhouse Tribune is the first outlet in the nation to take advantage of the new enhanced TV capabilities of Windows 98 by regularly broadcasting enhanced TV signals. A test conducted during
the Academy Awards was so successful, when the new operating system officially launched last summer, station WGN in Chicago started right in with 24-hour enhanced news, sports and weather updates in the vertical blanking interval of the local KWGN signal, said Pooneh Rassekh, Internet project manager for Tribune Internet Services. Headlines are updated every half-hour, and viewers with a tuner card-equipped PC receive a TV picture with an enhanced overlay. “From a consumer perspective, it’s very important it remains a TV-watching experience,” said Rassekh. “We’re using some embedded linking, but we really want to see how much we can push to people through the VBI.” The next two Tribune stations expecting to enhance their signals are KTLA in Los Angeles and WPIX in New York.