BIB announces its first four shopping channels

Interactive shopping channel British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB) has changed its name and announced its first four TV shopping channels.

The company says the first interactive shops will be Iceland, Woolworths, Midland Bank, and catalogue company Great Universal Stores.

These services will be branded as “Open”. The name was developed by branding consultants Wolff Olins.

BIB chief executive James Ackerman says a promotional service, which will not be able to take orders, will be launched on Sky Digital in December. Some interactive services will come on line next spring, while a full launch is scheduled for autumn 1999.

A BT e-mail service called Talk 21 and games developer Visionik have also joined the system. Also Ford, Coca-Cola, and Unilever have signed deals to use the system’s interactive advertising platform.

Ackerman says: “These companies are the best in their sectors and BIB is working with them to develop the next generation of interactive retail. BIB is also in advanced stages of negotiation with a number of other companies.”

BIB is owned by BSkyB, Midland Bank, BT and Japanese electronics company, Matsushita, which will put 270m into the system over the next five years.