CNBC, the NBA on NBC, and the Weather Channel also see a good deal of interaction by New York City viewers. Wink Communications makes money whenever a customer requests more information on a product or makes a purchase by charging the advertiser a transition-processing fee. When there's nothing to buy, Wink doesn't make any money. Of course we're in the business of making money, but we're also in the business of adding value and creating an interactive experience such that at some point every time you turn on your television you would expect that there'd be some sort of interaction available. Wink-i is free to cable and satellite customers, so no subscribing is necessary.
Viewers do have to register their name, address, and credit card when making a purchase.
That's done through the TV screen, and then the viewer is given a PIN number so they never have to register again. Wink takes care of installation of all the software at the cable headend. The only additional piece of equipment required is a CPU for the software to reside on. ICAP is a compact protocol developed by Wink for today's set tops and TVs that lack the hardware and resources necessary to run a full HTML browser. The ICAP format makes it ideal for transmission in the limited data bandwidth of analog broadcasts.