With the acquisition, the Internet-based video-on-demand company will now be known as Interactive Television Networks Inc., canceling the XTV company name.
XTV, however, continues as a flagship network and will join other networks using the same set-top box, including mainstream channels Torque Sports, WebWorld TV and MusicVault TV, as well as ITVN Local News, ITVN File Share and ITVN Referral.
“We’re very excited with the new changes,” Radium Ventures CEO Charles Prast told XBiz. “Because of the strength of the technology and general explosion in Internet protocol television hardware, we think we’ve got a great product with unlimited potential growth.
“And, we are very excited that we are now a public company,” said Prast, who is a former Private Media Group CEO.
With the acquisition, Radium cancelled 750,000 of the outstanding shares of its common stock held by two of its principals and issued up to 22 million shares of its common stock to existing stockholders of ITVN. Interactive Brand Development, parent company of iBill, owns 25 percent of ITVN.
Radium Ventures formerly provided document editing services utilizing an Internet marketing plan and the proprietary software, Einscribe. It discontinued its editing operations earlier this year.
With ITVN’s video-on-demand technology, consumers connect a set-top box to an existing broadband router, plug in the set-top connector to a television set and subscribe to the VOD channels, which now number 70 .
A January article by PC Magazine said that ITVN's broadband-enabled TV set-top box is a "technology breakthrough" with image quality that is "indistinguishable from broadcast."
"Internet protocol television is a market changing technology that adds a new dimension of interactivity to television viewing," Prast said. "And ITVN is at the forefront of making this extraordinary technology a reality."
So far, Prast said that the company has sold “thousands” of the set-top box since its debut earlier this year. Prices start at $29.95 a month for basic content; set-top boxes cost $99.95.
Prast said that the company has decided to roll out the product in select brick-and-mortar electronics stores nationwide. Currently they have 70 stores signed up that are included in a reseller program that pays $30 per set-top box sale, with a 10 percent recurring revshare.
ITVN also offers a webmaster affiliate program that pays $35 per set-top box sale, with 10 percent recurring revshare.
In midday trading Wednesday, Radium Ventures shares had no change at $3.