Interactive TV
Interactive TV (ITV) has been a hitherto elusive dream of RBB proponents, but in 1998 things started to roll. This year exited with roughly 400,000 ITV users, with expectations for continued growth. Ever since it became clear that TV was becoming digital, it is considered a small marketing leap to offer a service in which viewers could talk back to the TV. At the heart of the marketing problem of ITV thus far has been the idea that TV would replace the PC in the home.
However, as various trials came and went, it became clear that the TV should not try to compete with the PC directly for Web surfing, email, and the like, but it should augment the broadcast TV viewing experience. Thus, ITV would address a different market than the strict PC user. The possibilities of viewers selecting, storing, and otherwise interacting with broadcast programming could present new creative opportunities and advertising outlets. ITV also allows ordering movies and interactive gaming using the TV monitor rather than a PC monitor. With this marketing realization, ITV has begun to obtain traction.
But interactivity implies two-way transmission, and TV is inherently one-way. So how is interactivity to be achieved? Currently, telephone modems are put in set-top boxes to retrieve pay per view billing information. New RBB networks create the possibility of putting faster links on the return path to create real-time interactivity with the broadcaster.
However, the notion of real-time interactivity with the broadcaster creates a basic scaling problem. How is a broadcaster to accept user commands from possibly millions of viewers, arbitrate among them, and return a specific program stream to the viewer requesting some command? Real-time ITV could possibly require interaction with live content. Furthermore, from the creative standpoint, what exactly does it mean to interact with 60 Minutes or a situation comedy?
Another approach to interactivity is simply to give the look and feel of interactivity without actually sending commands back to the broadcaster. This involves the live selection of multiple program streams associated with a single program. Digital TV enables multiple streams per program. An example is the use of multiple cameras for sporting events and having the viewer select viewing angle. In addition to multiple camera angles, separate program streams can carry data associated with the program, such as athletic statistics. OpenTV offers a leading example of how content can be tailored for this approach. The business model of OpenTV requires an agreement with a broadcaster to add program streams, mainly for advertising and data enhancement. Stream selection limits the viewer to the content streams offered by the broadcaster, but it offers some of the look and feel of interactivity.
Another form of interactivity would involve the viewer selecting from multiple programs on multiple networks to create her own virtual channel on a time-shifted basis. This is done by caching the content and having the viewer interact with the cache—this is what a VCR is. But instead of using tape, it is possible to cache the programs onto disk. For example, you can create your own virtual sports channel by caching sports programs from all broadcasters, not just, say, ESPN. It would be possible to store Web pages as well as program streams. In this environment, ITV means interacting with a local disk, which would also have an electronic program guide and perhaps even some customer advertising from the disk/set top supplier. Companies involved with developing set top boxes with disk drives include ReplayTV and TiVo .
The basic question of ITV is whether interactivity means to have a two-way communication across a network or interaction with content, which may be locally stored.
Lots of different notions of ITV are being tried, with little success to date. But lots of creative talent is being spent on the proposition that TV will be more than just a one-way experience. Time will tell.
Interactive TV Applications
Interactive TV applications come in two broad classes: those that are program-related and those that aren't. Program-related means that the data is associated with the viewed TV program, such as a Web page of football statistics associated with the game being showed. Normally, program-related data is composed by the content provider, then tagged and synchronized with the TV program. Nonprogram-related data is not created by the content provider of the TV program. Hence, the tagging and synchronization is unimportant.
Program-Related Applications
Program-related applications augment the one-way TV experience with Web pages and other data services. The content creator, therefore, must be adept at both TV production and Web production.
Navigation services help users find desired programming among the myriad of broadcast and Web offerings, originally provided in advanced analog set-top boxes.
Informational services provide streaming news or information such as stock quotes and weather updates.
Electronic Commerce ( e- commerce) provides home shopping and home banking.
Television enhancement enhances an existing TV program with a related interactive service, such as play-along game shows, live opinion polls, and selection of sports statistics.
Customized commercials are advertisements customized to viewer demographics or to the individual viewer herself. For example, a broadcaster can earmark a 30-second spot for car commercials for GM. Because pickup trucks with gun racks sell better in Nashville than New York, a different ad can be shown in those cities during the same spot, depending on demographic information or user input. Your neighbor may be watching a different commercial than you during the same spot; the advertiser can split time and get a more targeted response. TV advertising can be enhanced by the inclusion of URLs that viewers can click for further information or ordering. OpenTV and other early DTV service entrants offer such services. Similarly, movies can be ordered using Web GUIs and can be received as JavaScript.
Virtual channels are TV channels which consist of low-bandwidth programs rendered at the viewer's premises rather than having the pixels transmitted from the broadcaster. TV channels are normally pictures sent from the broadcaster. For the right content, the broadcaster can send sprites or scripts with which the set-top box can render the entire program. This works for cartoon channels and some news and weather channels.
E- coupons and e- rebates allowusers with a printer to request coupons and rebates. The amount of the coupon can vary according to marketing factors. Alternatively, the coupon can be sent directly to the retailer upon online purchase.
Nonprogram-Related Applications
Nonprogram-related applications are data applications transmitted over television facilities which are not related to any TV show. Thus, the TV airwaves are simply a physical conduit for Web pages and other data, just as wires are. Since the bandwidth available over the air is limited, these applications are low bit rate when compared with, for example, fiber optic networks. The following are telephone or Internet applications on a PC, which a TV monitor could display.
Web surfing using the TV monitor in lieu of the PC monitor
E-mail
Chat services
Videoconferencing
Networked games in which the user plays against other user over the network.
This list is not exhaustive: Broadcasters and ad agencies are inventing new applications. But these are some of the early proposed uses of ITV.