 "Most
Americans Ready for ITV" (Advertising Age article)
----
Defining
Interactive Television
02/2006
- According to State of Interactive TV 2005 report from Kagan Research,
34.1 million households in the States subscribe to Interactive TV
service and the
number of subscribers is expected to reach 69 million by 2009, more
than half of U.S. TV households. Revenues for electronic transactions
for games, television or t-commerce (television commerce), and
interactive advertising are estimated to reach $2.4 billion by 2009.
Kagan Research estimates the interactive services segment will generate
$780 million in operator revenue in that same period for cable; digital
broadcast satellites (DBS), and telcos.
Interactive
Television - (May also
be known as: ITV, iTV, i-TV, ETV,
eTV, Enhanced Television, Enhanced TV, Transactional Television, Fully
Interactive TV, Interactive Digital Television, Interactive TV,
Synchronous Programming, Digital Interactive TV/Broadband IP
Convergence, Interactive Cable, Interactive Video, Enriched TV,
Enhanced Broadcasting, Advanced Interactive TV, TVs with Interactive
Programming, Total ITV, Fully Interactive Television, Fully Interactive
TV, Advanced TV, Multiplexed TV viewing, Full-service Integrated
Interactive TV, Customized, Individualized or Personalized TV {used
more often in Europe;} Real-time Companion Programming, ActiveTV.
Looser but at least substantial association with: Web TV, WEB Enhanced
TV, Internet TV, Internet Television, Interactive Mobile TV,
Individualized Viewing, Net TV, Online TV, Internet on TV, Web-over
Television Services, Web-accessed TV, TeleWeb, TV-based Web Browsing,
TV Based Browsing, TV Internet System, TV Internet Access Device,
Web-over-TV, TV Mail, Web Enhanced TV, Internet Protocol Multicasting,
IP Multicast, BusinessTV, Videoconferencing {videophone}, Web PCs, Web
Phones, Phone-based Web Boxes, Set-top Browsers, Public Access Internet
T, Internet HDTV, IP-based Interactive TV Applications.)
~~~~
The
abbreviation "ITV"
is more prevalent in the States where the
abbreviation "iTV" is more prevalent in the rest of the world. One
reason is because "ITV" is already an abbreviation for Britain's
biggest commercial broadcaster. www.itv.com.
It's possible that the
abbreviation "iTV" will be used more often for Interactive TV and
the abbreviation "ITV" will be used more often for Internet
TV
(Broadband TV). Time will tell. Both abbreviations continue to be used
interchangeably
and many, such as Multichannel
News, Acacia Research Group and Interactive TV guru Tracy Swedlow
of itvt,
uses the abbreviation "ITV" for Interactive Television. If you're in
the States you might want to seriously consider using the later
abbreviation.
Note, there can be differences
between Enhanced
TV and Interactive
TV. Also note that IPTV can offer great
interactive TV
but it is not a synonym for Interactive TV.
---------------
(1) This first
general definition of Interactive TV is for those who define Interactive
Television
as
the top level umbrella definition for all types of interactivity
involving televisions, as well as television programming viewed using
other interactive mediums, such as the mobile phone and PC.
(Note that the web is interactive thus when interactive features are
available on a website offering video, technically that's interactive
television.) Thus Video on Demand (VOD) would
be a subset of Interactive
Television
and because of that VOD could be entitled either Video on
Demand and/or Interactive
Television. The
same is true of Internet
TV, Personal
TV, etc.
For
interactivity, interactive
voice response (IVR)
may be used instead of, or in addition to your
remote
control/keypad.
Interactive
Television
is TV programming with
interactive content and/or enhancements. Interactive
TV provides
a richer and more efficient television experience. It can combine Traditional
TV viewing
with a back
channel, thus
offering the interactivity
enjoyed by those communicating through a network, such as the Internet.
iTV programming can include interactive
advertising, electronic
storefronts, electronic
communication with others, richer graphics and links
to
Web (or web-like) sites such as walled
gardens.
With developments including the incorporation of a digital TV infrastructure,
increased broadband resources, better video compression, increased use
of Digital
Video Recorders, Video-on-Demand,
Electronic
Program Guides,
etc., iTV will continue to become more commonplace. ITV’s
future looks
great
as research conclusively shows that people want additional information
and enhancements pertaining to TV
programming. Also telcos need to better compete with cable providers
who are now offering bundled telephone, TV and Internet service. Telcos
are betting that IPTV will make
them more competitive again. Interactive
IPTV can offer a great deal
of interactivity at little
extra cost.
General
types of Interactive Television:
(1) 2-screen
Interactive TV where
you interact with the TV programming on a "screen" other than the TV.
So you'd be watching the television but interacting using personal
computers, media
centers,
phone (or other electronic devices such as
PDAs). Text messaging is very popular when the phone is used.
(2) Single-screen
Interactive TV -
When the program’s interactive enhancements are accessible
using your set-top
box, TV
system etc.
(3) Internet
TV (Broadband
TV) - (Interactive
Television over the
Internet) - The
Internet/web is inherently interactive and as long as interactive
television in the United States and elsewhere is hampered by
incompatible delivery systems and/or receivers, Interactive Television
over the
Internet
has become attractive.
Things you can do
with Interactive TV include:
1. The program credits could
be available anytime during the show instead of only at the beginning
and/or end.
2. At
anytime find out who an actor/actress is that you're watching and more
information about him/her.
3. At
anytime find out the location of a particular scene and information on
how it was filmed.
4. Get
scores, highlights and game summaries whenever you want.
5.
Customized and localized information (such
as news, weather and sports).
6. While
viewing one program, you can keep
abreast of specifics of other TV program(s), including sports.
7. Home
banking.
8. Home
shopping.
9.
Electronic Program Guides/Interactive
Program Guides
10.
Polls/Surveys – Make your vote count during
a program (or after) without having to pay for a toll call or log
onto a special computer.
11.
Interactive Game Shows – Play along
and/or compete with others.
12.
Interactive Sports (which can include the
ability to watch an event from your choice of camera angles.) You may
also have the choice of different audio tracks.
13.
Local/regional/national weather and
traffic.
14.
Interactive advertising, infomercials, advergaming.
15.
Videoconferencing.
16.
Distance learning.
17.
Interactive betting.
18.
Answer trivia questions in real time during a TV show – Prove
your
knowledge and win prizes by answering questions correctly.
19.
Ability to switch camera angles.
(Interactive
Multi-Camera-Angle Events,
this is most popular for
sports).
20.
Interactive video magazines
21.
Interactive music selection
22.
Instant Messaging
23. Email
24. Other
Trivia Games
25.
Interactive Betting
26.
Instant Shopping – When you see a product or
service you want, buy it or order it immediately.
* Movie
tickets
* Pizza
from a commercial
* CDs from
talk shows and concerts
* Author
interviews
Acquire additional information such as:
* Retail locations
* Details
on a news story
* Order a
brochure or sample.
27. Cast interviews
28. Episode Guides
Also
see Enhanced
TV & Teletext
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
(2) (Maybe
known as Interactive
Video) - Many
consider
“Interactive Television” not to be an umbrella term
for all interactivity
using the Television, but instead just one of many different ways of
experiencing interactivity via a television. Thus, Interactive
Television
would be a separate subset, while Timeshifting
(Personal TV) would
be a separate subset (and thus not called Interactive
Television,)
as would be the case with Internet
TV, Video-on-Demand, etc. This
definition is more
literal and often used.
Click
here for ITV related Standards & Specifications
Click
here for the history of Interactive Television
 Interactive
Television Further Defined
A communication theory
called the Effects
Theory
proposes that viewers are passive and
television directs them. Some question how many viewers will
want to do nothing more than change channels
and program their VCR/DVR. But after experiencing the fuller iTV
experience, most change
their minds. Interactive TV is simply a much more efficient way to
watch TV, and
it
offers so
much
more.
Many expect television's longer term future to be Internet TV
and the countless
millions of
channels it could offer, including people's own personal channels.
Imagine, you want to watch a particular
actor/actress, or a type of programming theme, lets say car crashes,
you enter that into your video search engine
and it comes
up with shows and/or video clips concerning that
subject. Probably you would have already
pre-programmed your Digital
Video Recorder
(DVR) or computer
to have searched for and recorded on it's hard drive,
that particular type of programming. Your DVR or computer could of
course check
regularly, automatically seeing if any new related programming is
available, recording it and alerting you. With the convergence of
broadband and a mandated digital TV
infrastructure, the possibilities are extreme.
The
television
is more associated with relaxed viewing (“sitting-back"
or
"leaning back”) while
the PC is more associated with working, ("sitting-up"
or
"leaning forward”).
The argument is that most would rather sit back in a comfortable chair
and watch video on a television screen rather than watch video on any
other electronic device including a PC. Also watching a television can
be more of a social event, a better homogenizer for couples and the
home. Many electronic devices aid in transferring content from the
Internet to the TV. See Media
Extenders.
While many
in the States are unclear as to what Interactive Television
is, in a
good deal of Europe, folks have had interactive TV for some time, much
of that
previously having been in the form of Teletext. This
is
one reason that Europe, particularly
Great Britain, has adopted Interactive Television faster than the
States. Still Americans may be surprised at how much Interactive TV is
already
available
and how much more is on the horizon. (See below for examples of
Interactive TV and
further below for related articles.)
Current and
future iTV in your
area will include Electronic
Program Guides, Web-page-style
screens, Electronic
Storefronts, Information Tickers, Walled
Gardens, Polls, Interactive
Advertising
and more. (Sports is the most popular interactive television
venue.)
Online Demonstrations of of Interactive TV:
--------
Interactive TV Web
- Welcome to the Interactive TV Web, a web site dedicated to open
standards for interactive TV.
|
More
Definitions of Interactive Television:
|
Various Related Terms
(Many
more are in the main Interactive
Television
dictionary)
---------
Related
Articles From the Past
- n
1999, Excite@Home Poised to Deliver Interactive Television using IP.
- Eckoh
Technologies Plc provides speech recognition technology and the
software for television votes and entries into quizzes.
- Bell
ExpressVu Scores with Interactive TV Programming
- Call-in
quiz shows, a new genre of interactive television that has spread like
wildfire
- So
much new interactive television
- Granada
Boosts 'Participation TV' Presence
- TiVo
to knit Internet, living room closer together
- TiVo
to Expand Internet-Based Content
- Bill
Gates: Television as we know it today will become obsolete in the next
10 years
- Half
of consumers turn to network television for breaking urgent news
- Bandwidth
& cable TV update
- Dish
Network's iTV.
- The
Apple iTV is NOT an 11 year old invention
- Digital
Media Content Drives Consumer Electronics
- Market
for interactive entertainment middleware is set to grow from $718.4
million to nearly $1.3 billion over the next five years
- "Destination
X Hawaii'' Bring Interactive Mobile Content to Television Audience
- Domino's
Pizza remembers their early iTV work
- The
Beauty & Fashion Channel is an interactive TV channel
- TSN EXTRA is an
interactive television service from Bell ExpressVu and TSN
- Transactional
television revenues continue to grow
- Interactive
TV grew by 235 percent last year
- Deal
or No Deal has had 30 Million total SMS (iTV) &
online votes
- Time
Warner Cable reported a 23% average usage rate of iTV among the 700,000
subscriber homes where this application was available.
- Television
still king of media (UK)
- Oregan
Networks expects DLNA certification, Viiv PCs & CEA-2014
ratification
- to
soon bring some level of standardization to the digital home
entertainment market.
- New
Participation TV in the States
- Estimated
cost of delivering a television channel over the air (UK)
- Microsoft
and Deutsche Telekom to an interactive television service
- The
market for iTV advertising is expected to double inside the next 12
months
- Good
article particularly concerning ITV Advertising
- (9/5/05
article) - 27% of US households interested in interactive TV
- PlayJam
channel to provide interactive TV gaming to 10 million
- Study:
Television Viewers Want More Interactivity
- Study
finds television viewers want more, not less interactivity
- ITV
Play participation television with new channel......pophpyuu
- An
Interactive TV system pioneer, ADB, has revenues up 43 percent
- Interactive
TV via the MHP standard platform in Saudi Arabia
- Time
Warner’s Interactive TV Olympics is a success!
- G4
Planning Star Trek 2.0 Interactive Viewing
- Telecoms
will spend nearly $950 billion on
equipment, devices and services in the U.S. this year and will spend $1.2
trillion by 2009
- My
Interactive TV© presents "Hypnosis", an interactive movie
online
- Oscar ads going interactive
- Bill
Gates interviewed, includes references to iTV.
- Some
iTV history
- Dominos:
customers used the internet & iTV to order a million pizzas in
2005.
- DIRECTV's
MEGA MARCH MADNESS™ ITV features
- NBC's
Deal or No Deal offers ITV
- TOP
CHEF" offers ITV
- iNDiGO
Tv launches LIVE, LOCAL and INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
- Interactive
TV and gambling could be a powerful force in the future
- AmigoTV
(IPTV)
- Alcatel's
Olivier Baujard Talks Interactive TV {IPTV}
- PixelPlay
Creates Winter Olympics Interactive TV Application for Dish Network.
(PDF file)
-
- NBC:
"...more
than 20
million homes have interactive television."
- Senator Backs Phone TV Bill
- Verizon Debuts Fiber Net Plan
- Verizon TV in New York
- IPTV 'threatens pay-TV revenues'
- CNN
Launches Interactive TV Service for DISH Network Subscribers
- Europe
rules out compulsory interactive TV standards
- Interactive
Winter Olympics offers extended coverage
- Interactive
television wrestling moves mainstream
- Moshe
Lichtman, Corporate Vice President, Discusses Microsoft TV Division
- Sky
set for iTV retail portal
- IPTV
update in the States
- CableCARD
on Vista to require CableLabs certification
- Cartoon
Network goes interactive; TBS and NDS deploy iTV games in Asia
- VW
launches first Europe-wide interactive TV training broadcast
- NBC
Universal offering on-demand, interactive TV and broadband platforms
for 2006 Winter Olympics
- Using
Macromedia Flash to create/simulate ITV.
- TV
to End as We Know It, Says IBM Study
- 23
per cent of UK households will use interactive TV this year (2006).
- NBC
ADDS INTERACTIVITY TO THE 63rd ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS TELECAST
MONDAY, JANUARY 16
- Red
Cherry helps to launch Toyota Yaris
- SAMSUNG
And Time Warner Cable Deploy World's First Interactive OCAP TV
- IPTV in China
- The
cable TV industry has agreed to deploy an open, Java-based software
platform starting in October, 2006 in US.
- Bill
Gates vision for next generation television
- Cable
TV Industry Commits to OCAP
- "We
are now offering more interactive-television applications than any
multichannel video provider..." (Time Warner Cable)
- Google
Pack
- Yahoo
Go TV
- Chinese
Viewers Use Interactive Television
- Cable
Companies Unveil Latest Data on Consumer Trends
- Interactive TV leads to better
sleep
- ITV
to increase audience participation
- Chrysler
Inks Deal With CNN, includes iTV
- Comcast
creates Interactive Media division
- The
Sudden iTV Revolution
- Verizon's
ITV
- iTV
in Italy & the US
- iTV
could reach $2.4 bil. in total sales by the year 2009
- Digital
Convergence: TV- or PC-Based?
- Making
ads in a 'radically different' way
- Ball
State University to Conduct Study For Game Show Network
- Old
but great article
- Another
old but great article
- Comcast
and Internet Television
- New
technologies challenge network TV (Canada)
- OMD's
Jeff Minsky discusses iTV
- DirecTV
offers NFL fans new bells, whistles
- UK
Interactive TV advertising is a maturing medium
- TiVo Signs
5
Brands for ITV Ads
- Mobile
phones have become a "back channel" for interactive TV services
- New
e-business Alternative from SkyInteractive
- ITV
Update by Dr William Cooper of informitv
- Buying's
just a click away
- DirecTV,
Echostar Outline Interactive Strategies
- Interactive
TV in India & Pakistan
- CTAM:
‘Three Cs’ of Interactive TV
- CTAM
Survey: Consumers Ready for Next Level of iTV
- Emuse
and ITV sign exclusive iTV agreement
- New
Life for the Old UHF Band
- Interactivity
and Advertising
- The
New Wild West, Part 2: iTV
- The
High Definition, interactive TV revolution
- Sky
to
launch iTV portal for Web content
- Update
on DIRECTV
- BBC
open
house shows latest research on interactive TV
- Interactive
TV and Poker
- Disney
and
ITV
- Phone
companies are very interested in TV services
- More
on DIRECTV's ITV Rollout
- Networks
Hope Remote-control Shopping Clicks
- Time
Warner to Test ITV with eBay
- DIRECTV
Rolls Out Interactive TV in One Test Market
- NPTV
Awarded Interactive Television Patent
- ITV
Time’s Coming [in the States] - No, Really
- Cable
Bets on Interactive TV
- DIRECTV
Delays Interactive TV
- Panasonic
Signs OCAP Agreement With CableLabs
- Gates
and Murdoch are going head to head for mastery of the next
- DISH
NETWORK AWARDS ‘INTERACTIVE TV PROVIDERS OF THE
YEAR’
- DIRECTV
to Launch Interactive TV
- Interactive
TV Grows Up [in the States]
- CBS
Getting Interactive with Viewers
- EchoStar
Launches ITV Channel for Horse Racing
- The
New Game Machine: Your TV
- Interactive
TV on the way (IPTV)
- EchoStar
now has 20 Interactive channels
- Verizon
Picks Microsoft for ITV (& other TV services)
- US
Interactive TV services increasing
- DIRECTV
gearing up ITV for next season's NFL Football
- DIRECTV:
Most
influential related US Company of 2005
- Interactive
television appears to be on US cable's front burner again
- DIRECTV
to Offer 'Interactive' American Idol
- MTV
Hits
to go interactive on Sky Digital
- iTV
is hurting store sales
|
|
|
|
IPTV