The Definition of Walled Gardens
Walled Gardens - (TV) - (At times known as Managed Content Areas, Mini-Internet., Localized Walled Garden Service, Walled Garden Interactive TV, Localized Interactive TV Walled Garden Network, Walled Garden related Interactive Television, Walled Garden Interactive TV Application, TV based Interactive Walled Gardens. Associated with Walled Garden Intranet, DNS Walled Garden, Feature Rich Walled Garden, Walled Garden Consumer Applications, Walled Garden Storefronts, Walled Garden Electronic Storefronts, Networks Providing Custom Content, Virtual Gated Communities, Closed Network Deployments, Open Network Distribution.) In most walled gardens, users are allowed access to material located on a proprietary network. Typically walled gardens are created when a network operator offers only a restricted number of webpages and/or content.  Walled gardens might work in conjunction with Interactive Program Guides (IPG). By limiting the network's users to only selected content, the network operator can help it's advertisers (and other entities) get more attention, also hopefully keep out viruses, limit bandwidth usage and keep the theme of the service consistent. America Online (AOL) is a type of walled garden ISP. 85% of AOL users do not leave AOL for other Internet locations. (Reference.) Many Interactive TV networks employ these, including those that serve the hospitality industry. Early examples include Full Service Network and Qube.

As part of the walled gardens approach, a subscriber might get to sample programs but would have to pay a small Pay Per View or Video on Demand fee to see the full-length versions. This is found significantly in conjunction with Walled Gardens related Interactive Television.  Walled Gardens related Interactive Television can include standard advertisements, telescoping advertisements, electronic storefronts, trivia pages, various aspects of the IPG or EPG and additional miscellaneous data. Many television providers expect that the walled garden approach to offering interactive content to continue to be a major part of the medium's future. (Reference.)

Walled gardens can be quite large (like AOL) and are used in numerous environments including mobile phones, television, Intranet and Internet. Content providers, such as schools and libraries, might use these to shield underage viewers from pornographic (and other) content. The network operator may make money by first cutting a deal with those providing the content, then make money again by charging their subscribers for that content. FiOS is considered a walled garden. FiOS is Verizon’s residential fiber-optic service that competes with cable. (Telco-based IPTV systems have a reputaion for being "walled garden" by nature. Internet protocol {which is used for IPTV} is a protocol that is being used more and more to create walled gardens.)

Walled garden users might be able to go to the Internet from inside the walled garden, but typically not the other way around. Walled gardens and Intranets (and LANs) are not synonymous. Technically an Intranet is a network (possibly diverse) that's located behind a firewall and typically belongs to an organization or business.

Virtual Channels often utilize a walled garden approach. A virtual channel might offer web-like pages within a closed network.

There are those that call walled gardens, "walled prisons" or "walled deserts".

The origin of the term “walled gardens” is attributed to media magnate John Malone (reference.)

Comcast builds Walled Gardens http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05286/587978.stm

Localized Interactive TV Walled Garden Network - Localized Interactive TV Walled Garden services can provide national, international, business, and entertainment news, local weather, local cinema guides, horoscopes, and local information such as school lunch menus and community events calendars to digital video subscribers.

Virtual Private Network