What is interactive TV

asks esmeharrison

A. Interactive TV (iTV) is a form of broadcasting that allows the viewer to interact with the television set in ways other than controlling the channel and the volume setting - the viewer actually becomes actively involved with what's on the screen.

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Q. What would a typical interactive activity be

A. Interactive TV has been hyped for the past five years and is yet to materialise in any consistent, uniform and easy-to-use format, although the UK does lead the market (followed closely by France). So it's difficult to say what a typical activity would be, but it is believed that some of the most popular will be voting on a programme or competition; gambling; selecting a video to watch, and a time to watch it, from a central bank of films (loosely termed video on demand); playing games; home banking and home shopping.

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But currently, iTV is predominantly confined to "walled gardens" or "virtual applications". These are dedicated (or controlled) areas�forming part of satellite or cable operators' iTV offerings, and used for interactive advertising - often by re-purposing basic websites to market a number of products - and for the provision of specific information such as news, weather and traffic reports.

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Q. What interactive activity has taken place in the UK so far

A. Since iTV still requires a considerable amount of investment by both the service provider and the consumer, and because interactive applications are still being explored, it is difficult to predict how soon iTV will become widely deployed. However, there have been several inroads in the UK:

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Open TV was heralded as the first move into iTV in the UK, but has recently been folded into BSkyB's interactive division, and a lot of staff have been made redundant. This is a setback to chances of�getting iTV up and running at a significant level.

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Open TV was seen as a testbed, but didn't deliver enough subscriber numbers to make it viable. Its main downside was that its interactivity was actually very limited. It was an expensive,�walled-garden service, with a limited number of retailers, and used proprietary technology. In addition, its partners had to rebuild their websites from scratch to get on to the service - limiting its takeup by third parties.

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Channel 4's website has provided editorial support to its programmes in the past couple of years, and with the launch of�the digital channel E4 and its accompanying�website, it will now concentrate on developing�ten programmes with interactive elements�during 2001/2002 (eg interactive voting on Big Brother, or other voting that influences the outcome of a project).

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Channel 4's Banzai programme has been the surprise hit of the summer (2001) and incorporates some simplistic interactive voting - scenarios are acted out and viewers bet on the outcome of them. It was given a cross-platform simulcast launch on digital TV and the web - the first time this has ever happened for an entertainment show. Banzai can either be watched linearly on TV or viewers can participate in the action online, via�the web.

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For the BBC, most of its activity has been TV-initiated (rather than web-initiated). Wimbledon, Open Golf and the children's series Voyager have all had interactive elements in them.

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Sky Sports Extra - since last year viewers have had a virtual interactive service. The viewer sees one rich channel with lots of functions e.g. a choice of camera angles, call-up of team sheets etc. In reality, the viewer is actually navigating between eight channels, and all the data is carouselled to the set-top box - emulating a web-browsing experience.

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Q. So why is the uptake of interactive TV taking so long

A. It is taking a long time to get off the ground at any significant level for a number of reasons:

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a) There is no clear indication of how much money iTV will make (even though Merrill Lynch believe it will generate US$11 billion by 2004) -and adding interactive layers to any programme can be very costly, without the certainty of generating additional revenue. Add to this the fact that while a viewer is getting interactive, they are likely to miss out on vital advertising that funds the existence of many channels - broadcasters cannot afford to lose this revenue - and have to find a balance that advertisers will be happy with.

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b) There is no international standardisation of equipment and software. In the UK alone the various digital platforms cause confusion. Digital satellite, digital cable and digital terrestrial platforms all coexist, and are all�capable of delivering interactivity, but the average customer doesn't understand the difference or benefits of any of them.

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Then there's the confusing array of different software�options available�for�digital set-top boxes. In Europe this is dominated by Open TV (14 million subscribers in Europe and Africa) and Mediahighway (estimated 8 million subscribers in Europe); in the US there's�Liberate, Microsoft TV and DirecTV. None of these products are compatible.

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c) It takes a long time for new technology to get up and running and, as there has been so much confusion surrounding iTV, viewers remain sceptical about its importance, its relevance and its overall ability.

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By Karen Anderson