Select...Interact...Respond

Interactive TV, digital broadcast, and digital video recorders are positioned to transform our relationship to personal entertainment, information, and advertising.

There are currently over 60 million homes that have digital set top boxes (DSTB's) that are capable of some level of interactivity. That number will accelerate in the next year. In the UK, over 80% of the homes have ITV capabilities, where they can play along with game shows, extract additional facts during news broadcasts, and buy pizza with their remote controls. The US is not far behind and is poised to take the lead in ITV technology.


What is iTV?

Interactive Television is defined as applications and programming that allow the viewer to control content delivered with and through the television.  More informally, it's "new things you can do with your remote control".

Interactive applications include: ITV-enabled entertainment and informational programming, ITV-enabled personalized advertising, interactive program guides (IPG), video on demand (VOD), digital video recording (DVR), ITV-enabled video games, t-commerce, and ITV-delivered Internet content (web, email, chat, SMS).

Television is defined as the primary device used in the home for communal video entertainment and information.


The Future of iTV

By February 17, 2009 the US will shut off its analog broadcast spectrum.  This means that everyone who wants to receive a television signal, must have a digital TV, a digital set-top box or a digital converter.  So, within a year, everyone will at least have some ITV capability.  In much of Europe today, ITV is already an integral part of the television experience and ITV-enabled programming is generating positive revenue. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Liberty Media, News Corp, among others, have committed millions of dollars to develop interactive TV technologies.

ITV is here to stay and will become increasingly available over the next two years. Video on demand and digital video recording will personalize our viewing habits. ITV will make all TV advertising targetable, trackable, and direct response-enabled. Shopping and video games will take up a larger role in the overall TV experience. Interactive television will eventually transform our livingroom and forever change the existing content-distribution-revenue model.

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