Interactive television

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Interactive television describes any number of efforts to allow viewers to interact with television content as they view. It is sometime called interactive TV, iTV, idTV or ITV (not to be confused with the British Independent Television network).

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[edit] Definitions of Interactive Television

There is much discussion on how to precisely define interactive television, but there is one aspect of iTV that we can agree on: it represents a continuum from low interactivity (TV on/off, volume, changing channels) to moderate interactivity (simple movies on demand without player controls) and high interactivity in which, for example, an audience member affects the programme being watched. The most obvious example of this would be any kind of real-time voting on the screen in which the audience's votes create decisions that are reflected in how the show continues. A return path to the program provider is not necessary to have an interactive programme experience. Once a movie is downloaded for example, the controls will probably all be local. The only link needed was to download the program.

[edit] Return path

To be truly Interactive, the viewer must be able to alter the viewing experience (eg choose which angle to watch a football match), or return information to the broadcaster. This "return path" or "back channel" can be by telephone, mobile SMS (text messages), or cable. Cable viewers receive their programs via a cable, and in the integrated cable return path enabled platforms, they use the same cable as a return path. Satellite viewers (mostly) return information to the broadcaster via their regular telephone lines. They are charged for this service on their regular telephone bill. Interactive TV can also be delivered via a terrestrial aerial (digital terrestrial TV such as 'Freeview' in the UK). In this case, there is often no 'return path' as such - so data cannot be sent back to the broadcaster (so you could not, for instance, vote on a TV show, or order a product sample) . However, interactivity is still possible as there is still the opportunity to interact with an application which is broadcast and downloaded to the set-top box (so you could still choose camera angles, play games etc). Increasingly the return path is becoming a broadband IP connection, and some hybrid receivers are now capable of displaying video from either the IP connection or from traditional tuners. Some devices are now dedicated to displaying video only from the IP channel, which has given rise to IPTV - Internet Protocol Television. The rise of the "broadband return path" has given new relevance to Interactive TV, as it opens up the need to interact with Video on Demand servers, advertisers, and web site operators.

[edit] Interactive television

The term "interactive television" is used to refer to a variety of rather different kinds of interactivity (both as to usage and as to technology), and this can lead to considerable misunderstanding. At least three very different levels are important (see also the instructional video literature which has described levels of interactivity in computer-based instruction which will look very much like tomorrow's interactive television):

[edit] Interactivity with a TV set

The simplest, Interactivity with a TV set is the one that is already very successful. This got its first big jump with the use of the remote control to enable channel surfing behaviours, and has evolved to include video-on-demand, VCR-like pause, rewind, and fast forward, and DVRs, commercial skipping and the like. It does not change any content or its inherent linearity, only how we control the viewing of that content. DVRs allow users to time shift content in a way that most VCR owners never learned to do. This is a kind of interactive TV, and not insignificant, but it is not what is meant in any full sense of the term. It is already taking place in many homes. Calling the simple use of a remote control to turn TV sets on and off as an example of interactivity is like saying turning the pages of a book makes the book interactive.

[edit] Who will pay for interactive television?

The United States differs from most of the rest of the world in that its broadcasting system's historyis that of commercial sponsorship. American viewers are used to making the trade-off of exposure to commercial messages in return for "free" programs. Wise interactive television program providers will abide by this tradition. Many video providers on the web are already finding out that viewers will sit through a 15-30 second spot (or more depending on the circumstances) in return for getting content "free" (see cbsnews.com for one example as of 10 December 2006). Research into the length of the program commercials and how the correlate with viewers tuning out will be important. (What is often lost in these conversations is the interest in the commercial itself; entertaining commercials may have a higher threshold of viewer tolerance than "dull" commercials.) How many people bail out if they see a 60-second spot coming, versus a 30-second spot, versus a 15 second or less spot? Rest assured these data are being collected but, unfortunately, are likely to be considered proprietary to the compan(ies) involved. [User: Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein]

[edit] Interactivity with TV program content

In its deepest sense, Interactivity with TV program content is the one that is "interactive TV", but it is also the most challenging to produce. This is the idea that the program, itself, might change based on viewer input. Advanced forms, which still have uncertain prospect for becoming mainstream, include dramas where viewers get to choose plot details and endings. Simpler forms, which are enjoying some success, include programs that directly incorporate polls, questions, comments, and other forms of (virtual) audience response back into the show. There is much debate as to how effective and popular this kind of truly interactive TV can be. It seems likely that some forms of it will be popular, but that viewing of pre-defined content, with a scripted narrative arc, will remain a major part of the TV experience indefinitely. The United States lags far behind the rest of the developed world in its deployment of interactive television. This is a direct response to the fact that commercial television in the U.S. is not controlled by the government, whereas the vast majority of other countries' television systems are controlled by the government. These "centrally planned" television systems are made interactive by fiat, whereas in the U.S., only some members of the Public Broadcasting System has this capability.

Commercial broadcasters and other content providers serving the US market are constrained from adopting advanced interactive technologies because they must serve the desires of their customers, earn a level of return on investment for their investors, and are dependent on the penetration of interactive technology into viewers' homes. In association with many factors such as

  • requirements for backward compatibility of TV content formats, form factors and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)
  • the 'cable monopoly' laws that are in force in many communities served by cable TV operators
  • consumer acceptance of the pricing structure for new TV-delivered services. Over the air (broadcasted) TV is FREE in the US, free of taxes, usage fees.
  • proprietary coding of set top boxes by cable operators and box manufacturers
  • the ability to implement 'return path' interaction in rural areas that have low, or no technology infrastructure
  • the competition from Internet-based content and service providers for the consumers' attention and budget
  • and many other technical and business road blocks,

American television content providers and operators must contend with the existing infrastructure and business models. Satellite and cable will force broadcasters to adopt interactivity or the broadcasters will become less competitive than they already are.

[edit] Interactivity with content that is related to what is on TV

The least understood, Interactivity with TV related content may have most promise to radically alter how we watch TV over the next decade. Examples include getting more information about what is on the TV, whether sports, movies, news, or the like. Similar (and most likely to pay the bills), is getting more information about what is being advertised, along with the ability to buy it -- this is called "tcommerce" (short for "television commerce"). Partial steps in this direction are already becoming a mass phenomenon, as Web sites and mobile phone services coordinate with TV programs (note: this type of interactive TV is currently being called "participation TV" and GSN and TBS are proponents of it). This kind of multitasking is already happening on large scale -- but there is currently little or no automated support for relating that secondary interaction to what is on the TV compared to other forms of interactive TV. Others argue that this is more a matter of "web-enhanced" television viewing rather than calling it interactive TV. In the coming months and years, there will be no need to have both a computer and a TV set for interactive television as the interactive content will be built into the system via the next generation of set-top boxes.

Many think of interactive TV primarily in terms of "one-screen" forms that involve interaction on the TV screen, using the remote control, but there is another significant form of interactive TV that makes use of "two-screens." In this case, the second screen may be a PC that is connected to a Web site application that is synchronized with the TV broadcast, but other two-screen forms can involve interaction with mobile phone applications that run "in synch" with the show or applications on PDAs. Such services are sometimes called "Enhanced TV by certain companies," but this term is not being used widely anymore as it is seen as anachronistic and is often still misused occasionally. (Note: Enhanced TV originated in the mid-late 1990's as a term that some hoped would replace the umbrella term of "interactive TV" due to the negative associations "interactive TV" carried because of the way companies and the news media over-hyped its potential in the early 90's.) Notable two-screen services have been offered for specific popular programs by many US broadcast TV networks. Today, two-screen interactive TV is called either 2-screen (for short) or "Synchronized TV" and is widely deployed around the US by national broadcasters with the help of technology offerings from certain companies. One-screen interactive TV generally requires special support in the set-top box, but two-screen synchronized ITV applications generally do not, relying instead on Internet or mobile phone servers to coordinate with the TV.

[edit] User Interaction

Interactive TV is often described by clever marketing gurus as "lean back" interaction, as users are typically relaxing in the living room environment with a remote control in one hand. This is a very simplistic definition of interactive television that is less and less descriptive of interactive television services that are in various stages of market introduction. This is in contrast to the similarly slick marketing devised descriptor of personal computer-oriented "lean forward" experience of a keyboard, mouse and monitor. This description is becoming more distracting than useful as video game users, for example, don't lean forward while they are playing video games on their television sets, a precursor to interactive TV. A more useful mechanism for categorizing the differences between PC and TV based user interaction is by measuring the distance the user is from the Device. Typically a TV viewer is "leaning back" in their sofa, using only a Remote Control as a means of interaction. While a PC user is 2ft or 3ft from his high resolution screen using a mouse and keyboard. The demands of distance, and user input devices, requires the application's look and feel to be designed differently. Thus Interactive TV applications are often designed for the "10ft user experience" while PC applications and web pages are designed for the "3ft user experience". This style of interface design rather than the "lean back or lean forward" model is what truly distinguishes Interactive TV from the web or PC.

In the case of "two-screen" Interactive TV, the distinctions of "lean-back" and "lean-forward" interaction become more and more indistinguishable. There has been a growing proclivity to media multitasking, in which multiple media devices are used simultaneously (especially among younger viewers). This has increased interest in two-screen services, and is creating a new level of multitasking in interactive TV. In addition, video is now ubiquitous on the web, so research can now be done to see if there is anything left to the notion of "lean back" "versus" "lean forward" uses of interactive television.

For one-screen services, interactivity is supplied by the manipulation of the API of the particular software installed on a set-top box, referred to as 'middleware' due to its intermediary position in the operating environment. Software programs are broadcast to the set-top box in a 'carousel'.

On UK DTT (Freeview), in DVB-MHP systems and for OCAP, this is a DSM-CC Object Carousel.

The set-top box can then load and execute the application. In the UK this is typically done by a viewer pressing a "trigger" button on their remote control (e.g. the red button, as in "press red").

Interactive TV Sites have the requirement to deliver interactivity directly from internet servers, and therefore need the set-top box's middleware to support some sort of TV Browser or content rendering system. Middleware examples like Liberate are based on a version of HTML/Javascript and have rendering capabilities built in, while others such as OpenTV and DVB-MHP can load microbrowsers and applications to deliver content from TV Sites.

Typically the distribution system for Standard Definition digital TV is based on the MPEG-2 specification, while High Definition distribution is likely to be based on the MPEG-4 meaning that the delivery of HD often requires a new device or set-top box.

  • Examples of commonly-found middlewares include:
    • Alcatel/Microsoft TV - Used by major DSL operators such as AT&T, DTAG, Club Internet, Swisscom, TDC, BT, ...
    • DVB-MHP (Java) - Global standard widely deployed in Europe and Asia
    • OCAP (Java) - US cable industry standard based on DVB-MHP
    • ETV-BIF - ETV Binary Interchange Format developed by MetaTV (now called TV Works) in association with CableLabs
    • BD-J (Java) - Interactivity layer for Blu-ray Disc based on DVB-MHP
    • OpenTV (ANSI C, HTML/JavaScript, Flash and Java) - BSkyB, Echostar, Zee Network, Digiturk, Etisalat, Liberty Global Europe UPC, Viasat, Showtime, TPS, Foxtel, Sky Italia, Starhub, Cablecom, Time Warner
    • MediaHighway (Java, MHEG-5, Pantalk) - UK terrestrial, Canal+
    • Liberate (HTML/JavaScript) - NTL, Telewest
    • WTVML (Worldwide TV Markup Language, ETSI Standard TS 102 322) - used in UK DTH
    • ICTV (HTML/JavaScript) - NTL, VNL
    • MHEG-5 (used in UK DTT)
    • Alcatel Open Media Suite - Sasktel, BBTV, Kingston
    • Microsoft TV (XHTML)
    • BML - Standard used on ISDB platforms in Japan
    • Ginga - In development for the Brazilian digital television standard (SBTVD)

Development of applications using these technologies is traditionally drawn out due to the limitations of the set-top box, the large amount of testing required and the lack of standardization of deployed units. Almost all are proprietary and subject to heavy licensing restrictions. One remarkable exception to this is the WTVML specification used by Sky in the UK, where the development of TV Sites can be done by various organizations for as little as US$290. (see [here] and deployed unchanged using automated testing on all of Sky's different set-top box types.

[edit] Interactive television projects

Some interactive television projects are consumer electronics boxes which provide set-top interactivity, while other projects are supplied by the cable television companies (or multiple system operator, or MSO) as a system-wide solution. Some examples of interactive television include:

[edit] Interactive Video and Data Services

IVDS is a wireless implementation of interactive TV, it utilizes part of the VHF TV frequency spectrum (218–219 MHz).[1]

[edit] References

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  1. ^ IVDS

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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