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Introduction: The promise of Interactive Television - hundreds of channels, digital video and audio, and revenue-generating interactive services and games delivered via cable, satellite, or terrestrial broadcast - is real. Just as real, however, are the challenges that remain before Interactive Television which can gain consumer acceptance and develop into a sustainable market.
However, the emergence of the Internet as a vast source of consumer oriented content, the slow roll-out of Digital Television with its capabilities of additional channel capacity and enhanced picture and sound quality, and the significant decrease in the cost of computing power have ensured that the promise of Interactive TV is slowly being transformed into reality.
The Basics of Interactive TV: Very simplistically, iTV can be said to be the meeting point of the television and the Internet. Interactive TV allows the viewer the flexibility to personalize the kind of programs they watch besides allowing a host of commerce activities like online shopping, playing games, etc. iTV integrates traditional TV programming, with the interactive nature of the Internet enhancing the viewer's television experience by offering additional services like TV based browsing as well as Electronic Program Guides (EPGs).
Strategic Drivers for Interactive TV: Several strategic business factors and market dynamics have led to the emergence of Interactive TV. Consider the following:
The entire cable system currently operating in India is not digital. While some plans are underway to upgrade these systems in isolated cases, Internet-based services, advertising, and interactivity can enable operators to significantly increase their revenues from their current analog systems.
Consumer electronics companies facing declining margins and fierce competition on core television products have begun to look at Web functionality and other interactive, Internet-based applications as features that could not only increase margins, but could also enable them to tap into recurring revenue streams (e.g. Samsung, Videocon, etc.)
Finally, the projected growth and penetration of the C & S homes itself (which will be the largest delivery medium for iTV) will also be fuelled by the introduction of Interactive TV as people get used to the idea of availing services like Video on Demand, Pay Per View, Interactive shopping, Distance Education and a whole slew of Internet based services, all through the medium of their television. An illustrative Forrester example for the US is that 22 million new viewers will be added to the CATV fraternity through EPG users, Video recording facilities and WebTV console games like Sega, Nintendo, etc.
Contd..... Components of iTV
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