eTV - Impact of Enhanced Television
Impact on Broadcasters
Broadcast and cable networks must provide interactive content corresponding to their programming or lose viewers. Every major network is pursuing some form of two-way enhanced television.
- Enhancing TV shows with interactive content is a major and costly undertaking. (Billions of dollars are being invested in equipment and training).
- Development is time-consuming. It takes about six weeks to develop interactive content for a “CSI” episode. (Pinsker 2001).
- Developers must work closely with the show’s producers while ensuring they adhere to the technical constraints of the platforms they are developing for.
- Content must be compatible with a wide range of STBs and middleware architecture to reach the largest audience possible.
- Traditional producers and personnel must re-organize and learn new skills in order to create interactive content.
- Broadcasters developing interactive content using applications such as Wink must receive specialized training and certification to use proprietary development tools.
Impact on Programming:
- Interactive content isn’t appended as an afterthought, but carefully integrated into the design of the program.
- Content creation must be rethought from the ground up and addressed in the early phases of production.
- Broadcasters are faced with the challenge of developing enhanced content for a wide range of programming including news, sports, episodic and entertainment programming.
TV Producers are looking for innovative ways to enhance both new and old programming. At the American Film Institute eTV Workshop, production teams demonstrated enhanced versions of “I Love Lucy,” “Sesame Street” and “P.O.V.”
According to the BBC:
- Information needs to be obviously beneficial and relevant
- Viewers respond more frequently when alerted that interactive content is available
- The information should be in small doses and straightforward
Introduction - Applications - Models - Impact - E-Commerce - Conclusion - Reference