Kirch d-boxes adding revenue with interactive adds................
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New ad avenues on digital TV
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
November 9, 1998, 8:15 a.m. PT
URL: news.com
The advent of digital television in Europe has opened new avenues for advertising, allowing it to be better aimed at target groups, digital television executives and analysts said.
Speaking at the European Television Symposium in Berlin, German digital pay-TV service DF1's advertising director Martin Mille said viewers' ability to interact with digital TV advertising is the key component.
With viewers able to request more information on an advertisement by using a remote control devise, advertisers could get added value, he said.
Jon Beverley, chief executive of British new media consulting firm Upstart, said many advertisers would at first try to implement the techniques they have developed for Internet advertising to a digital TV environment.
However, he added that the new media offered pitfalls. These were mostly linked to the initial confusion consumers are likely to have using the new interactive technology.
"The majority of advertisers and their agencies are thinking how they can take what they developed for the Web and slap them into digital TV," he said. "It will be one of the most exciting ad channels, but dozens of mistakes will be made."
Digital television would also pave the way for "extended advertising surfaces," offering more space for infomercials and specialized product-based programs, Mille said.
He added that while advertising revenues at DF1 in 1999 were expected to have a ratio of 95 percent traditional advertising to five percent interactive, the ratio by 2007 was likely to be 78 percent traditional to 22 percent interactive.
"What we now need to see is how the technology develops, how the prices are and how consumers accept it," he said. DF1 has more than 30 theme channels including 14 featuring advertising. Future developments include channel sponsoring, which DF1 plans to introduce next year, and home shopping via the remote control.
Digital television is expected to offer viewers hundreds of channels, sharper picture and sound quality, as well as interactivity.
Media and computer companies hope to ultimately unite the television with the personal computer, enabling Internet access over TV screens.
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