During much of last nights Dateline they were asking viewers to go to the MSNBC Website to take a pole (on Elian) and also to get more info on another segment.
Internet Making TV
Interactive
Sunday, 16 January 2000
N E W Y O R K (AP)
READY OR not, the Internet is coming to the television set, potentially transforming a passive pastime into an engaging endeavor.
Viewers could play along with TV game shows, check stock quotes while watching a financial network, or chat with other viewers during an episode of "Dawson's Creek." Advertisers could capture a sale with the click of a remote control.
Elements of interactive TV are already here, and the impending merger of America Online and Time Warner could accelerate its adoption. Microsoft's Web TV has 1 million users, and AOL unveiled a competing AOL TV service days before announcing the merger last Monday.
"The deal with Time Warner underscores the importance that they place on TV as the platform of the future," said Mark Snowden, senior media analyst with the Gartner Group. "If AOL thought it was all going to be over the computer, they never would have made this big a deal."
Widespread interactive offerings are still years away, and consumers have yet to clamor for Internet functions on their TV.
But broadcasters that refuse to embrace interactive TV could lose viewers to other shows and non-TV outlets, said Steve Friedman, senior executive producer of CBS's "Early Show." The news program recently began testing interactive features in five states.
Internet companies hope interactive features will ultimately become as essential as the remote control. Internet research firm Jupiter Communications Inc. projects that 30 million U.S. households will have interactive TV capabilities by 2004.
Early experiments with interactive TV were lackluster, but they took place before the Internet made people accustomed to seeking information and buying products online. The Internet also offers a cheaper delivery option for interactive content.
For broadcasters, interactive TV could mean billions of dollars in advertising revenue. "That's motivation aplenty" to make it work, said Jon Klein, a former CBS News executive who heads FeedRoom, an interactive news service.
He added that the proposed marriage of new and old media through AOL Time Warner crystalizes the concept of "television that can do more tricks."
Web TV initially focused on turning the television set into an Internet terminal, offering chat, e-mail and Web browsing functions.
But interactive TV can be much more, and Web TV now offers reminders on favorite shows, limited audience participation and personalized news on demand. AOL TV, available later this year, would have similar features.
Dave Earley, director of business development with E! Online, said programmers can realize interactive TV's true potential when they start developing shows with interactivity in mind. Now, it is more of an add-on. E! offers news extras through Wink Communications' interactive service, which has 120,000 users in the United States.
For advertisers, the features could allow them to target commercials based on a viewer's stated preferences.
For broadcasters, the trick is to offer enough interactivity to engage viewers without requiring so much input that it turns them off, especially after they've spent a long day at their office computers.
"It's a couch potatoes syndrome," said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the Washington-based National Association of Broadcasters. "Maybe they don't want to work for entertainment."
Another challenge is injecting a one-on-one computing experience into a medium traditionally shared by family members. If families fight over what shows to watch now, imagine the disputes over what links to click.
Jay Wishner, a retired stockbroker who became one of Web TV's first users in 1996, isn't sure how much interactivity he wants. He's not thrilled about the offerings so far and is concerned about broadcasters collecting data about his viewing habits.
But advocates of interactive TV believe consumers like Wishner will ultimately embrace it, once they see what it can do.
"I don't think consumers realize the potential," said Randy Selman, president of Visual Data Corp., which wants to offer Internet marketing tools through TV. Advocates "are thinking in these lines: `We know what they'll eventually want. They just don't know yet."'
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