SemiOT:SPECIAL REPORT--INTERACTIVE TV
Interactive TV's Really Big Picture
Yes, it's finally becoming a reality. While all the pieces aren't in place yet, the promise and the players are becoming clearer all the time
SEPTEMBER 7, 2000
Want to watch the U.S. Open men's tennis singles semifinals and yet keep up with your favorite player, who's duking it out at the same time on another court? What if you could click on your TV's remote control and instantly get the scores of other matches in real time without missing a single serve of the match you're watching?
If you're a cable-TV subscriber in Los Angeles, St. Louis, or Jacksonville, Fla., you just might be in luck. USA Networks, broadcaster of this year's U.S. Open, has created a system using software from Wink Communications to do just that. During the two weeks of the tennis tournament, 300,000 households that have Wink-enabled set-top cable boxes can check out a full day's scores even as they watch the match that's being aired.
Believe it or not, long-promised and much-hyped interactive-television (ITV) services are finally rolling out. Their availability is still limited in most of the U.S., but cable and satellite operators will provide them to many more subscribers this year. In Europe, ITV already has 15% of viewers and will grow to 60% by 2004, estimates Andrew Wallace, vice-president for global marketing at British set-top-box maker Pace Micro Technology. In the U.S., research firm Jupiter Communications estimates that by 2004, nearly 30 million households, or 27% of the total, will use ITV features, primarily via digital cable. snip....
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