Wednesday October 28 1:21 PM ET
Entertainment moguls eager for interactive TV
By Margaret Kane, ZDNet
NEW YORK -- Interactive television is just a short way away. But for a group of entertainment moguls speaking here today, it can't come fast enough.
Speaking here at the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Convergence Summit, speakers agreed that interactivity will become more common in the future. But how the populace will access it was up for debate. Many of the panelists leaned toward cable television as the means to bring control over entertainment to consumers, including, not surprisingly, General Instrument Corp. Chairman Edward Breen and Tele-Communications Inc. President Leo Hindery Jr.
Breen pointed out the fabulous future of broadband delivery, which could allow consumers to change viewing angles while they watch a show, order replays whenever they want, or turn their televisions into gaming machines.
Huge potential, small audience
The potential for interactive television was also appealing to Playboy Enterprise Inc. CEO Christie Heffner, who said that her company was looking for ways to combine its online and pay-per-view programming.
But Heffner pointed out that the audience for pay-TV is still very small, a sentiment echoed by America Online Inc. President Bob Pittman.
"If we look at who the market is, there's a very small market of those who want an interactive box," Pittman said.
What all attendees agreed on was the need for whatever form of interactivity that does arise to be as cheap as possible.
"What will distinguish us ethically is how common we can make this whole process," said TCI's Hindery. "What detracted us early on was how elite we were. If the four or five of us up here don't make [technology] commonly available, we fail."
dailynews.yahoo.com |
