Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Gemstar Intl (GMST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (2064)	2/22/2000 12:09:00 AM
From: LBstocks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6516

Interactive TV: The $20 billion revolution Totally interactive TV -- from chatting to Web surfing to killer e-commerce -- is coming sooner than you think, creating a $20 billion windfall for the broadcast industry. By Jennifer Mack, ZDNet News February 20, 2000 12:27 PM PT Talk about must-see TV. Soon, perhaps as early as this summer, you could be using that box in the living room to call your mother, check your stocks, order a pizza and maybe even chat live while watching "Dawson's Creek." In order words, you may never have to leave your couch again. Long-awaited -- and, in broadcast circles, long considered a dirty term -- interactive television, or ITV, isn't just on the comeback trail, it's threatening to engineer a $20 billion revolution for the broadcast industry. Startups target couch e-commerce And how is this interactive revolution being televised? If it were showing on the boob tube it would be a three-part miniseries. Part One: EPG. If you're a digital-cable subscriber or satellite user you can take advantage of electronic programming guides (EPGs), the first phase of ITV. EPGs let you sort through upcoming shows, set alarms for your favorite programs or automatically program your VCR. Part Two: Enhanced TV. "Enhanced TV" basically makes television programming "clickable," allowing TV viewers to pull up additional information or place orders using their remote control. Part Three: Total ITV. Not only do you have clickable programming, now you can use your set to browse the Web and take advantage of tools like chat and e-mail. America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) will likely fast-forward the move toward total ITV when it rolls out AOLTV this summer -- giving its 20 million-plus users the opportunity to decide whether they need to chat live while watching that "Dawson's Creek" episode. In fact, Henry Blodget, senior Internet analyst for Merrill Lynch, believes AOL "is in a good position to become the dominant consumer interface to interactivity across all devices" -- comparing its potential position in the industry to Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT) domination of the OS market. 'It's like they died and went to heaven. It's finally an opportunity for them to measure the effectiveness and pay for performance and have direct connectivity to customers' -- Maggie Wilderotter, Wink CEO But AOL isn't alone. Despite a relatively slow adoption rate, Microsoft's WebTV has made its way into 1 million homes. And with the creation of ATVEF, an emerging broadcast industry standard for adding data to video signals, other cable companies and telcos will soon be rolling out their own set-top boxes offering enhanced content. Research firm Jupiter Communications predicts that 30 million U.S. households will have ITV capabilities by 2004. Europe leads the way Charlie Tritschler, vice president of marketing for Liberate Technologies, a company that, along with competitors Microsoft TV and OpenTV provides the back-end technology for ITV, has already seen some of the ways companies are using the new technology. "The folks in Europe are already tuned in to using TV for more than just TV," Tritschler said. "Forty percent of the airline tickets purchased in Europe were bought over the television using a program called Teletext." Tritschler also points to products being developed by U S West (NYSE: USW) that turn your set-top box into a speakerphone that answers calls and can put caller-ID information on your TV screen. In Britain, pay-for-play gaming has gained increasing popularity. zdnet.com