ACTV (IATV) Background
TELEVISION YOUR WAY ACTV'S INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS VIEWERS TO CONTROL EVENTS
ON TV SCREEN
Sleek remote controls, resplendent pictures and state-of-the- art sound - standard in the television-junkie community.
ACTV Inc.'s Individualized Programming is coming soon to a TV near you and could send a couch commandointo rapture.
In conjunction with FOX Sports Net and Liberty Media Corp., ACTV is putting sports fans at the production console. The
technology, already launched in Tele-Communications Inc.'s digital cable systems in Dallas, lets viewers control instant replay
and camera angles and call up statistics and player profiles during games. At halftime, viewers can analyze the game with
sportscasters or analyze choreography as cheerleaders gyrate through intermission.
All with four big buttons on a stock digital cable TV remote control.
''We are trying to create a more enjoyable television experience,' ' said Brent Imai, vice president of ACTV Entertainment.
''It's very user-friendly for something people already enjoy watching. We're not pioneering some new weird programming
genre. We're doing sports.''
A theoretical basketball fix:
Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan is lighting up the Denver Nuggets in the first half. Jordan, tongue wagging, twists down the
lane, shifts the ball from his right hand to his left and spins a soft lay-up off the glass for his 32nd and 33rd points. At home, Joe
Blow, who was twisting the cap off the second bottle in a six-pack, misses the play.
No problem.
Button on the left: replay.
Button on the right: isolation camera, pointed right at No. 23.
Button on the bottom: could be statistics, could be a game recap.
Top button: back to the network feed.
And when showing replays, statistics or game recaps, a separate picture showing the live action appears in the left corner of the
TV screen.
ACTV applies the technology to major sports such as basketball, football, baseball and hockey.
''We're not going to do enhanced tractor pull,'' Imai said.
ACTV began testing Individualized Programming at TCI's Ventura County, Calif., system in 1996.
''The genre we wanted to focus on was sports for a number of reasons, '' said David Reece, ACTV Entertainment president.
''One, male heads of households are not averse to technology. Two, some of the highest rated programming on the cable
system is local sports.''
And advertisers, afforded the opportunity to let viewers choose the spots they see during normal commercial breaks, find the
approach innovative, Reece said.
''When it's time to break for commercial, you'll get the commercial you choose,'' Reece said. ''As simplistic as that seems,
we've shown there is an approximate 300 percent increase in unaided recall simply because people feel better about an
advertisement if they have some stewardship over it.
''You still can go to the bathroom. You still can go to the refrigerator. You can still turn the TV off.''
But you also can decide between a spot for a minivan or a sport- utility vehicle.
ACTV's collaboration with FOX Sport Net was born of FOX's regionalized sports coverage. ACTV can provide enhanced
FOX Sports Net programming to any Fox Sports Net affiliate whose cable distributor carries the network's channel.
Liberty paid $5 million to ACTV in September, taking a 10 percent stake in the company, and has the option to invest an
additional $5 million. ACTV is using the investment to drive the expansion of regional individualized television. With TCI heavily
marketing its digital cable boxes, individualized programming is on the cusp of national expansion.
''We chose to go to Dallas first, and we chose to go to Los Angeles second because those are the two largest regional sports
networks in the FOX family,'' Reece said. ''FOX Sports Southwest, which is headquartered in Dallas, has about 5.3 million
homes served. And FOX Sports West is about 4.5 million homes served.
''Luckily on our part, those two markets were markets that TCI initially targeted for digital cable deployment.''
Reece said sports-rabid Denver will be a perfect match for the service.
''As you get a greater number of (digital) sets deployed in this area, we'll come to this area,'' Reece said. ''We already have a
contractual agreement to start here. We just haven't set a start date.''
Liberty Vice President David Jensen said it will cost about the same as adding a premium channel to a basic cable subscriber's
bill, though distributors will set the price in each area.
''I think in Dallas they sell it for $10,'' Jensen said. ''(With) 30 to 40 events per month, that's less than 50 cents an event.''
Though sports programming is the initial venture, ACTV's big-picture plan includes educational programming for children.
ACTV Entertainment Vice President of Operations Kevin Liga said children's shows could become a whole new experience.
''When children can sit there and interact with Sesame Street and Barney and the other shows . . . then be talked back to as an
individual, the social impact of the programming in an educational type basis is incredible,'' Liga said.
The rub: simplicity.
''You look around and there are all kinds of technologies that range from pretty dumb to kind of bewilderingly complicated,''
Jensen said, explaining Liberty's investment. ''We wanted to find a technology with a lot of functionality for customers but one
you didn't need a tutorial to use.''
Frank Deo, vice president of engineering at ACTV Entertainment, said the idea for marketing to the sports world stemmed
from the fact that sports viewers have a lot of free time during broadcasts. Much like the entertainment provided during breaks
at NBA arenas, ACTV hopes to provide home viewers with a reason to stay tuned.
''Do an analysis of a football game,'' Deo said. ''One-hundred plays in a game, 5 seconds of action per play from snap to
tackle. That's 500 seconds or about 8 minutes.
''How long do you spend watching a football game? Three hours. That's a lot of down time.''
Copyright © 1998, Denver Publishing Co.
Michael BeDan; Special to the News, TELEVISION YOUR WAY ACTV'S INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS
VIEWERS TO CONTROL EVENTS ON TV SCREEN. |
