Another Reaction

Cable World,  April 4, 2005  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Consumers aren't clamoring for interactivity, says Frank Anthony, CEO of Navic. Rather, they're looking for easy ways to access information that's pertinent to them. "People are really just buying and using applications as opposed to saying 'Oh, I'm using interactivity,'" Anthony says.

Programmers have caught on, as well. For example, HSN is getting one step closer to TV shopping via the remote, thanks to its recent deal with GoldPocket. The ITV vendor's application will be tested in the third quarter; the companies expect it to be deployed by year-end.

Games People Play

For a glimpse at what interactivity will look like in the United States, people often point to News Corp.'s experience in the U.K. Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB strengthened its dominance as a pay-TV provider with its interactive offerings.

"For millions of viewers in Sky digital homes, using interactivity is as much a part of the TV routine as putting the kettle on when the news comes on." So said Jon Florsheim, then managing director of Sky Interactive, in a November 2002 speech at the Institute of Economic Affairs' Interactive TV Conference.

That ubiquity is not bad for a semi-fledgling service. Since launching its first interactive applications in 1999, BSkyB has generated more than half a billion dollars from interactivity in its 7 million homes. When you take out the amount generated from wagering (more than half), that leaves close to $250 million in revenue from other interactive applications such as e-mail, shopping and games.

The appeal of interactive games is getting hard to ignore--on both sides of the pond. About 30% of BSkyB's subscribers have played games on OpenTV's PlayJam games channel in the past six months, according to PlayJam's GM Mickey Kalifa. The average number of sessions per subscriber during that time is about eight, Kalifa says. When people click on the channel, they typically stay and play two games.

"People who enjoy games are willing to pay," Kalifa says. "Increasingly in the U.S. there is an awareness of that fact." The tricky part is finding the right business model. The optimum one is the impulsive pay-to-play model as opposed to the subscription model, Kalifa says.

In the United States, PlayJam sees opportunities with programmers who use interactivity as a way to keep viewers "glued" to the channel.

What's to Come?

Nailing down Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) specifications will be key to more widespread ITV deployment in the United States, says Comcast's Hess. That will enable interactive TV developers to design products and services capable of running on any cable system, regardless of the set-top box or TV set.

The U.S. market may be in a perpetual state of catch-up, however, as companies such as OpenTV develop newer products and services for the overseas market. For example, United-GlobalCom, the European cable operator controlled by Liberty Media, will be rolling out a new PVR from OpenTV, PVR 2.0, that includes a time-shifting capability for interactivity.