Interactive TV Essay, Research Paper

The Web and the Internet are the latest technologies to be harnessed by

companies trying to develop interactive television. This paper reviews the

efforts of technology companies and broadcasters to combine television and the

Web in their products and activities, and how users are already using them both

at home. It reviews some research on the way that TV and the PC/Internet are

used at home, and suggests some way that the Web could be integrated with

television use. Unlike earlier interactive television projects, where the

innovation was largely conducted behind closed doors and among consortia of

companies, the innovation environment in which Web-based interactive television

is being developed includes a huge number of existing users, technology and

content suppliers who play an active role the innovation process. The concept of

social learning is suggested as a area of development of tools for understand

the process of technical, social and cultural change around innovation of this

sort. In particular the idea of poles of attraction is introduced to understand

why a huge numbers of supply side players and users are orienting towards the

Internet as a possible solution to interactive television. 1. Introduction Of

all the visions of the future of television (note 1), interactive television (i-TV)

is perhaps the most radical and powerful. In this vision the ubiquitous

television set will change from being a device to watch television shows or

films into a home terminal for access to and interaction with networked

interactive technology, programmes and services. The possibilities and benefits

of the technology seem self-evident, if only they can be made to work

effectively and at a modest price. Many times we have been told to expect

interactive television any day now. (note 2) However, after millions of dollars

spent, and many pilots and service closures, most of us are still no closer to

having interactive television than a few hundred searchable teletext pages, and

some phone-in TV shows. In the efforts to create i-TV, numerous applications and

technologies have been tried, with companies attracted by the possibilities of

each new generation of technology, and responding to the continuous pressure to

develop new products, be they technologies, services or programmes in order to

maintain their share of consumer spending. The explosion of the Internet and Web

is a new pole of attraction for interactive television developers that seems to

solve many of the problems and uncertainties of earlier systems: all of a sudden

the technologies, content, users and uses of interactive services are there and

proving very successful, all that needs to be done it integrate them into

television. For the analyst of new innovations in television, three issues arise

as companies are attracted to the Internet and the Web as a solution to

interactive television. 1. Instead of being controlled by a small number of

corporate players, the technology and service of the Web and Internet are in the

public domain, and changing fast. The innovation environment is diverse,

heterogeneous, and involves a multitude of companies and most importantly users

in shaping the technology and services, which makes management of innovation

more complex and give the market a much stronger voice. 2. There is major

uncertainty over the relevance of Web-style interactivity to the use of

television. Many commentators believe that content and services on the Internet

or designed for the PC terminal may not be relevant for many users of the

television, while others bet on the explosion of e-commerce through TV Web

terminals. 3. The television is no longer the only window for interactive

services to the home. The PC is an increasingly common alternative, and is a

more flexible and open platform or interactive services. The cheap web set-top

box may restrict innovation and fix service and uses in a way that is

frustrating to end users and service providers alike. What is more, there is an

emerging paradigm in the technology industry of multiple ‘low profile’ terminals

for interactive services. This could turn investment and attention away from

both the PC and the television. What links these issues is the importance of the

end users as active players in the innovation-diffusion process. It was end- and

intermediate-users adopting the Internet and Web that attracted interactive

television developers, and it is these users who are now directly involved in

the innovation process. This paper uses social learning (S?rensen 1996) as an

analytic framework of socio-technical change that includes an integration of end

users in the innovation and diffusion process. Social learning goes beyond the

development and diffusion of technology and content to include the creation of

new knowledge, regulations, expectations, institutions and cultural norms. In

particular it focuses on the role of users in innovation, including the

development of user knowledge and practices, and the interaction between users

and producers. In this process different actors (users and producers) orient to

poles of attraction, including utopian visions, projects and trials,

technologies, regulations, user groups, markets, uses, or emerging cultural

norms, all of which may crystallise into real products and institutions or

disappear to be replaced by a new ones. The process of creation, diffusion and

use of new technology and content is not controlled by those innovating the

products. Users and producers of technology and content related to television

and new media slowly appropriate and shape each other’s products and patterns of

use, learning from each other over a protracted period of time. Previous

examples that provide useful parallels to interactive television are the

telephone and videotext. Both are network systems which changed as people began

to use them, and found how they could be useful in ways that the developers had

originally not considered as important. In interactive TV, the Television has

always been the dominant pole of attraction for both the producers and users,

but only industry was interested in interactive technologies. Industry therefore

drove innovation independently of any need or desire of potential users. Now the

Internet has emerged, and it is pole of attraction shared by users and

producers: the innovation process now is shaped strongly by the market. One

outcome is a slow change from early models of technology and content based

around individual use of media to one that integrates the existing collective

use of media and the social practices that surround media products and

technologies in everyday use. At the same time, users are altering their

everyday practices of media and technology use with the new systems that are

currently available, changing the possible market for new products almost before

they have a chance to come to that market. This can be illustrated this by

looking at evidence of the first few years of the co-existence and evolution of

TV and the Web, covering attempts to integrate them technically, and find

synergies between them, from the perspective of technology companies,

broadcasters and end users. Looking to the future, this article reviews

qualitative research on how people actually watch and use television, and some

experiences from current use of the interactive material on computers. Combined

with reports of interactive television trials, it is possible to illustrate the

rich use of both traditional and newer interactive media in the home. We can

then more critically approach the uncertainly over the relationship between the

Web and television. Fortunately for the optimists, the Web is not static -

developments of services and content that reflect the way television is used at

home for could make the Web and TV marriage a success. However in the long run

through a slow process of social learning we can see interactive television

developing into a richer medium that either the Web or TV offers today, but one

that is far from the homogeneous television system of today. 1.1 The Wild World

Web – innovation in a open environment Most of the previous attempts to make

interactive services for the home have had to start nearly from scratch, and

concentrate on creating large-scale technical systems. The television has seemed

the most obvious terminal to use as the display. In general, developers worked

with technologies and services that, prior to roll-out, were not available to

users. They tried to create ready-made systems that could be delivered fully

functioning to the public. In general they were able to develop the systems

without involving the end users, or at least without them being any more active

in the innovation process than as subjects of research or controlled trials.

Intermediate users, such as service providers (retailers, information providers,

banks, and publishers) who could be persuaded to share in the technology based

vision were generally involved in a partnership and exclusive manner. However

there is a problem facing developers of these network systems such as

interactive television. While the technology can be made to work in the lab,

these systems depend on building a critical mass of users (e.g. Rogers 1995 p.

313, Schneider 1991) among many others), and on the content and uses of the

system. These non-technical elements are much more difficult and expensive to

develop from scratch, and to a large extent out of the control of developers,

especially when user participation is voluntary.(Note 3) One way to get round

this, is to appropriate or modify an existing and established set of content,

technologies and uses and users, and try and dominate the market, or improve

that service or technology or extend its use to new users. The idea behind

interactive television can be seen as an attempt to appropriate the mass market

of television users and the existing infrastructure of television sets in homes.

With the rise of the Internet and the Web as mass market interactive

technologies and systems, it would seem an obvious choice for i-TV developers to

try and use this as a resource for creating i-TV. In many ways it reduces

uncertainty and costs associated with designing a system from scratch. However,

following this path this completely changes the innovation environment and

process. Previous projects were dominated, if not completely controlled, by a

small smaller of industrial and government players. The innovation process could

be analysed as the interaction between corporate actors, and the individuals

working in them. However, the Internet and the Web have evolved and continue to

develop in a very different manner. End users and a multitude of intermediate

user firms and technology firms have been responsible their development. Many

different uses have been established and a huge variety of content exists. There

is incredible dynamism in the innovation process, with competition between many

technology companies and network service providers. This alternative innovation

environment needs a different approach to managing innovation, and the marketing

of interactive television. It also requires an analytic approach that can

account for the large numbers of actors, especially the end users in shaping the

technology, content and its uses. 1.2 The Web and Television ? an uncertain

marriage There is no guarantee that a marriage of television and the Internet

would be a happy and prosperous one. There is major uncertainty over the

relevance of Web-style interactivity to the use of television. Most simply it is

the following: the television is a collectively consumed medium, viewed

‘passively’ and from a distance, sitting in a comfortable chair. In contrast,

the Web and computer-based interactive products demand a high level of

engagement and interaction with the content, and are used by individuals sitting

close to a computer screen. These are thus incompatible uses, technologies and

content. While there are strong arguments for this position, it would be naive

to accept it without further investigation, especially in the light of existing

early-adopter uptake of Web on TV products, and other trials of interactive

television. Another factor has also complicated the vision of interactive

television. There is now an alternative to the TV as the terminal to the home,

the PC. I-TV developers may get a free user network and content, but with it

comes competition from the PC, the expectations of existing users, and uses and

content developed around the PC not the TV. Many people have both television and

computers at home. Does it make sense to develop the television as an

interactive terminal, even if there is still a huge number of PC non-owners or

users who might use it. These uncertainties, and the on-going process of

innovation that accompanies the working out of the answer between the market or

users, and the various players of the supply industries, is an important example

of complex socio-technical change that needs addressed. 2 The Struggle To Make

Television Interactive Interactive television should not be defined as a

particular technical or information system : it is a term that has been

appropriated and rejected by many of the players trying to change television,

and could be applied to many widely different systems. I define interactive

television as bringing possibilities of interactive multimedia technology to

Television. It is therefore crucial to understand Television to understand what

interactive television might be. Television is not just a technical system or a

series of programmes. It must be considered as a major business, and placed it

in a wider technical and social context. Television is also a mass market and

cross-society phenomenon, almost everyone watches TV, and it is the sheer reach

of the medium that makes the integration of new technology into Television a

major issue. Television is central to most people’s domestic life, and to our

cultural, social, political and consumer awareness. In other words, ‘television

is everyday life’ (Silverstone 1994). Most people in the developed world, and

increasingly in developing countries, rely on television as a primary source of

global news, of entertainment, of political awareness, product and cultural

knowledge, and a resource to construct and reflect self-identity. It is also

embedded in the cultural and political (Williams 1990 (first pub. 1975)):

national and now global culture would be very different and may not exist

without television in its current form. Television is also an important

industry, a huge money earner, and a controversial business that challenges

political and cultural norms as is becomes more commercial and international.

Interactive television may involve changing television in one or all its

aspects. Changes in technology that are worth their investment will certainly

run in parallel with changes in the industry, use, content and regulation. The

social shaping approach indicates that attempts to create interactive television

systems are the result of the interaction of these factors, including commercial

interests, competing products, regulation, developing user needs etc (MacKenzie

and Wajcman 1985; Williams and Edge 1996), as well as the invention of new

technology. Successful i-TV projects will be the ones that take advantage of the

embedded nature of technology, however much the most technically sophisticated

or creatively daring ones may inspire us. 2.1 A brief history of i-TV Many

attempts have been made to develop ‘interactive’ television (Carey 1996). These

have been undertaken around particular poles of attraction that provided the

motivation for experimentation and change ? sometimes the technology has been

the attraction, sometimes the content, and sometimes the users and consumers.

These poles of attraction have generally only been of concern for small groups

of technology and infrastructure companies and, on occasion governments wanting

to develop industry or infrastructure. The earliest TV systems were two-way

communications devices; after the broadcasting model was established, systems

such as QUBE in the 1970s used cable systems to provide interactive services

involving home audiences, but failed to offer sufficient return on investment

(Carey, 1996 #184). The 1980s saw the development of videotext, either broadcast

or via a telephone modem, around a model of information searching and browsing.

In the 1990s many expensive proprietary interactive television projects were set

up, or at least publicised, by technology and network companies anxious to

realise long standing science fiction dreams, bolster share prices and generate

new revenue streams. Although many of these projects may have ‘failed’, they

gave birth to huge numbers of spin-off sons and daughters: media and technology

products and formats, business opportunities, engineering and business knowledge

and experienced personnel. In addition, much was learned from these trials and

services, not least that the services, content and the audience/users are the

key factors and these need more that just vast amounts of cash to develop. In

the last years of the 1990s, the Internet, and more particularly, World Wide Web

content, have emerged to offer a way of providing many i-TV services more easily

and cheaply than some of the more technology heavy and commercially integrated

systems. In the same way as earlier technologies were grasped upon to provide

interactive television, the Web and Internet became one of the poles of

attraction for system and business development.