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Raising interactive television standards

William Cooper casts a critical look at interactive television in the UK and considers the future potential for interactivity with internet protocol television.

We are approaching seven years since the launch of the first interactive services on digital television in the UK, with another seven years before digital switchover is due to be complete. The UK has the highest penetration of digital television in the world and over six in ten households receives interactive television services. The country has led the way in the innovation of enhanced and interactive television.

Other countries are watching the UK experience closely and studying the lessons we have learnt, as they move to digital television and develop their own interactive services. So, how far have we got? Are we nearly there yet? Or are we only half way there and is interactive television still only half baked?

Five years ago at the BBC, as Head of New Media Operations, primarily responsible for the delivery of online services, I inherited a basic digital text service, and went on to manage the operational launch of enhanced and interactive services across all three main digital television platforms: satellite, terrestrial and cable. I believe there is still a great deal of scepticism about interactive television among both broadcasters and consumers. After many false dawns, it is still seen by some as a gimmick.

From the user perspective, it is simply too clumsy. Services are slow and unresponsive to use, and can be unreliable. The experience is much like the web a decade ago. Nobody would necessarily deny this, but is anyone saying that this is simply not good enough? Or is this as good as it gets?

With digital viewers now in the majority, we need to be much more critical of the value that interactivity can add, and more attentive to the overall user experience. Progress is painfully protracted and there is simply not enough real innovation. Producers are sticking with the same tried and tested formats and seem reluctant to push the boundaries. The same applications are being recycled and the rate of change remains relatively slow. The BBC’s interactive Wimbledon coverage has hardly changed since it first launched back in 2001. Ironically, the more mainstream and routine interactive television becomes, the less interesting and challenging it seems to be for those originally involved, and the less focus there is on getting it right. Perhaps the initial excitement has worn off.

Of course, there are exceptions. Spooks, which has won many awards, was a genuine attempt to apply interactivity to a drama series, but real breakthrough successes have been few and far between. Creating such successful interactive programmes is difficult and expensive. Yet perhaps we should be concentrating on the medium itself, improving the television experience and supporting channel brands.

There is no room for complacency. Broadcasters, particularly advertiser-funded commercial channels, do not appear to recognise sufficiently that their basic business model is under threat on all sides. Despite such pressures, broadcasters and brands alike have been slow to adopt interactive advertising, partly because it is still seen as a rather primitive direct response medium, which still does not have the full attention, or the budgets of the major agencies.

Again, there have been some notable exceptions. The Honda campaign springs to mind, but the majority of interactive adverts appear to lack genuine innovation or creativity.

In five years’ time, the current generation of interactive television services will no doubt seem as primitive as teletext does today. Where is the vision for interactive television in five or ten years, and how are we going to get there?

BSkyB has, to its great credit, always invested in interactivity as a key plank in its proprietary platform, recognising from the outset that it helps differentiate its satellite service, maintaining subscriber loyalty as well as contributing to revenues. Satellite has consistently set the pace, but there has been no real competition. Terrestrial has been treated as a poor relation and cable remains an impoverished distant cousin.

It is all too easy to blame technology, as if that is a problem for someone else to solve. It may be more fun to make programmes, but there has been comparatively little capital expenditure on the necessary infrastructure to create stable, scalable and sustainable services. Many broadcasters are not taking interactivity seriously as a transmission critical part of their business.

When things go wrong they may not even notice, unless the viewers ring in to complain. The fact that they rarely do should be the real worry for broadcasters. For many consumers, a bad experience of an interactive service may be enough to put them off for good.

Interactive standards
Part of the problem is the use of different middleware standards across different platforms, making it more difficult to deliver an equivalent service to all viewers. The limited capacity and lack of a return path on Freeview, the digital terrestrial television platform, restricts the range of interactive services and possible business models. Yet at the current rate of growth, Freeview could become the predominant platform within a year.

For broadcast channels, the challenge is to deliver interactive services across multiple distribution platforms, not just those of a single provider. How will they manage interactive programmes, adverts and promotions on any platform, on any device, at any time?

Back in 1999, members of the TV-Anytime Forum set out to develop open standards to support new technologies such as personal video recorders. After 34 meetings that have taken them around the world, they have finally come up with a specification, which has yet to be implemented by any broadcaster and is unlikely to be seen on a TV anytime soon.

Meanwhile MHP, the Multimedia Home Platform standard, is slowly gaining support in some European counties, and forms the basis of OCAP, the OpenCable Applications Platform being adopted by cable operators in the United States. The UK has, as yet, made no real commitment to MHP.

A road map is required for the migration path to the next generation of interactive services. Unfortunately, this is not widely seen as a strategic priority, but in allowing commercial distribution platforms to set the pace, broadcasters have failed to plot their own course. As a result, Britain is in danger of being left stranded high and dry on a digital island, the penalty of being an early adopter.

Interactive television just seems too hard, and the barriers to entry are still too high, for many producers. They are turning instead to premium rate telephony and mobile phone services, which can potentially provide an immediate revenue return. This does not mean there is no place for interactive television, but it is a mistake to view it as a distinct medium or technology. It should be seen as an integral extension of traditional television, like colour, stereo or widescreen.

Like it or not, it is becoming part and parcel of the future of television. From the electronic programme guide, to video on demand and the personal video recorder, television is becoming a more inherently interactive experience.

IPTV
Soon, a new generation of services will enable a step-change in the sophistication of interactive television. IPTV, or internet protocol television, is a disruptive technology that will enable genuinely interactive video services to be delivered over broadband telephone and cable networks, seamlessly blending broadcast and on-demand media while providing an always on return path.

In many ways this is what interactive television, and cable television in particular, should have been all along. While interactive television has largely been driven by television types that want to use the latest technology to enhance their programmes, telecommunications companies are betting billions on becoming integrated providers of communications and entertainment services. The combination of broadband and broadcast could provide compelling propositions that genuinely transform television. Ultimately, interactivity will be completely integrated to provide a better television experience.

In moving forward, we need to be less wedded to the past, and take a more strategic approach, not simply in enhancing individual programmes, but in identifying how to support and sustain the primary business of television in general.

Dr William Cooper is the founder of informitv and is co-author of the report IPTV: Broadband meets broadcast - The network television revolution.

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