Television for the Future: Flavors of Interactive TV

by Linda Paulson
Summer 1998

Since their inception, television technology and content have changed considerably. From black-and-white talent cavalcades transmitted to rabbit ear-topped TVs, to a steady stream of wacky variety shows carried via cable in the 70s and 80s, to dozens of special interest channels beamed to our homes via satellite, we've enjoyed a steady stream of technology upgrades and improvements.

Television continues to change in more ways than you probably know, but in the midst of this technological revolution, there's one rule that still applies: content drives the machine. In the TV world, technological advancements for their own sake are never very successful. As we embark on a tour through this new world television, including various flavors of "digital" and "interactive" TV, we'll hit the highlights of both the delivery technologies and the different types of content they can provide

Datacasting

When it comes to a new take on traditional TV, for pure "Wow" power, it's hard to compete with the so-called "datacasting" services that powerhouse companies like Microsoft and Intel are promoting. Datacasting, which is short for data broadcasting, is basically the World Wide Web being broadcast on a TV signal. The way it works is this: A portion of every analog TV signal called the Vertical Blanking Interval is necessarily set aside to allow your TV set to keep the signal aligned in its frame (you can see the VBI if your TV ever loses its vertical hold and starts rolling frames). Along with this required alignment information, which takes up very little space, the VBI is also used for closed captioning, which is text from programs scrolled across the bottom of the screen, typically for people with hearing difficulties. Beyond that however, the space has traditionally been empty. Not anymore. The VBI of various channels will soon be inundated with Internet-style data you can receive with your datacast-enabled PC. Traditional television sets will be unable to receive this datacast content, so from a convergence standpoint, Microsoft and Intel are betting people will want to get TV information on their PCs, or will connect a PC to the TV, or will have a set-top box in the near future that will combine the two. The concept of "embedded HTML," which is Web content attached to the TV signal, is new to the mainstream consumer consciousness even though Intercast has been available for several years and the Microsoft plan to include datacast decoding software in its Windows 98 operating system have been known for the better part of a year. Microsoft and Intel, in fact, are the two primary competitors, with Microsoft backing WaveTop and Intel promoting its Intercast II format.

Intercast

When you watch CNN, M2, Lifetime, NBC or any of several other channels, you could also be receiving Intercast content broadcast as part of the television signal, which appears as a Web-like frame with text, graphics and hyperlinks surrounding the TV picture. Through Intel Intercast technology, participating television networks design and transmit Web pages with their programs to accompany the program being broadcast and create hyperlinks you can use to go to other Internet sites. Because your PC/TV or Intercast-enabled PC will have an Internet connection, once you click on an Intercast hyperlink, you will go via your own modem to the selected site.

Children watching an educational program on sea lions, for example, could link to additional facts and information designed to support the video content, such as a world map showing former and present sea lion habitats.

"Intercast technology combines the rich programming of TV, the interactivity of the Internet and the capabilities of the PC," says Mariah Scott, marketing manager, Intercast, Intel Corp. "The new version of the Intercast Viewer will allow consumers to receive broadcasts via any digital medium-over-the-air, cable or satellite-as well as the traditional analog signal," she added. This upgrade is expected to be available at retail during the second quarter, and is now available online. "Additionally, consumers will enjoy a variety of new interfaces, as broadcasters will be able to create custom designs. "Consumers will also be able to receive new types of applications, such as stock and sports tickers." There currently is more than 850 hours of Intercast programming broadcast per week, according to Scott.

WaveTop

WavePhore, a Phoenix-based technology company, is developing and packaging datacast content with a multitude of content partners in anticipation of its WaveTop software being bundled with the Microsoft Windows 98 operating system. Like Intercast, the Microsoft flavor of datacasting requires a PC or PC/TV with a TV tuner card and WaveTop decoder to receive it.

A primary difference between WaveTop and Intercast is that WaveTop content is typically carried on the VBI of the local PBS station, where Intercast accompanies the signal of the broadcaster who is creating the special content (NBC has been the most active in the past incorporating Intercast content). WaveTop is not necessarily related to the program or subject matter being broadcast and is more of a data "push" service.

WaveTop content partners include Time, Fortune, CBS SportsLine, The Weather Channel, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! and ZDNet. These media partners will create content to be aggregated and then distributed via the VBI in topic-specific WaveTop "channels," including "NewsTop," "StockTop," "KidsTop," "TechTop," "FamilyTop" and "FunTop," according to Sandy Goldman, senior vice president and general manager of WaveTop.

Wink

"The evolution will be televised and we will continue to see simple additions to TV as more and more networks find different uses for the technology," says Barak Kassar, senior marketing manager, Wink ITV. "It's up to the creative minds." Wink, a data broadcast overlay that appears on screen with the TV signal's video, is "closest to the TV experience of them all," according to Kassar. Wink is purveyor of "enhanced broadcasting," in which additional content related to programs or advertisers is embedded in the vertical blanking interval of the television signal. With a small, inexpensive piece of chip hardware, located in the cable or other set-top box, or even in the TV itself, Wink information appears as an overlay at the bottom of the TV picture. Wink, from the outset, came up with the concept of enhanced broadcasting to allow the producers of the shows to add very simple interactive additions to those shows and advertising so that interactivity is infused into the actual picture without an Internet connection.

While watching Jay Leno interview a guest, for example, you could take an interactive quiz about a previous segment to test your knowledge about the tigers from Sea World that you just saw. "It's part of the show," says Kassar. "It's not going off to a Web site."

Intertainer

Video-on-demand is a concept cable and telecommunications companies bantered about for years, but it's taken a start-up company whose executives have expertise in entertainment to make this reality. Intertainer, Inc. is a Santa Monica-based company that unveiled its interactive on-demand broadband service in early February. Intertainer content is not tied to any single delivery method, but can be viewed on any television or personal computer equipped for any sort of broadband delivery, including DSL or cable modem. "We believe these digital platforms will transform the distribution of content," said Jonathan Taplin, company co-chairman and director. "We have a huge plethora of content from Deepak Chopra to Tupac Shakur." There are 500 hours of content or some 1400 programs currently available through Intertainer. These include music videos, films, fashion information and product advertisements as well as e-commerce and video conferencing capability. "We know how to put on a show," explained Richard Baskin, Intertainer's other co-chairman and director. "We're not tool builders looking for a story. We never conceived this from a technical standpoint, but built this based on what we wanted to see." Certainly company executives had technical assistance-some of the biggest names in technology are among Intertainer's technology partners: Sun Microsystems, Intel, Comcast and Firefly Networks, Inc.

Intertainer is being tested in Palo Alto and Buena Park, both in California, with Philadelphia scheduled to be the first launch market.

WorldGate

WorldGate is a cable-based Internet TV service using cable to deliver the Net and TV to subscribers. Hal Krisbergh, chairman and CEO of WorldGate, is so effusive about his company's product and its future, his sentences gush forth into a huge run-on paragraph.

"We provide Internet access to the consumer in a way where he doesn't have to purchase any equipment, he doesn't have to purchase a box, he doesn't have to purchase a stand-alone box. ... The cost for equipment is zero. The monthly fee, instead of $20, costs less than $5 a month."

WorldGate uses cable to instantly download Web pages to cable subscribers. Viewers can, using no special equipment, toggle back and forth between cable programming and Internet pages, Krisbergh says. He adds that access is in seconds, not minutes. More importantly, he says WorldGate download speeds are many times faster than traditional modems.

"We're shattering the obstacles," he says. "Getting Internet access is as easy as getting cable TV. This means is you don't need to own a PC." Users can instantly access information online, whether it's searching statistics associated with a sporting event or purchasing products online (see Couch Commerce, page XXX).

Yeah, But Will You Buy It?

Rob Enderle, Giga Research analyst, says the ability to marry disparate technologies is not so much the issue as whether people are willing to change their content consumption behavior. "The easier path for new technology is to go down an existing path and not require people to change behavior," he says, "Take an existing behavior and enhance it. People don't want to buy or learn to use a new device."

It is becoming increasingly obvious that television's next generation will have to do with merging traditionally TV-based content with traditionally computer-based content. Which box will prevail? Strictly by the numbers, TV has the edge. Gary Arlen, an industry analyst, says his research shows that about 70 percent of households have two or more TV sets, while only between 10 and 20 percent of PC households have two or more PCs. Television sets can be found in 98 percent of homes in the U.S., compared to 40 percent PC penetration. So when it comes to predicting which will dominate this new hybrid partnership, TV definitely has the edge.

Linda Daily Paulson is a freelance technology journalist.