NEW YORK -- The first generation of streaming media interactive TV companies are staking their claims now, even though success -- or failure -- is several years off, say new media company officials attending the Kagan Streaming Media conference here.
With broadband access ramping up significantly in the next three years via DSL, cable modems, and satellites, content producers are jockeying for position to broadcast high quality audio and video to millions of people. The question is how and what will be delivered.
Mark Greenberg, executive vice president of strategy at Showtime Event television, said at the conference Thursday that there are about 40 million PCs in the United States that sit in the same room as a TV set, and about 18 million PCs and TVs that are on simultaneously.
"Do they come together into one box, or do we move them together? That's a question that remains to be seen," he said.
But with cable and services like DirecTV already entrenched, what more do people want?
Rick Davis, CEO of 21e Network, has a digital video production studio in Nashville, Tennessee that broadcasts a range of live, streaming content channels via the Web, tying in e-commerce with original programs.
Davis said that when his network broadcast the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, viewers stayed on for almost four hours a day. When he talks about the Internet of the future, he sees it merging into a TV-like experience.
"What we see coming is a new comfort seat ... and it is entertaining, enjoyable, immersive, and interactive. So what we've done is taken those things on television and put them together with an interactive experience. We don't think it's the content they come to see, it's the entire experience."
Davis said interactive TV will happen in the next 12 to 24 months, driven by hardware and infrastructure companies that are ramping up services fast.
But even when the bandwidth is available, content producers will have to be cautious about what they offer.
"The consumption of audio and video has been increasing very rapidly, and at the same time the consumption of books, magazines, and newspapers has been declining," said Jeff Mandelbaum, president of Global Media Corp. "But nonetheless, consumers have a limited amount of time they are willing to invest in the consumption of AV media. So how do you make that the most compelling experience?"
Mandelbaum said most of the content on the Internet right now is not very compelling. He said new media broadcasters need a broad choice of programs, an interactive experience that considers the audience, and the integration of a wide range of technologies such as Flash, JPEGs, and streaming and static content.
Robert Meryowitz, CEO of a talk-radio site called eYada.com, said, "Things really don't change all that much. We think that they are major changes, but they are small changes that eventually add up to big changes," he said.
Meryowitz predicts that interactive TV is closer to two to three years away.
"You have technical problems and issues that have to be resolved, and different industries and content issues to be resolved," Meryowitz said.
Some of the earliest examples of interactive programming have already taken place -– but most of them have been on the Web.
Showtime's Greenberg said the company had an interactive streaming event with a recent Mike Tyson boxing match, and viewers were given tools to change the camera angle in the ring.
"We found this to be an enormously successful and surprisingly pleasant experience. I don't think this is where the business will end up five years from now, but I think this is an early step in video streaming existing content," he said.
When it's all said and done, some believe that the PC may be left out of the picture for streamed and interactive events.
"I don't know about you, but I can't think of a lousier device to experience media over than a PC," Mandelbaum said. "So we will continue to see a rapid emergence of Internet appliances and wireless delivery of content that will create a better platform, an easier-to-use platform, a more available platform, at a lower cost ... so we need to consider how to program for that environment."
Beyond these technological and programming issues is that of targeting audiences.
Michael McCracken, executive vice president of Underground Online, said his company's demographic is 18- to 34-year-olds, and primarily male.
"Our audience is turning off the TV, and spending a majority of time on the Internet. Why? Because this demographic wants the ability to interact, to play online, to chat, enter forums, express their opinions, communicate, and determine their own destiny," he said.
By offering a wide variety of technologies, content, and broadcast models, McCracken believes Underground Online will appeal to the Gen X and Y audiences alike.
"This audience, Y generation as we like to call it, is incredibly valuable to an e-commerce providers, sponsors, advertisers. They don't like to be spoken to in the classic way of TV and radio commercials," McCracken said.
"They respect advertisers and sponsors that get to them in ways they want to be spoken to ... this is a cocky generation. We like to define it as Marilyn Manson, not Hanson," he said.
