AUSTIN, Texas –- Companies developing interactive worlds online are leading the race to grab a large piece of the $25 billion enhanced TV market.
Analysts are projecting that 30 million households in the United States will be wired for interactive television by 2004, which will expand the television market to new heights.
While there are 750 hours of interactive content currently available to consumers, most of the innovations are being developed in the areas of entertainment, news information and educational children's programming.
The Cartoon Network has decided to create full-immersion worlds that work in conjunction with video games, in hopes of developing a core audience of users who would spend much of their time online.
"The harsh reality is that the networks and their Web divisions don't see each other as friends, because in reality they are competitors," said Sam Register, creative director of Cartoon Networks Online. "We are looking at developing and building a persistent gaming world."
Register said his network's online operations have been forced to immediately operate in the black, causing them to develop a revenue stream before unveiling new content. Currently, they are also developing an enhanced television channel that will broadcast Japanimation movies that allow users to interact with the world created by the filmmaker.
The Public Broadcasting System has been working to create "walled gardens" for shows such as Nova and The News Hour. While not a new concept, PBS has been developing information portals for its content so that users can visit a specific show's website.
As a person watches Nova, he or she can click on the enhanced television icon on the TV screen that launches a more in-depth website, where information not in the show can be explored. Users can click out of the browser, but the websites are designed so that people can't jump to other places on the Web.
The move is a shift from its original plan to create always-on, enhanced-broadcast channels that television viewers could access while watching PBS. The original plan involved sending an enhanced broadcast on the back of its television signal, so that viewers could always access the PBS website while they watched TV.
Now they have scaled back their efforts to focus on specific shows that have loyal audiences.
"We really scaled our efforts back to small tests," said Alexandra Scott, a PBS design director. "Now, we just want to get programming out there, test it with the audience, and really see where the eyeballs are."
The move toward developing specific, genre-based content flies in the face of larger operations, such as Microsoft, that are hoping to develop advertising-supported interactive content that is accessed through a set-top box.
The move doesn't seem to be completely off base, because IDC research has estimated that there will be 45 million set-top boxes in American homes by 2004. Once a critical mass has been reached, the boxes will bring interactive content for all programming into the consumer's home.
For Microsoft, interactivity means more than just clicking on the information delivered by networks. The software company hopes its UltimateTV platform will entice viewers to interact with television by using its digital recording options -- live television controls that enable consumers to skip commercials and access the Internet while watching the programs.
"UltimateTV is about creating better television, a truly enhanced television," said Mark Mullen, senior director with Microsoft's WebTV division.
For designers, the true development of interactive television will result when it goes mobile, allowing users to constantly visit the worlds created by content providers through their wireless devices.
Sapient, a technology infrastructure company, wants to bring together the enhanced television experience Microsoft hopes to develop with the interactive worlds being built by the Cartoon Network and PBS. That would allow users to access television on multiple wireless devices.
"The point of interactive television differs from enhanced television," said Mellie Price, vice president of Sapient. "Interactive television is a suite of services that offers as a point of interaction -– but not the only point -– through the television. But it's also the place from which several other access points need to emerge."
