Do You Want Interactive Television?

Filed in archive IPTV on July 3, 2005

I tend to write about video on demand (VOD) in business terms and as a technology that effects life style choices. However, strictly speaking VOD is a subset of interactive television (ITV) technology. As such, a larger universe of possibilities is possible.

The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) has published its latest "Pulse" survey, which seem to indicate that US consumers might be interested in interactive television, and that the availability of ITV services might motivate many basic cable customers to upgrade to digital. I am doubtful of this, but here are a few of the more interesting statistics:

35% of consumers (40% of digital cable customers and 41% of cable modem customers) are interested in playing ITV games on a dedicated channel;

33% of consumers (42% of digital cable customers and 50% of cable modem customers) are interested in apps that allow viewers to switch between camera angles;

29% of consumers (39% of digital cable customers and 37% of cable modem customers) are interested in accessing background information on a show;

40% of consumers (50% of digital cable customers and 52% of cable modem customers) are interested in having a home media center that allows them to store and access photos, music, home video and recorded TV programs.

The survey was based on telephone interviews with 1,014 randomly selected US consumers aged 18 years of age or older. 64% of weighted respondents were cable customers, including 32% who had premium cable and 21% who had digital cable. 25% of respondents were satellite TV customers. According to CTAM, the survey has a +/- 3.9 percentage point margin of error.