The Return of Interactive Television

from the oh-no,-not-again dept

Bertlesmann has announced that it plans to launch an interactive television system sometime next year. As someone who remembers all the hype about iTV in the early 90s and the continual failure of every trial, I wonder why anyone would dream of calling something (even if it’s different) interactive television. Besides, one thing the trials clearly showed was that people don’t want to interact with their television.


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Comments on “The Return of Interactive Television”

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Jon Acheson says:

I can think of a few instances where I'd like "int

They’re all mundane of course, but I’d like a TV schedule app that lets me scroll through it at my own pace and switch to a program by clicking on its listing (Dish Network satellite TV gives you this now), plus the all important “search” feature so I don’t have to buy a newspaper or TV guide to find out when some program is on.

Ordering pay-per-view is interactive too, of course, though usually I just go out and rent the tape instead. It’d be kewl if I could order pay-per-view of a TV show I forgot to watch the night before, I’d sometimes pay a couple bucks for that.

Oh, and I’d my TV to automatically flash the words “HE’S LYING” on the screen whenever the President is speaking… I guess two out of three ain’t bad.

Jon

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