What’s the craic with Interactive TV

I remember when Sky confidently predicted a large chunk of it’s revenue would come from iTV shopping and gaming, they even used to sell a keyboard for customers to use for email via their TV. The reality has always been that the numbers haven’t stacked up for advertisers – the applications take too long to load and because users were expected to access content via dial-up they were actually paying to browse the virtual shelves or to send their data.

The prominence of the ‘red button’ seems to have gradually declined to the point where i can no longer remember the last time I was asked to push it.

True Interactive TV advertising will never be successful as an addendum to traditional TV ads (partly because i rarely watch them now I have Sky+) but rather as an added utility to programming. If I could hit one button during Jamie Oliver and get all the ingredients for the recipe currently showing delivered to my door (probably by Sainsburys) i can imagine doing it. If i’m watching Mock the Week and i get prompted to buy tickets to see Frankie Boyle from Ticketmaster again I would be all over it. I can’t see this level of integrated interactivity working via the existing broadcast technology, but we’re only a couple of years away from IPTV becoming mainstream and this will be the least we can expect.