• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 23, 2006

Imagine videocasting yourself to a live national call-in TV show with your phone. Sound fantastic? Actually, it's one of the remarkable capabilities already considered commonplace in Europe that may be coming to America soon, according to Stefan Jenzowsky, vice president for innovation strategy and head of business innovation for Siemens Communications.

It's generally agreed that America, after pioneering Internet technology and digital broadcasting, has fallen behind other parts of the world in personal media devices. Convergent media devices have been exploding in popularity in Europe and Asia over the last few years, and Jenzowsky sketched a picture of this brave new world during his keynote address on the final day of the Advertising Research Foundation's 52nd annual convention.

In Britain, Jenzowsky observed, a three-hour talk show routinely invites watchers to call in with live videocasts from their phones. "It's an interesting way of financing TV because that programming pays for itself," Jenzowsky went on. Here, "user-generated content" takes on a whole new meaning, as new media inserts itself into old.

According to Jenzowsky, IPTV technology developed by Siemens will soon allow European users to watch live sports events, for example, and chat with friends who are also watching. As with traditional chat programs, this service--which costs seven to 10 Euros a month--will automatically alert users when their friends have "signed on" to watch a show. IPTV service will also allow viewers to pause and rewind live television programs in the near future.

Siemens has also come up with an innovative solution to the hardware problem confronting IPTV expansion: the necessary software is encoded on a CD that the user can insert into a Nintendo PlayStation 2 game set; the software converts the PlayStation into an IPTV "setup box." According to Jenzowsky, "multi-room setup boxes" serving multiple TV sets require just a few more easy steps.

As interactive media grows ever more dominant, the news is not necessarily good for advertisers. For example, Jenzoswky confided that Siemens has developed technologies for erasing ads from IPTV programming delivered to home sets and mobile phones, "using little codes on the Internet that tell you where the ads are going to be."

Meanwhile, understanding that VoIP technology will lead to a new form of audio spam delivered to mobile phones, Siemens has also developed an audio-spam-blocking service. And existing radio advertising business models--not to mention the models of the music industry--may be made obsolete by new Internet services, already available, that scan radio airplay for specific artists or songs and allow listeners to assemble entire albums for free from digital radio airplay.

Asked after his address how he imagined content providers making money, the jovial Jenzowsky grinned and said in a joking tone: "They won't. We'll make the money." Similarly, asked whether he could envision a place for advertising in the new media landscape, Jenzowsky simply said "no." He again claimed to be joking in saying this--but his assertion in a more serious moment that the media industry had entered a long period of "disruptive competition" seemed to suggest there was a good deal of sincerity behind the jests.